Hiring

• Create a job scorecard (in a Google doc)

• From that, widdle it down to create a job description (in a Google doc)

• Create an application in Airtable

Notes here.

How do you know if you’re getting enough applicants? How many people to move forward through each step?

24 applicants

Can acknowledge all applicants

Consider blocking the names when doing scoring

12 phone screenings

Do not screen everybody

Good for those curveball candidates that you go back/forth on

Can do as apps roll in

No more than 30 mins

Not about building a relationship

4 consistent questions for every candidate

Career goals and how does this fit in

Listening for anything not aligned w/ what want and need

What are you good at professionally

Chance for someone to tell you about strengths and does it align with competencies

What are you not interested doing professionally

Greatest weakness has cookie cutter answer, avoid that response by reframing the question, safer question for people to answer that is more honest

Who were your last 5 bosses, how would they rate your performance

List

8 initial interviews

6 semi-finalists / final interviews if needed

Yes, check references

Could consolidate these components into 1 long interview, but you could include others in the interview process to divide and conquer these 2 parts

Career Walk

Dig into someone’s work exp. And understand it

Walk you through their resume, what were you hired to do for that job, accomplishments, low points, who did you work with and what did they say your growth areas are

Manager level, teams you inherited and why you left

Rather than someone giving you a generalized marketing pitch of career, getting into the details of what they did “am i seeing evidence here that they can handle the work responsibilities that i’m talking about”

Not looking for 1 to 1 compared to job description, but that they can fulfill the competencies

Focused Interview

Focused on the competencies

open ended questions like relationship management ability

Tell me about a time when you had to activate a relationship to get $ or a resource: how did you do it? What did you learn?

This is where bringing colleagues in works really well.

Tell me about a time you failed

Startup questions

Tell me about a time you receive vague or unclear instructions and how you managed it

Self starter aspect, communication style, how they solve problems

Reference check questions

Before making an offer

Phone preferable so you get verbal cues

It’s okay to go back if you don't feel their references are helpful -- maybe i should specify we want professional references in the app. Or maybe we dont need to ask for references until interview stage

Ask about strengths

areas of improvement — compare alignment from interview to reference

How would you rate their overall performance from 1-10

They said they struggle with X, what is your experience with them and this issue?

lukewarm/ambivalence/etc are red flags

What do i need to know about how to most effectively manage them?

How they are as a colleague but also how to support them

Would you hire this employee again if you had the need/chance?

What if the reference is bad? Consider discussing concern w/ candidate, especially if they’re a top candidate

Red flags 🚩

When someone can’t address gaps or transitions in career

Overqualified and asking about advancement, this person may not be happy in the job we have to currently offer

Jumping from job to job could be a potential red flag but not necessarily, ask the career walk questions

How to talk about salary generation

Normalize it - this is typical for revenue roles

Make it clear they are part of a team

During interview - make it a question you ask - like, are you comfortable with that?

Tell me a time you operated under uncertainty

Scoring items:

Make sure they are a culture fit

Are they empathetic? A good listener? pc/aware, would fit in with team

3 amazing finalists

Resources

The book “Who” is helpful especially for attracting diverse candidates