Recruitment for me has not always been a priority, especially since I used to work in such organizations where good and fancy CV’s were a dime a dozen.
Alternatively to big organizations, working in a startup means that you will need to get your hands dirty yourself and as no one is really looking at you so you will need to attract some cool CVs.
Now I am not a headhunter, so I will not bore you with the headhunting part of it as that is another thing.
Interview to hire
You do not have the luxury to go through 10 people for a position. Spend that extra 5 minutes to read that CV or check that Linkedin profile and decide that you will be willing to go through with this person all the way. Alternatively do not even bother and do not waste your time and the candidate’s time. Basically you just think that you want to hire.
For this to happen, means that you should know very well what you are looking for. In other words “Interview to hire = know what you want”
Funnel the candidates every step
My assumption is that you have a three-step process in place all setup
- Preliminary informal chat
- Technical interview/task
- Final review
Whoever you have a chat with, and you do not necessarily see that fits your needs, do not extend the process, but let them know and get them out of the process. This will help you have the least amount of candidates and for everyone, you will have a clear idea in place.
Here is a great resource on how to hire new people in a startup that details all the steps.
Talk expectations in advance
Startups = careful cash burn. As such I would expect that you are not playing around the field of big banks. I wouldn’t. As such, have a good understanding of your candidate’s expectations as no matter how good you are, you are offering 30% less that they want, they will not accept.
It may sound insensitive, but this is not a political game. You have to have an empirical approach to it. And the three pillars of empiricism are transparency, inspection, and adoption. The keyword here is transparency.
Trust your gut, be human
If something smells iffy, trust your gut. Sometimes, even if the numbers don't make sense, but your gut says yeah, maybe you should listen to it. If the risk is calculated, then it’s manageable. Having said that, your gut needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
If you wanna connect, check out my linkedin.
