How Hard is it to Hire Someone?!?!

[NETWizz]

Seriously how hard is it to onboard a long-term contractor?

Where I work, I sent through two series of Interviews and extended a job offer to a long-term contractor and he was a no-show... found out he withdrew without telling us.

Then we reposted, went through another series of interviews and made another offer to which candidate accepted to start next Monday... and today he withdrew citing financial reasons moving from a different state.

Meanwhile another FTE whom I have working for me moved out of state, so I posted his position.

I had no idea it would be this hard to keep a team.

 

[phaZed]

It's rough out there in so many ways, right now. That's crazy.

 

[britechguy]

Where I work, I sent through two series of Interviews and extended a job offer to a long-term contractor and he was a no-show... found out he withdrew without telling us.

Then he didn't withdraw, he bailed, which is simply not done. It's even worse than a "with zero notice" actual withdrawal. If you pull something like this you don't deserve to be employed (and word can and will get around if you do it repeatedly).

I know that doesn't make any difference to you in your situation, but this kind of blatant lack of professionalism is intolerable.

 

[frase]

Where I work, I sent through two series of Interviews and extended a job offer to a long-term contractor and he was a no-show... found out he withdrew without telling us.

Then we reposted, went through another series of interviews and made another offer to which candidate accepted to start next Monday... and today he withdrew citing financial reasons moving from a different state.

Could be worse, you could have hired them and then they fail to show on a job.

 

[sapphirescales]

It's not easy to find good employees, but there are two things you absolutely have to do:

1. Actually pay well, not whatever the going rate is. Nobody is paid well enough. Whatever most shops are paying, it's way too little.
2. Don't make them go through several rounds of interviews. It's extremely disrespectful to waste someone's time like that.

Take the candidate you like the most after one interview and pay them to go on a trial period to make sure they know what they're doing, see how they interact with customers, talk on the phone, how they troubleshoot and approach problems, etc. You should be able to tell pretty quick if they're up to your standards. Then if they are you can actually hire them.

 

[NETWizz]

Then he didn't withdraw, he bailed, which is simply not done. It's even worse than a "with zero notice" actual withdrawal. If you pull something like this you don't deserve to be employed (and word can and will get around if you do it repeatedly).

I know that doesn't make any difference to you in your situation, but this kind of blatant lack of professionalism is intolerable.

And the crazy part was he was local, ex-millitary... seemed very loyal had a can-do, will-do type of attiude.

 

[NETWizz]

It's not easy to find good employees, but there are two things you absolutely have to do:

1. Actually pay well, not whatever the going rate is. Nobody is paid well enough. Whatever most shops are paying, it's way too little.
2. Don't make them go through several rounds of interviews. It's extremely disrespectful to waste someone's time like that.

Take the candidate you like the most after one interview and pay them to go on a trial period to make sure they know what they're doing, see how they interact with customers, talk on the phone, how they troubleshoot and approach problems, etc. You should be able to tell pretty quick if they're up to your standards. Then if they are you can actually hire them.

It is NOT easy to find good employees or contractors who are knowledgeable, have a good attitude, and who want to do a good job.

1. I agree the pay needs to be reasonable. This is a position I am flying is for a Network Administrator meaning day-to-day operations and some infrastructure projects but no real architecture or engineering requirement. Ideally the incumbent would have the ability to replace a Cisco switch, do basic troubleshooting, ability to manage HPE Aruba Central, work with Meraki SD-WAN spoke devices. Very limited firewall and datacenter work or knowledge required. Pay is ~$80/hr on 1099 (this is for a long-term contractor role).

2. I hate rounds of interviews. I do NOT have time for that because I am too busy working myself. Each interview is a bit less than ~ 1 hour via Microsoft Teams. That's it. I am, however, really tempted to bring in the best two for a quick hands-on troubleshooting session lab, but I am almost too busy to setup the lab...

( I would probably have like two 9300X-48HX Cisco switches, and two laptops connected and logged on... on one each switch. I would probably pre-configure a different data VLAN on each and a VLAN between them. Provide some random Fiber and transceivers and suggest they make routing work. Providing a diagram of what we have letting them build the rest. Issue is I a NOT the department that does the computers/laptops, so I would need to coordinate, and I do not want to bother others to borrow some computers for me to setup my lab.

 

[Metanis]

Still some variables here. Were these people already employed and possibly just "kicking the tires" to see what they could be worth? Or perhaps they took a better offer? Maybe call them and ask point blank why they rejected your offer? Or have HR do it.