Genius Required

There are many resources that I use to help me to become a better recruiter; recruiting blogs, books, recruiting websites etc. However, I’ve clearly not been looking on the right sites – this (accompanied by a billion caveats!) was sent to me by Vivake – tsk!
Right – I’m just off to check my hair and reapply my lipstick

We are far less scary than Interview with a Vampire – Matt occasionally draws candidate blood but that’s about it

The interview process here at Lab49 is rigorous – it’s something we see as absolutely key to ensure the calibre of your colleagues and the quality of delivery to our clients. We, in turn, provide the kind of environment where you can fulfil your potential and work with some amazing people.

Whilst I manage the interview process for the UK and at some point in the process you, unfortunately , have the pleasure of meeting with me, the rest of your interviews are with your potential new colleagues. That’s it – you get to speak with those people who make our company – they are exceptionally passionate about technology and that shows in every single interview that they do.

We ask for full and frank feedback from all interviewers in the process and we pass that on to the candidates. Interviewing is always a 360 process and so by giving candidates their feedback and candidates sharing their feedback with us, both parties have the opportunity to improve and add more value to their role in the process.

One of my colleagues recently passed on some feedback about a candidate (he had also made the recommendation to the candidate during the interview that he read certain techical books); he had excellent interpersonal skills and a real passion for technology but his previous experience had blinkered his technical abilities and made him rather narrow in his knowledge and outlook. My colleague passed this feedback on to me and I, in turn, sent it on to the candidate. The candidate, who I knew to be a great person, mailed me back asking me to thank my colleague for his time, feedback and advice and to say that he was now reading one of the recommended books.

I passed this feedback on to my colleague who was surprised about the positive feedback from the candidate – expecting that the candidate would be somewhat defensive rather than welcoming of his honesty. It goes to show that those technologists who are always looking to improve (our kind of people!) will admit that they can and want to learn from others (as per Lab49’s collaborative learning environment).

Should you receive feedback from an interview that has perhaps not gone so well, remember that the interviewer has taken time to provide constructive (in most instances – certainly that’s the way it is here!) feedback to enable you to get better and better – not to put you down….

Most companies call time off a project “on the bench” – it sound kind of negative. If you think of it in a sports context (I think that’s the first time I have ever thought of anything in a sports context!), it implies that you were not chosen to be on the first team. So we call it “on the beach” – an opportunity to kick back a little and to work on either a project that you bring in from home or an in-house project without the usual deadline pressure.

The kind of things that our staff get up to whilst “on the beach” is pretty cool. As our website shows, we pride ourselves on being innovative and passionate about technology. In the London office at present, we have some staff members working on an in-house project in order to:

a) further educate staff members about investment banking terminology and operations and;
b) continue to improve the technical skills of our staff members

We don’t see time off a project as “lost time”; we see it as the opportunity that it is and take full advantage of it. We have had some new team members join us over the past month or two (hi to Serhat, Jon, Mark and Simon!) some of whom are working on this in-house project. It’s a great opportunity to enable everyone to work together, to share ideas and to learn from each other.

Learning from each other is a key cornerstone of the Lab49 philosophy – we employ technologists who are incredibly impressive individuals, therefore, we listen to and learn from those individuals. We’re not so proud that the management think that it’s their way or the highway; we’re a team in the most fundamental and genuine sense – everyone’s opinion is valid, listened too and considered.

As an earlier post demonstrates, we have fun both within a work environment and outside of it – the team that plays together, stays together.

Feel free to contact me to find out more – there is no obligation on your part (you won’t be under any pressure – you can simply get the information that you need to make an informed choice about our company and I’ll then leave it in your hands). marie.griffiths@lab49.com – 0207 959 3338.