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I N F O R M A T I O N S Y S T E M S M A N A G E M E N T
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VARIABLES IN THE
HIRING EQUATION
ENSURING THAT THE RIGHT
CANDIDATE IS HIRED
Laurence E. Sheehan
When making the decision to hire one of several equally qualified candidates, IS
managers fall back on their instincts and choose the candidate that "feels right."
They rely on personal chemistry, which is one of the variables in the hiring
equation. Other equally important elements are: aptitude, attitude, and motiva-
tional factors.
N THE LATE 1960S, I WORKED FOR
Electronic Data Systems Corporation. At
the ripe old age of 23, working for H.
Ross Perot in Manhattan was a heady
learning experience. Facilities management
(FM) was an exciting place to be during the
emergence of the computer industry.
The technology had moved from the 1401
to the 360. Companies, especially those in
transaction, paper-bound businesses, were
beginning to see the need (even if they did
not understand the implications) for automa-
tion. The computer manufacturers were hav-
ing a field day telling clients exactly what to
do. RCA, Burroughs, NCR — and, of course,
IBM — were looked to for guidance by what
has now come to be referred to as end-user
organizations.
Perhaps it was IBM, along with its subsidiary
SRI, that held the high ground in understand-
ing what aptitudes one should possess, if one
were to be successful in computing. In oversim-
plified terms, these aptitudes boiled down to a
strong mathematical capability. That was it. It
mattered little whether one was to work for a
computer manufacturer or an end user, and
there was no perceived difference in what was
required in applications programming vs. sys-
tems programming.
I recall taking the battery of personality
assessment tests at EDS. The embarrassing fact
was that I did not fall within the targeted range
for programmer training at EDS. And this was
in spite of the fact that I prided myself in hav-
ing done a reasonable job in getting my Bache-
lor of Science degree at Boston College — with
a minor in statistic. The EDS training program
was, and is to this day, known as the systems
engineering development (SED) program. It is
judged by many to be one of the better pro-
grams in the industry. Unfortunately, I was rel-
egated to the closest thing that EDS had to
human resources — technical recruiting. (This
made perfect sense to me: if I lack the aptitude
to do the job, then who better to select those
who can do it.) Besides, I fancied myself a stu-
dent of human nature, a “people person,” and
recruiting seemed like a good idea at the time.
In retrospect, this was the ideal learning
opportunity — to be able to work among the
half-dozen accounts in Manhattan and observe
what seemed to work and what did not. There
was no scientifically validated procedure for our
technical recruiting and, like many companies,
I
LAURENCE E.
SHEEHAN is founder of
the Cambridge Assess-
ment Centre. He is best
known work assisting
clients in identifying
their corporate vision and
in their change manage-
ment efforts. His clients
have included AT&T,
Panasonic, Citicorp,
Lotus Development,
Siemens, the Chase Man-
hattan Bank, and
Western Union. He can
be reached at
larry_sheehan@post.har-
vard.edu.
RECRUITING AND RETAINING IT TALENT