Hiring Advice

Theory for excellence. "Excellence" is a surprisingly generalizable skill. People who've been great at *anything* are more likely to have the drive and self-discipline to excel even at something unrelated. In 2015, we hired a number of ex-Juilliard musicians with no engineering experience with the assumption that “people who know how to be

Tara Seshan • How to Hire Low Experience, High Potential People

Brandy Cerne

Determine if they have a chip on their shoulder . Do they have something to prove? Where’s the hole they’re looking to fill? Ideally, you’d get someone with obvious talent/drive that is misunderstood by the world. Those types of people will run through walls to reconcile their internal view of themselves with external perception.

What you’re

Tara Seshan • How to Hire Low Experience, High Potential People

Brandy Cerne

Openness. You are not hiring a finished product, and therefore want to ensure the person is open to improvement and new ideas.

What to look for:
1. Coachability: This trait has two aspects: responding well to feedback, and being self-aware enough to assess their own performance.
2. Disagree and commit: Can they get out of their own ego and move

Tara Seshan • How to Hire Low Experience, High Potential People

Brandy Cerne

Exec Development is a Different Game

Cedric Chin commoncog.com

Mo Shafieeha

Much of Silicon Valley is the reshuffling of uninspired, unremarkable individuals with one Great Brand on their resume, being recycled through tens of other Aspiring Great Brands. Do not outsource your talent evaluation to Brand identification, otherwise your company will suck.

Alexandr Wang twitter.com

sari

Hiring Religion

paulenglish.com

sari

Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can't tell you whether someone will fit into a company's culture.

Howard Schultz • Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

sari

Adam Grant On Interviewing to Hire Trailblazers, Nonconformists and Originals

First Round Capital review.firstround.com

Johanna

Using the collaborate before you commit approach empowers both the candidate and the person hiring, because they both have the agency to decide whether the situation feels right to them. Was there chemistry? Was there magic? Was it more awkward than you might have liked?

Yancey Strickler • Notes on hiring

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