"Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

Jason Davis — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:07:00 GMT

Very good. I think the recruiters who are successful know this and the ones who are struggling with a lack of production need to understand this.

jason

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

David Carter — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 15:50:00 GMT

I agree. When I left MS after 11 years.. there were a lot of mini me's running around. I think its not a liability if you are a very process driven company, but when you are trying to get big... AND stay innovative its a must.

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

Stephanie Tate — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:08:00 GMT

I hear you and agree whole heartedly!

HIring Technical People-Johanna Rothman

TrackBack — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:10:00 GMT

While perusing some of the Joel on Software discussions, I saw the pointer to "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies. Heather discusses her concerns:

Fog Creek Software

TrackBack — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 20:12:00 GMT

Just noticed this on the catch-all blogs.msdn.com and thought it was pertinent to some of the discussions we've had in the past on here.

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

Mike, Canadian Headhunter — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 12:43:00 GMT

I have a question about career path and Microsoft. In my imagination, Microsoft is the top of the heap in its field. If someone goes there directly from school, does she stay forever? Or do Microsofties move around just like other people? I'll note as well that many recruiters view employees who stay somewhere more than five years as dead wood.

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

Heather — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 20:25:00 GMT

Mike, I think movement is important. It prevents stagnation and shows that a candidate's skills are in-demand. This kind of movement, within a company, is totally cool. So if I saw a candidate that was with a company for a number of year, but in different types of impactful (not a word, I know) roles, I would see that as a plus. I would worry about whether I could get the candidate, but I'd do what it takes to find out.

At Microsoft, as far as people hired right from school, I'd say it's a mix of people who stay and move up and people who move on. First, like other great companies, you have to perform to stay. Here, you also have to grow to stay (and grown could mean a lot of things...moving up, trying new roles, expanding the scope of your work). We do have several VPs here that joined Microsoft our of college. Until last year, we didn't hire new undergrads for marketing, so there's less of a legacy on the marketing side as on the technical.

There are people that join us out of undergrad, stay for a few years and move on to something else. Some people want to strike out on their own or want to get into different product areas.

We do have lower attrition numbers than most companies (sorry, I don't have any figures to quote offhand), but the amount of internal movement opens up new roles that keep us busy here in recruiting.

Good question...thanks for asking

re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

pippip — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:46:22 GMT

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re: "Mini-me" syndrome...a major hiring risk for companies

Linda — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:44:40 GMT

I've just been letting everything pass me by lately. I've more or less been doing nothing. Not much going on lately. I can't be bothered with anything recently.