[Sigia-l] is it just me, or is it really hard to find IAs right now?

[Listera]

Livia Labate:

> (And despite what views others may have, to me IA is strategic and you need to
> understand the business model).

Very true.

But, if you need to hire a senior person, you need to consider the other
side of the coin, otherwise you'd be fooling yourself.

The first rule of business (something I tell all my potential clients within
the first 15 minutes of any initial meeting) is that you can't expect
someone to be smart and capable enough to help your business but be stupid
enough to not guard his own interests.

In the vast majority of cases where the hiring side mandates
non-contract/staff status they have no idea what the person will do once the
immediate project in consideration is completed in a year or so. When asked,
they can only mumble in generalities and, ultimately, about on-going
maintenance work. They may not have other projects/products coming up/lined
up. Now, this is dandy if you're hiring non-senior people, but it'd be a
gross abuse of a senior person's capabilities for maintenance work.
Presented with this fait accompli, the latter would likely leave anyway.

For a seasoned pro, domain expertise doesn't make much of a difference. As
counterintuitive as it may sound, often it's detrimental for innovative
work. Sometimes you need proper distance from the details of content when
dealing with architecture and business model.

So it also depends on what level of talent you may be hiring. You need to
ask yourself: Do I really have enough work *and* challenge here to entice
*and* retain a senior person on staff status? If the answer is genuinely no,
one or both sides will be unhappy.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba