On Mon, Sep 5, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Thomas Dalton
<thomas.dalton(a)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.