How to get hired (or rejected) for a job at iQ Content

 – posted September 7th, 2007 by John Wood     No comments

We are recruiting again and it’s my job to advertise, filter the applicants and manage the recruitment process here at iQ Content. This is the second round of recruiting I’ve done this year, and I thought it was time to explain our recruitment process and perhaps share some advice with prospective recruits.

Why we don’t do interviews at iQ

Because we are in the business of selling expertise, good hiring decisions are absolutely critical to the continued success of our business. So we gave the recruitment process a lot of thought, and decided to dump the traditional job application and interview process. Here’s why.

We think traditional job interviews are a waste of time. They are essentially adversarial situations: the candidate shows up all shiny and be-suited to face about 40 minutes of questioning, with the key objective of not revealing anything that would prevent them from being hired. On the other side of the table, the interviewers are doing their best to trip the candidate up or put them under stress to see what’s inside when they come apart. Admittedly, this is a bit of a caricature, but it’s not too far from the truth in many organisations.

Another problem with traditional interviews is managing the impact of subjective impressions. While trusting your gut feeling on a candidate is really important, you don’t want to hire people solely on the grounds of congeniality or the cut of their jib. The danger in all of this is that the hiring process loses focus on the key question of whether the person can do the job well and represent us effectively.

Our approach

The process we came up with to recruit consultants now works like this:

  • We advertise and receive a bunch of applications, which are collaboratively filtered by our senior staff into three piles: Yes, No and Maybe.
  • We send rejections out to everyone in the No pile and most of the people in the Maybe pile.
  • The remaining applicants get sent an aptitude test, which involves doing some sort of discrete usability-related task, such as a real client might commission. The details of the test vary with the seniority of the vacancy.
  • We evaluate the returned tests, rejecting those returns that show insufficient evidence of an analytical bent or a poor ability to write an interesting, persuasive report.
  • We invite successful applicants along to present their report to us as if we were the client. This is also a chance to discuss the role with us, meet the team, see the office and so on.
  • We make a hiring decision at this point. Usually it’s clear who we will hire, if it’s not we err on the side of no because it’s better to leave a spot open than to hire the wrong person.

For technical roles, we have taken Joel Spolsky’s advice, and have candidates write code as part of the presentation of their aptitude test results. So far, this process has worked really well for us and we are delighted with the calibre of new hires we have made recently. There are other advantages to the process too:

  • The test and presentation put the focus on the candidate’s ability to do the key tasks we are hiring for: problem solving and communicating.
  • The candidate can focus on showing off their capabilities rather than on surviving a grilling.
  • You cannot bullshit your way through the process. You may be good looking, well spoken, charming or some happy combination of all of these things, but if you can’t think or write well, you don’t get hired.
  • Candidates get a realistic taste of the work we do, which helps them decide if the job is really for them or not.

Despite the occasional idiot who suspects we are getting actual client work done cheaply through the process, it has been generally well received by the candidates themselves. Even those who don’t make the final cut have some positive things to say. Many get their first taste of real commercial usability work through the process, and it either confirms their career choice or makes them think again. Either way is a positive result.

How to impress us

Now that I have outlined the process, you may be wondering what sort of superhuman effort it takes to get through all of this. Actually, there are a few simple things you can do to stand out from the crowd during the process. We are often astonished at how many candidates get these basic things wrong.

  1. Enclose a good covering letter: One of the easiest ways to get into the Yes pile at the CV filtering stage is to write a good covering letter or email when you apply. A well-written mail that says what you know about us, why you are applying for the job and what you think you can offer is almost a buy to the next round. It needn’t be long or detailed, the best one we saw in the last round was just three paragraphs long, but it was all the evidence we required that here was an applicant who thought clearly and expressed themselves equally well. Just pushing the apply button on Recruit Ireland has exactly the opposite effect, it comes across as lazy.
  2. Keep your CV short and to the point: CVs that are longer than two pages make my heart sink. I have to read a lot of these things and to be honest, I often make my mind up after the first page. So write your CV with that in mind. You might have been working in IT for twenty years, but we don’t really need to know all of the details of your days as a Cobol programmer at the start of your career. Tell us what you’ve been doing lately and assume it’s safe to summarise the ancient history.
  3. In the test, say it well, say it simply: The economist style guide states that Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. This is what we are really looking for in the aptitude test. Sure, we want to see some clever work and we want you to show off your expertise, but mostly we are looking for evidence of a sharp mind given clear expression in words, pictures, code or whatever your chosen medium. Jargon doesn’t impress us, we are more likely to be bowled over by someone who cuts straight to the heart of a problem in clear simple language.
  4. In the presentation, be clear, concise and persuasive: Presenting to clients is a big part of our job, and you need to be able to do this well. Like the test, we need to see clear thinking, clearly and persuasively expressed. This is much easier said than done, of course, but there are a few things that will impress. Slides that reinforce your point with illustrations and data rather than reams of bullet points help, as does evidence of confidence and command of the details when you speak.

Above all, remember that we are in business to help our clients make better websites, better services, and more money. We care about design and usability deeply, but we are not on an ideological crusade. We need to see that you understand this too. So don’t assume that clients with bad websites are evil or misguided. Usability is a design discipline, not a cult, so don’t let the sort of overblown rhetoric favoured by some usability gurus creep into your application. It doesn’t impress us.

Well, I’m glad I got that all off my chest. I hope if you are reading this, and thinking of applying to us for work, that your application will be better as a result. I look forward to hearing from you.

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