I hear a lot of talk about how hard it is to hire good Internet development talent – especially technical people. There’s plenty of talent out there but most people don’t know how to hire Internet developers.

Maybe that’s a bit too strong. Most site managers probably have a reasonable idea how to go about recruiting but don’t realize that to do it right requires an enormous amount of time and effort. Most managers don’t have the time to do it and don’t particularly like all the paperwork and interviewing. So even though the schools have been churning out hordes of Internet developers and programmers for a couple of years now, today’s Internet job market can seem like an international skills shortage. Those kids are still out there, they have experience now and a bunch of them want a different, cooler job.

The problem is, recruiting is a lot of work. You have to kiss a lot of toads before you find the CTO or Systems Manager of your dreams. You need to look at a zillion resumes. Job descriptions need to be brainstormed and written. Salaries, etc. decided and ads prepared and placed. You have to talk to a bunch of potential candidates on the phone and meet another whole bunch of them in person. You need to meet the best ones again with other members of your team. You have to check references. You need to talk to them on the phone some more and make verbal and written offers. This is all very time consuming. Large companies with dedicated Human Resources Departments handle most of this stuff but I like to get resumes before they get filtered by someone who doesn’t know much about the skills I need. I can sort resumes without too much difficulty myself. And I want fresh, new resumes – not ones that have been wending their way through kind-hearted bureaucracy for a week or two.