45 Effective Ways for Hiring Smart! : How to Predict Winners and Losers in the Incredibly Expensive People-Reading Game

Rating:
Summary: Simply a "Must-Read" Tool for Employeers
Review: Hiring Smart is an exceptional "must-read" tool for any hiring manager... and anyone looking for a job. In today's world when hiring poorly can lead to expensive mistakes, it is more important now than ever to get the "right" person in an organization.

Hiring Smart is simply one of the best tools around for hiring employees. It is original and excellent - I cannot recommend it enough.

Rating:
Summary: Great ideas, sketchy writing
Review: If you're looking for ideas about how to extend, deepen, or accelerate an existing hiring process, this book is full of excellent ideas. The author clearly has considerably experience and if you follow his advice and pick the techniques that best match you and your organization you'll find the book helpful.

However, if you're looking for an introduction to hiring practices or interviewing in general, look elsewhere. The anecdotes are compelling but disconnected--use this as a source book.

Rating:
Summary: A good read, nothing new, essential for current job seekers
Review: Overall, the book is an easy read, literally (double spaced, 14 pt type?), the anecdotes are interesting and it will make a contribution by helping people think about the hiring process. The book offers 45 "strategies" which are more accurately activities. Most are conventional "#18: Identify strengths and weaknesses"; some are a bit off the beaten path, "#26: Travel with the candidate," and others are dubious, "#31: Use handwriting analysis." All of the "strategies" are practical and mostly useful, but if you're looking for something fundamentally new, it is not in this book.

The author focuses on finding reasons not to hire a candidate, the universal hiring/interview strategy. For example, exclude all candidates without cover letters or with resumes that have a typo or misspelling. (On that basis, the book should be ignored; mine had a typo on page 138 and virtually every page had a glue stain)

The limitation! to the book is its perspective. The book is written for, and from the perspective of an executive hiring from a position of strength. The hiring firm/executive sets the agenda, dictates the terms of the interaction, and commands performance. Only after the decision to extend an offer to a candidate is made is there any concern for their interests. A questionable approach for recruiting the best candidates.

Based on the recent publicity the book has received (Inc. Magazine & Harvard Management Update), anyone who is actively searching for a job should read the book as a defensive strategy. Anyone new to HR recruiting should also find it useful.