"recruiting is a balancing of fears" "the other" Pretty much spot on. There is no shortage of people who can do the jobs. That is certainly not the fear bei

"recruiting is a balancing of fears" "the other" Pretty much spot on. There is no shortage of people who can do the jobs. That is certainly not the fear being balanced (=Joe Candidate can't do the job). Rather, the fear is that Joe Candidate is not "like me", and that he might change the culture. He is "the other". But this is not as silly as it sounds. It makes a difference who you have to work with everyday. It's not just about work. In many cases, monkeys could do the work. (In other cases, only a very few people could do the work.) What it's about is being surrounded by "your kind of people". Work environment. This doesn't just apply to startups. So being a good recruiter is not just about finding qualified people, it's about understanding "cultural fit" and the particular pyschology (however irrational it may be) of your clients.