St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

I’ve never written about a discussion on LinkedIn.com before, but this one is a whopper.  A question was posed.  If you had to choose between two candidates for a job, one with a high IQ and one years experience, the other with an average IQ and 10 years experience, and everything else the same, which would you choose.

As Project Managers I find it a conversation we all should read.  I personally found it quite enlightening and yes, even life affirming.  You see I’m one of these people with a really high IQ.

This conversation is a fine example of how all discussion should be.  It’s a conversation to hold up and say:  “This is one of the good things about Social Networking.”  sure there was plenty of disagreement and even embarrassing secrets that came out, but never did it to a personal level, nor was any rhetoric ever introduced.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned about HR Staff and my  fellow Project Managers from the conversation on Linked in:

• Most people all felt that it depended on many other things.
• A good deal of HR people think intelligence and education are the same thing.
  • If this is you, please, they are two totally different things, this may help.
• Even more HR people think that intelligent people are, um, problematic.
  • It gets worse, read for yourself.
• Most of the managers are not happy in most cases with the hires that HR departments send them.
• Most of the Managers and HR people all realize that you really can’t rely on either of these two things as a determining factor.
  • Sadly, I hate to pick on the HR folks, but alot of them (what are they doing in the Project management group on LinkedIn anyway?) find that well rounded personality, likability and crap like that are far more important than qualifications, skill, talent and work ethic.
• But most just aren’t like that, they are looking for these kinds on things:
  • Desire to serve the companies interest
  • Trustworthiness
  • Qualifications
• Some HR people are angered that this question is even being discussed in the semi-private LinkedIn group or anywhere.
• Lots of people answered (both HR and PM’s) answered the question, as it was asked and the vote is about 50/50 with project managers, but the vote is wildly in favor of experience with the HR people, in addition, some HR people seem subtly hostile toward intelligent people.
• There’s a push to invent a new term called “Emotional Intelligence” which actually means being able to learn and process information about emotions” which lots of people (mostly self help book authors) are trying to redefine as “Having a steady even and likeable personality”

How we do it here at Dream Designs:

First the basics, if they can’t meet these conditions they won’t be working in my shop:

• Can they get work every day on time?
• Will they do the job or talk on the phone instead (or play on facebook or hide in the bathroom etc.)
• Are they qualified to even be able to do the job?
  • This can be difficult to judge in the internet technologies field as there are never any certifications or college degrees for the latest technologies.  In fact if you have a college degree it is guaranteed that your training is out of date by several years.

Now for the rest:

It depends greatly on the job at hand.  If I’m hiring a customer service rep or tech support rep, it is all about a happy, even easy to get along with personality. But in most cases I need tech workers.  I’m a firm believer that to be a tech worker you must be of above average intelligence.  Why?

• You must be willing and able to continue your education, on your own time for the rest of your life.  You must also be able to educate yourself well.
  • Our field is still evolving.  The search engines change their algorithm, a new version HTML or PHP or JavaScript or C++ comes out and if you don’t know it, you won’t be able to do what everyone else can do.  If you can’t do the job, you will be left behind.
  • By it’s very nature all internet technologies are complicated.  In almost every single thing we do there are many different technologies working together to achieve a final result that must be able to withstand the rigors of repeated use, accidental missteps by users and downright attacks from other very intelligent and sometimes well organized people.

At Dream Designs we are frequently working with the latest technologies in which there is no one with experience.  It’s true that one could have experience in the underlying technologies that make up the new technology, but they are still going where no one else has gone before . . .

As an employee and as a business owner, I have worked with average IQ people in tech positions; I’ve also hired average IQ people to fill tech positions.  They were there because of their great work ethic or because some one liked them a lot and wanted to give them a chance.  They have failed in all cases and in one case where they weren’t fired taken companies down with them.  They were problem employees in every case.

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