Job interviews are a waste of time while recruiting for startups. Startups offer a unique work environment that everyone wants to join but few really thrive in. Traditional hiring is optimized for finding people to fit a well defined set of job requirements. It finds people who fit in an established culture that wants them to stay firmly in their box. By contrast, a startup needs to hire employees that are flexible to handle changing responsibilities.
Would you get married after a couple of hours of a first date when everyone’s trying look their best? Of course you wouldn’t so why do people do exactly this when they are hiring for startups? You can’t possibly decide on a good fit that quickly. Most people don’t even use their full hour for their interview and make up their minds in the first 5 minutes of interviews. I know, I’ve been in the room for many, many interviews with executives who are recruiting for startups.
A solution
Here’s a simple idea to solve this problem. Some companies have a 90-day review period for new hires. In 90 days you can get a real feel for what it’s like to work with someone and whether they bring the experience, knowledge, drive and flexibility you need. So why not do a quick screening process and then hire people for 90 days as an on-the-job interview? It might sound radical, but how many times have you guessed whether a candidate would be good at the job? Why not see if they can really do it. And to make it fair, include a contract that guarantees them a set pay with full benefits on day 91 if it works out. It may sound risky for a recruit to quit a job for this ,but true startup hires love risk. Recruiting for startups requires creativity. You could offer these employees a period of part time work if they don’t make it after 90 days to give people health coverage and a bit of income while they’re looking for their next thing.
Startups are trying to do something that is risky and new. Why do we build our recruiting processes after something from the 1970s when we’re recruiting for startups. It’s time to remove the pretense in interview processes. We must change to a model where we can have multiple “dates” before both sides can make a good, well-informed decision.
Here’s another article on recruiting for startups.