Q: What’s the biggest hiring mistake you have ever made? (Stephan Klapproth, Zurich, Switzerland)
Ans: Would you believe that with about 60 years of combined experience, we’ve made too many hiring mistakes to name just one? It’s true. Now, many occurred when we were newer at this game, but picking the right people never gets easy. Just last month, we almost blew it twice, saved only by a last-minute eureka in both cases. Incidentally, even as we were in the midst of making these almost-mistakes, we were cringing a bit, concerned we were off-track. And yet we forged ahead, feeling simultaneously hopeful and helpless. Our candidates seemed bright and shiny enough, and we were just so tired of interviewing when there was real work to be done. Of course, hiring is real work. Given the central importance of your people, it’s as fundamental as work gets. Yet too often we rush headlong into its painfully common pitfalls.
Take our first near-miss last month, when we almost gave into the universal impulse to hire a person who looked too good to be true. There she was with an Ivy League degree, several technology jobs at solid companies and exactly the skills we needed. Well dressed, well spoken, charming, eager – the works. Even her salary requirement was in the low range....Continue
Ans: Would you believe that with about 60 years of combined experience, we’ve made too many hiring mistakes to name just one? It’s true. Now, many occurred when we were newer at this game, but picking the right people never gets easy. Just last month, we almost blew it twice, saved only by a last-minute eureka in both cases. Incidentally, even as we were in the midst of making these almost-mistakes, we were cringing a bit, concerned we were off-track. And yet we forged ahead, feeling simultaneously hopeful and helpless. Our candidates seemed bright and shiny enough, and we were just so tired of interviewing when there was real work to be done. Of course, hiring is real work. Given the central importance of your people, it’s as fundamental as work gets. Yet too often we rush headlong into its painfully common pitfalls.
Take our first near-miss last month, when we almost gave into the universal impulse to hire a person who looked too good to be true. There she was with an Ivy League degree, several technology jobs at solid companies and exactly the skills we needed. Well dressed, well spoken, charming, eager – the works. Even her salary requirement was in the low range....Continue
