The document discusses how to recruit for an agile organization. It outlines that agile is a philosophy that should influence an organization's culture and work style. When recruiting, look for hands-on, collaborative, communicative and flexible candidates. Make the recruitment process itself agile by tracking candidates on a recruitment wall, using pairing interviews, and giving/receiving feedback at each stage. The goal is to find candidates with the rare mindset suited for agile ways of working.

1. Recruiting for an Agile Organization
Mayank Srivastava
Manager – Recruitment & HR
Equal Experts India Pvt. Ltd.

2. Agile is not just a methodology. It is a
philosophy
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3. • Adopting agile should not only influence your
software development approach or delivery
cycles.
• It should influence your culture, your
infrastructure, your style of working, and most
certainly, the way you recruit.
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4. Some features & practices of agile which
dictate what qualities to look out for in
new hires.
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5. • Small teams
• Pairing
• Daily scrum meetings
• Frequent client interactions
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Flat structure
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6. What works well in agile & how to look
out for those aspects.
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7. 1. Hands-on – People who are hands-on or at least have a
genuine interest in being hands-on.
• Have them sit on a system. Make them write code, tests,
business solutions etc. Have them actually implement what they
theorize.
2. Collaboration – People with humility, openness to
feedback, assertiveness.
• Make them pair with your employees on actual code / test cases
/ business case scenarios. If they are too defensive, that’s bad.
If they are too meek that’s worse.
3. Communication – Clarity, crispness, humility.
• Involve some less experienced employees in interviewing
seasoned candidates.
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8. 4. Involvement – Willingness to get involved proactively
across other roles when required
• Look out for answers like “that’s a QA’s job, I’m a BA”.
5. Lack of hierarchical mindset – People who see growth
in responsibilities rather than designations.
• Check their comfort level with being designated as Software
Developer / Software Tester regardless of their experience.
Developers with deep understanding of TDD (or at least unit
testing), and Testers with deep understanding of automation, are
usually critical for the success of most XP projects, especially
development projects. So these aspects should be regarded highly.
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9. How to make your recruitment process
Agile.
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10. •. Recruitment Wall – Just like the story card wall of any
Agile project, you can create a Recruitment Wall which
tracks the progress of candidates through each stage of
their recruitment life cycle.
HR Pairing 1st Technical 2nd Technical Management Offered
Screening Round Interview Interview Interview Candidates
Candidate 11 Candidate 7 Candidate 8 Candidate 4 Candidate 1 Candidate 2
Card Card Card Card Card Card
Candidate 14 Candidate 10 Candidate 9
Card Card Card
Candidate 15 Candidate 5
Card Card
Rejected
Candidates
Candidate 12 Candidate 13 Candidate 3 Candidate 6
Card Card Card Card
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11. • Sample Candidate Card:
Candidate Card
Name of candidate XYZ Kumar
Relevant experience 5.3 years
Skills QA, Automation, Selenium RC
Pairing Panel Members Status
1st Tech Interview Panel Members Status
2nd Tech Interview Panel Members Status
Management Interview Panel Members Status
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12. • Feedback:
1. Give constructive feedback to candidates at
every stage of their recruitment process,
whether they’re selected or rejected.
• Ask interviewers to give candidates the reasons
for their selection / rejection.
2. Take constructive feedback from candidates
at each stage of their recruitment process,
whether they’re selected or rejected.
• If feasible, incorporate some of the feedbacks
suggested by candidates to improve your
process.
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13. In Conclusion
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14. • Recruiting for an agile / agile-transforming
organization is challenging, because you are
looking for people with a rare mindset.
• Quite often, you also have to convince them of
agile.
• So before recruiting, make sure that you, as an
evaluator (whether you’re a recruiter / tech
interviewer / manager), are convinced of Agile
as a methodology and as a philosophy which
influences your organization’s culture and
values.
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15. THANK YOU
…And please make sure that you give me
some constructive feedback... 
mayank@equalexperts.com
+91 9923000943
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