On 5 September 2011 13:07, Sebastian Moleski info@sebmol.me wrote:
On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Thomas Dalton thomas.dalton@gmail.com wrote:
I humbly assert that this process (many Wikipedians, face to face, in a pub in London) breaks any modern standards of the selection process (e.g. all candidates being asked the same set of questions).
Actually, I think it's fairly standard to do things this way. The interview-in-a-pub technique is very well known, and it's perfectly normal to have candidates for senior jobs meet the people they would be working with before any final decisions are made. I don't see a problem with merging the two.
We did do something similar when we interviewed Pavel Richter, WMDE's executive director. I think it can be useful in gauging some sense of compatibility between candidates and the people they might have to work with. At the same time, it would be prudent not to overestimate the value of this particular method since you're not hiring a manager to manage Wikipedians but someone to manage your chapter's staff.
Indeed, it is important to distinguish between managing people (which is what the CEO needs to be able to do with the staff) and working with people (which is what the CEO needs to be able to do with the volunteers). I expect all the shortlisted candidates have previous experience of managing people, so there shouldn't be a problem there. Working with volunteers is something altogether different and this session should provide some useful information.