A Possible Job Description: Team Leader
Roy Osherove filed under Guest Post | people patterns Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Kevin Stevens. Kevin Stevens is a Senior Software Engineer at Ecology & Environment in Buffalo, NY. He claims to be the only person who has a B.A. in acting, a B.S. in Computer Science, and who has worked for Siegfried and Roy. He has a PMP, but thinks it was a giant waste of time.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what qualities make a good team leader.
We’ve been trying to hire a senior developer for the last few months without a lot of luck. Our job description is, like most, strong on technical skills. But when we do the post-mortem on an interview, that isn’t what we talk about. What we talk about are things like, “Would he be able to lead a design meeting?”, “Is he going to be able to mentor the juniors?”.
All of which makes me think that the job description needs a rewrite. So, even though HR would never approve of a listing written like this, here’s what I’ve been thinking.
You’ve proven you can wield application code like a lightsaber, but you know there’s more to software engineering than that. You write unit tests, integrate continuously, program in pairs and rock it Agile-style three ways from Sunday. You have shown what you can do and now want to show that you can lead. Here’s what you need to do:
Remember what it was like to be a junior programmer
Teach others to avoid the mistakes you made so they don’t stay junior for long
Know about the next generation of technology coming down the pike
Have enough sense to adopt new things because they’re the right tools for the job and not because they’re new
Ship applications that reflect the hard work and integrity of your team
Care for your team’s code like it is the piece of craftsman ship it truly is
If you can do this and more, lots more, it’s time for you to step up and lead.
Reader Comments (8)
That's a great job description; it's honest, to the point and not offensive, it would be a poor judgement call for a HR department to prevent such a posting just because it's not "standard".
If a potential candidate didn't care for the choice of metaphors in the listing then they're likely not the most suitable choice. The fact that it's written in such a way should help attract a more suitable candidate.
Agreeing with the above commenter, you probably attract more interesting candidates this way. I also don't really understand why this would not be approved upon by your HR department, perhaps not without an explanation but surely once you tell them the 'why".
-Mark
You'd be surprised at how straight-laced some HR departments can be. Though, if were to look for root causes, I'd have to say that it comes down to the prevalence of the boring corporate writing style. Regardless, I do plan on giving this to HR next week to see if we can try it out.
I like the phrasing, but in my experience as such, and not just for the sake of mentoring more junior people. Is "knowing WHEN to whip out that shiny new tool", not because it's obviously the right tool, but often you need to work (think) differently ( re: More efficiently ) than you have up to now". I'm sure there are folks who still love to cut down trees with an axe, but when you're doing it for money, and NOT the sheer pleasure of the act, you may need to change to that fancy saw
( http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200381728_200381728).
The definition of "right tools for the job and not because they’re new" is little too subjective for some folks. Knowing when to move on isn't so much a function of picking the right tool, so much as when you realize there is a better, more effective one.
I wonder why HR wouldn't approve this. This is one of best job descriptions I've seen for time now. OK I know why they would not but I still wonder.
I think we always look for something more than it is described in our job ads. I think we rarely look just for technical expertise. After all most of the time many engineers can be taught to be senior enough to do the job. On the other hand I can't recall teams where there was too much of leadership or too much of common sense approach to new technologies (the point you've made with "Have enough sense to adopt new things because they’re the right tools for the job and not because they’re new").
On the side note: it really hard to present leadership during an hour-long interview. Leadership is something which shows itself in the long run, especially in tough situations. An interview doesn't qualify for either of these.
Agreed--I'd be wary of an HR department that wouldn't let that out the door.
Run two ads, with their description, and with yours. I know which one is going to get higher-quality candidates. Higher-quality candidates means fewer useless interviews. Fewer useless interviews means less wasted times, means higher ROI.
A team leader or team lead is someone (or in certain cases there may be multiple team leaders) who provides guidance, instruction, direction, leadership
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Thank you for posting this. I have found that being a team leader is almost like being a generator: You keep the team going when the power source fails. Thanks again!