DrupalCon Munich 2012: Building a great Drupal team in the face of talent starvation

You're building a Drupal team, but you're struggling to find talent. What are your options?

The truth is, talented people are out there looking for work. What's more, these job seekers' skills/backgrounds closely match those of many wildly successful Drupalists. Naturally you ask: if these desirable candidates are out there, why aren't they responding to the offers you've posted? You've detailed the lavish compensation, fascinating projects and workplace ping pong ladders!

The hiring profiles actually required on Drupal projects may surprise employers. An enterprising talent scout can be forgiven for believing a candidate's curriculum vitae has to reflect the technology on which Drupal is built. Sounds logical enough that basic Drupal skills would include PHP, right? And doesn't it follow that the more PHP and MySql experience each team member has, the more productive the team will be?

The short answer is: not in most cases. This session will explore very typical Drupal case studies from around the community where this measure has mislead the effort to build effective teams. It will also touch on indicators of what skills a given project requires. We'll do so with an eye to how hiring managers can

match hiring profiles to actual needs
define a hiring strategy for meeting immediate needs, and
lay out a plan for mitigating the risks of ongoing hiring challenges.
And we'll look at this question of what Maslow would do if the internet suddenly sprang to life in his day, including:

why he would choose Drupal for his company
how he would plan for labor needs
how he would react if his community were suffering from a starvation of any sort.
Who is this session for? Anyone involved in team-building questions like hiring and training, including

Drupal architects who need to convey hiring criteria to management
Management who need to hire Drupal talent now and in the future
Team leads needing to grow their team's skills
Purists who would like to heckle the presenters about their depiction of Maslow, their depiction of the needs of Drupal teams, or their depiction of enterprising talent scouts also welcome!

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