“To all those of you, struggling with your own demons…”
Martin Lewis’ acceptance speech as he received the Special Award on 10 May at this year's BAFTA TV awards.
"Something I was lacking in my early career was somebody to look up to and learn from. That is very very powerful and that is something we should be paying more attention to in the industry as a whole"
Mark Capaldi – #Leadership in #DevOps#AMA
We need to promote a psychologically safe environment where it is safe to fail in order to create an innovation culture. Let's be aware of hindsight bias when diagnosing the root cause of issues. No blame.
We also hold our own All Hands meeting in a lean coffee format. This allows everyone in the team to contribute to the discussion and topics we are going to discuss. We used to set an agenda at leadership level, which lacked engagement. Now we discuss what matters to the team.
Invest in your own people. At @ECS_Digi we have an academy that takes people through technical development as well as investing in human skills such as consultancy and presenting skills.
Have an interview process that encourages cooperation and communication. If you have a tech test at an interview, make it about the discussions and interactions this person has, not a pure judgement of technical ability.
Engineers should be encouraged to get involved in the recruitment process. It runs through every thread of your company's fabric, so we all have a part to play.
Having a poor recruitment process that people don't enjoy can really hurt you further down the line. We need to learn to build bridges between the company we work for and potential candidates. People assess efficiency of internal processes based on your recruitment process
Speaking at Meetups/encouraging people to speak at conferences is a great way to build your employer's brand. You don't need to limit your blogs to tech. Blog about the human aspect of the job such as mental health, flexible working and inclusion.
As an engineer, it is important to get involved in the recruitment pipeline. Engineers are more likely to listen to fellow engineers about problems etc rather than recruiters. Share your challenges and successes via blogs.
Who can thrive in a DevOps environment? Those with a growth mindset who are also empathetic to the needs of others (customers, other roles etc). You don't need to follow a 'traditional' path into tech in order to succeed.
What makes DevOps hiring so difficult? There is a skills shortage. DevOps is different in every organisation. Companies are at different stages in their process. Its difficult to hire for cultural change. If you hire people into a toxic culture, the hires will not enjoy it.
Connor mentions that he has benefited from working closer with engineers. It allows him to emphasise with their challenges. He shares that DevOps is a process of continuous improvement in order to meet customer demands.
Connor from @ECS_Digi is sharing how much he has gained from Meetups. He started as an agency recruiter and shares the pressures that agency recruiters work under. Hard targets on number of CVs sent to companies etc.