Best blogs of August

Our Best Blogs of August post includes stories on hybrid tech jobs, the diminishing returns of working overtime and how making your interview process transparent can improve your hiring process. That’s a lot of great stuff to read between Back to School shopping runs!

How to hire for emerging hybrid tech jobs

Workplace technology is spreading beyond the confines of the IT department, and with this change comes new hiring concerns.

Rather than having to call IT to configure and manage technologies they procure – human resources, finance and other departments are creating tech-oriented positions in their own departments. These hybrid positions blend business and technical abilities, and they vary from typical IT roles by tending to focus primarily on the optimal use of software and external cloud solutions, as opposed to the software development and implementation duties of traditional IT workers.

Leveraging IT’s expertise in the hiring of these hybrid roles may prove useful in determining technical fit, especially when department-procured technologies meet and blend with the company’s established technology practices and structures.

Read the whole story here.

Why racking up overtime doesn’t make you a productivity hero

As co-founder of Hotwire.com and CEO of Zillow, Spencer Rascoff would be considered a highly-successful and efficient person by most people’s standards. One of his biggest work habits is actually not working on his weekends.

“I never go into the office on weekends, but I do check e-mail at night,” Rascoff says. “My weekends are an important time to unplug from the day-to-day and get a chance to think more deeply about my company and my industry.”

A study from Stanford University backs up the chief executive’s stance on his weekends. The study discovered that productivity slips significantly when the workweek surpasses 50 hours, and productivity falls off so much after 55 hours, there’s no reason in working further. Hence, individuals who work 60 hours or more per week are just as productive as individuals who work 55 hours.

Read the whole story here.

Make your interview process transparent

For job applicants, interviews tend to be the most stressful portion of the hiring process.

Some companies don’t think stressing candidates out helps in picking the most qualified candidate, and to reduce the stress associated with their job interviews, these actual help them prepare for the interview and make the process as transparent as possible.

For instance, Google’s career site describes the sort of questions you’ll get asked, and how best to respond to them. McKinsey lets applicants get ready for interviews with practice cases and samples exams.

Detailing the steps in the hiring method has some significant benefits for hiring personnel. First of all, hiring managers tend to receive less emails and phone calls from job seekers asking for clarifications or information. Also, if a hiring manager gets questions on things posted to the company’s ‘Careers’ page, they know a candidate hasn’t bothered to look at the company’s website, a possible red flag.

Read the whole story here.

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