Hey friend,
Iāve made a handful of hires this year and my own workflows have received a massive upgrade after having to be forced to do it so many times.
In fact, I think Iāve hired / fired 30+ folks over the last 3 years ā I donāt say that to brag because, in many ways, thatās just fucking sad, but, itās the truth and after a handful of resets / restarts, thatās where we are today.
Itās been a wild one, as you know.
I wrote an internal note to my team and I thought Iād share those thoughts here ā Iād love your thoughts and feedback on this!
Okay, so here are a few thoughts on super early-stage hiresā¦
⦠now, early-stage hires are full of risk because youāre trying to make decisions quickly while also trying to assess the candidateās ability to create impact and value for the team in the short and long-term⦠this is very hard and you often get it wrong but thatās okay because itās a numbers game, in many ways.
And, since weāre also small, itās unnecessary to institute a strict and formal interview workflow or standardize questions, at least at this time. Rather, the goal is to get to know their story and to get to know them as a person. A singular question that weāre trying to answer is this:
Why are they looking now and why is YEN the best place for them in their next season of life?
Simple questions, like this, can help illumine the deeper motives as well as create pathways for even more conversations ā asking āwhyā is always a good idea.
Also, youāll want to leave a lot of room for them to ask questions about us as this is oftentimes a more powerful way of describing our company and how we really operate which gives them the most trustworthy perspective of how we do work. t
What is the goal of our time together, individually and corporately? Itās so that they have zero surprises if they eventually join us ā we want them to eventually say after a few weeks of work:
So far itās been as-expected.
Hopefully itās better! But, this would be a very, very acceptable statement.
Consequently, throughout the entire process we need to ensure that we shoot-straight with them, never over-sell the company (or me as a leader!!) and never try to make YEN look better than she really is.
We are an early-stage company with a lot of risk but with just as much opportunity and if we execute right, then, weāre going to kill this.
Interviewing is both an art and science ā part of this process is learning your own style and flavor and at YEN youāll have a lot of opportunities to practice.
Finally, here are a few strong, private questions I try to ask myself after my interview:
Is this someone that I respect enough to work for?
Is this someone that I know I can learn a great deal from?
Is this someone who will make our culture better?
Of course, a few obvious things that will need to be in play:
There needs to be evidence that they are a good writer.
There needs to be evidence that they are self-directed.
There needs to be evidence that they love learning.
If itās a āYES!ā for the top and bottom 3 questions, then, weāre in really good territory.
To infinity & community,
ā john
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