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Here’s how I did this at my last job at a growing start-up. My background is in engineering, but I found myself responsible for hiring people outside of my exp
by Dwolb 4y ago
Here’s how I did this at my last job at a growing start-up.
My background is in engineering, but I found myself responsible for hiring people outside of my expertise for roles like marketing, sales, finance, and operations.
The process:
1) Define the role. What do you need this person to do day in and day out?
Write the exhaustive list of tasks and the exhaustive list of behaviors.
Task: Write code that does X.
Behavior: Write maintainable code I can understand.
2) Stack rank the tasks and behaviors. What is the number one most important thing? Decide on a cut-off of must-haves, step-ups, and nice-to-haves.
Must haves: you’re not talking to a candidate unless they’ve shown they’ve done it.
Step-ups: a candidate is good to move on if you think the candidate can reasonably achieve this in 6-12 months.
Nice-to-haves: between two equal candidates, you’re going with the one who can do these things.
3) Level the role. Given what you need this role to achieve, is this a staff, senior, junior, etc? Hopefully this is straightforward. Sometimes this can be between levels and that’s ok. You should decide/work with HR on comp here too.
4) Build your interview flow. Who in your org or team will screen for must-haves and step-ups, run your technical assessment, run your cultural assessment, and run your structured interview for leadership behaviors? Assign responsibilities, come up with questions, and bucket those into each interview section.
5) Decide on your rubric. After each interview, what do you want to find out? Make sure each interviewer knows the questions they need to answer and send to you after each interview.
That should be most of it. I’d be curious to hear everyone’s feedback on this.
PS: My biggest piece of advice is to not settle. If you go with a mediocre candidate to wrap up early or to save money, you’re going to miss out on special people who may have changed the trajectory of your team.
- lsowen 4y agoThis is a great framework, and similar to what I follow. One thing I would add: If hiring falls within your scope, it is one of the most important things you can do. I see too many new leads/managers try to "outsource" it to HR, etc. But while it can be super time consuming, finding the right people for your team has an outsized impact on your team's future success, so make it a priority!
- Dwolb 4y agoHR can be a great partner, but they're not going to know the role like you do.
- chiefalchemist 4y agoFour subtle points to add: - Be consistent in what you ask, at least for the initial round(s). Else the candidate comparisons will be invalid. - If different people are involve (i.e., interviewers) make sure they prep as a team. Nothing is more annoying - and a red flag to the interviewee - than getting the same question multiple times across different meetings. It also wastes time. - Along the same lines, when multiple people are involved, be mindful of any post-interview group discussions. Groups create biases (read: group-think). Consistency comes into play again. Prior to a debrief have each interviewer grade the candidate, hbave them form an opinion, then discuss. - Listen carefully. Listen to the candidates' wants and needs. Short term and long. Professionally and personally. This is beyond (culture) fit. I've been W2'ed for more than one role that I was in the immediate a solid fit for. But the ceiling was too low, the decision making too slow. I left both asking, "Why did you hire me?" In short, don't fuck with someone's career/life simple because you're desperate for their skill set. Don't imply a situation that isn't accurate. Yes it happens. Too often.
- Dwolb 4y agoYou make an interesting point on career fit. I’ve heard the idea discussed but never explicitly named.