The RCT Job Definition Worksheet

RCT Job Definition Worksheet: Letter, A4 - Research Computing Teams

One huge difference between our work and that of (say) IT or large tech firms is that figuring out what the job is even supposed to be takes some doing. Our teams aren’t large or static enough to have pre-existing cookie cutter roles requiring previously documented skill sets. (Startups are more like us this way.) The work is fluid. Each hire, each job, is a bit of a one-off, a bit bespoke.

Another point: hiring and onboarding (and, for that matter, early evaluation of performance) are the same process. Once we’ve had an offer letter accepted, we don’t dust off our hands and declare our work done. The reason we hire someone is to have that person become successful at some work that needs doing. We need to bring them up to speed, and (for both their sake and ours) to have a clear progression of goals for them during that process. The best time to figure out what that would look like is during the process of defining the job, in parallel with writing up the job ad and the interview evaluation process.

So I’ve distilled key points from that into a worksheet to help guide a team towards first defining the job, then figuring out how to evaluate candidates and then onboard them once seleced. The goal is to have something the hiring team can hash out together. This is version one - feedback welcomed! (Feedback is a gift). The section headings aren’t rocket science, but the order matters:

Figure out what the job is for Define what a succesful hire at the end of onboarding looks like Back out from that an onboarding progression Then, from that, figure out the must-already-have job requirements, Then figure out the must-be-able-to-learn requirements Then figure out what support will be needed during the onboarding process Iteratively hashing this out with the team will help develop consensus about what the job is and how to interview. And at the end you’ll be have the beginning of an onboarding plan. You’ll also be able to include clear 30/60/120 day goals in the job ad. Good candidates appreciate those goals: those alone offer more clarity about the job than most entire job ads do.