Employee Hiring

I still find it weird how blog posts seem to turn up just when they are relevant to me. It happens on a regular basis. I’ll be thinking about a change i want to make in the business and within days someone has posted about. It’s like the blog-o-sphere force knows what I’m thinking!

So while the post Vlad made about hiring strategies is now a couple of weeks old I’ve only just got around to blogging about it because I’ve been preparing for our new starter!

The business has got to the level where we needed someone else. We have enough work to keep us going at the current level but the business wont grow in it’s current state and if we started taking on any more work it wouldn’t be fair on the customers we do have as we’d be too stretched and that’s not the sort of business I’m interested in on both of those areas. We also need to free up more time to get in front of new prospects, develop new services and execute the “master plan”

So we had to make the decision about what kind of person to get.

We eventually decided we needed some to help ease the day to day problems. Someone to help the end users when they need a print spooler restarting, explain how to login to Outlook Web Access and find out why there is nothing on the screen when the power cable has been unplugged.

After we’d done the interviews there was a wide range of skill sets and experience to choose from.

The person who seemed to stick out was the guy who was confident and articulate, smartly dressed and had made the effort to put the effort into the tiny details. Also he’s keen and eager and was actually willing to make a lot of sacrifices to come and work for us (I wont detail those here though as it’s his personal business)

But the initial problem was his lack of experience. He was very open about the fact he wanted to “break into IT” but was in the classic catch 22 situation

Can’t get job without the experience, can’t get the experience without a job

Every time we reviewed it again we came back to the same conclusion

“If he had a bit more experience he’d be perfect”

We knew straight away he’d fit in with us and wouldn’t have a problem dealing with our clients

It finally dawned on us that we needed to get the right person for the company not the right person for the role

So we offered him the job.

If I’m being honest if we were looking to fill the role he would have been bottom of the list

But he could get his experience for us. We know he’s a perfect fit for our company and if you want to learn about the IT industry I think the SMB area is a pretty good place to start! He’s been with us for a week and a half and I can see the difference already and I’m looking forward to the next six months

I’ve mentioned the blog to him a couple of times but not sure if he’s reading

But if you are,

Welcome to the business…we hope you enjoy the ride!

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Andy Parkes is Technical Director at Coventry based IT support company IBIT Solutions. Formerly, coordinator of AMITPRO and Microsoft Partner Area Lead for 2012-2013. He also isn't a fan of describing himself in the third person.

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3 thoughts on “Employee Hiring

  • Congratulations on getting over that first employee hurdle Andy – I know from experience how difficult it can be! Hope the new chap works out – look forward to meeting him in the future!

  • Hey guys Im the chap Andy Hired and I cant thank him enough for giving me the chance to work in my first IT role.

    I love going to work learning everyday. Its alot to take onboard, all the information but I will get there.

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