I love to talk about jobs and hiring practices. Political issues notwithstanding, every country is facing a serious deficit of qualified people. As such, companies are having to deal with these shortages in innovative ways.
I just came across this article on Yahoo! News about an Indian headhunter using a “Speed Dating” technique to hire people. Although, this is not the first time that such a format has been used to hire people, I see more companies doing something like this than ever before. Now, of course, I would love to dwell on the benefits and drawbacks of such a hiring technique, but I am sure that would lead us to nowhere, especially since established studies have proved that traditional interviewing techniques are more a failure than actually effective.
I believe that in the software development, especially the backoffice arena, qualifications are not as important as the actual motivation for getting the job. Writing mundane code is like speaking in a foreign language. Even if you suck at it, there will always be quick ways around to help you overcome those drawbacks. What the “speed dating” technique does is help the recruiter get a quick first impression about your motivation, core skills, and your seriousness about the opportunity. Then, if both the participants sense a match in objectives, they communicate further and basically seal the deal.
I take special interest in the JobsBlog, and have time and again commented on stories pertaining to the evolution of recruiting at big software companies. This one instance, my comment was also quoted by a Microsoft recruiter!
It would be great to see the Internet, coupled with established social norms play a much more dominant role in hiring people.