A big mistake many founders, recruiters, or managers make when it comes to fit is they hire people they “like”, people who they can get along with, incorrectly attributing this fit as an indicator that the candidate is a good fit for their culture.
Fit isn’t about chemistry, personal similarities, shared interests, or even the same background or experiences (recall the benefits of building a diverse team). Instead, a good fit is about alignment with the organization’s goals, mission, and values. Because we tend to overrate our ability to judge others, it’s important to approach interviewing with some form of structure and intention.
Culture > Mindset > Skill
What is “mindset”? I interpret it as the way individuals operate beyond their values. This would include aspects such as how they approach problem-solving, their perspectives on the world (including their opinions and predictions), whether they are self-starters, if they are inherently organized, or if they are resilient. I also consider soft skills like communication, persuasion, charisma, leadership, or creative thinking as part of “mindset”.
I believe these qualities are more important than hard skills because they’re a lot more transferable and valuable. Roles evolve, companies pivot, markets change, and technology is ever-advancing. Regardless of one’s skills, joining a new company often requires a significant amount of retraining. Moreover, with the advent of artificial intelligence, hard skills are overrated as we need to constantly re-skill ourselves to stay relevant.
I recommend prioritizing candidates based on Culture > Mindset > Skill, in that order of importance.
Many organizations approach recruitment and screening the other way around: hiring for a role (e.g., project manager, designer, office assistant, etc.), and then attempting to screen for good mission and value alignment in the interview. I believe this is an inefficient approach because candidates will often tell you exactly what you want to hear, motivated by the desire to land the job. Salespeople, in particular, are particularly difficult to assess because most of them have learned to be charismatic and, if they’ve done their proper research, will know all the right points to say to sell themselves.
I’m not suggesting you should create your job descriptions without a job title or without specifying the role you’re recruiting for. Skills are still important. Instead, I recommend promoting your roles with a mission and value-first approach. What might this look like?
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| “Hiring: Senior Programmer with Python and C++ experience” | “Interested in advancing the field of quantum computing (mission)? Join our growth-oriented, innovative, and diverse (values) team! We’re hiring! Learn more: [link]” |
What if you encounter someone who is an excellent culture fit, fully aligned with your values, passionate about your mission, and possesses a commendable attitude and mindset, but lacks the specific skills you currently seek?
In such a scenario, I would recommend making every effort to involve them in some capacity, even if you are unable to hire them immediately. They still have the potential to provide significant value and discover alternative ways to contribute, especially in a rapidly growing or scaling organization.
If they express keen interest in a role for which they lack skills, they can usually acquire the necessary expertise over time. Alternatively, you might consider allowing them to carve out a role for themselves based on how they can contribute, their desired responsibilities, and the tangible outcomes they believe they can deliver.
If there’s absolutely no reasonable way to involve them, keep them on a waitlist, and reach out to them if something suitable becomes available eventually.
Situational vs. Behavioral Questions
This should be familiar to you if you have HR experience, but for those who don’t, these are the two main types of questions you can ask to evaluate a candidate.
Situational questions help you assess their approach to problem-solving and decision-making. Here are some examples:
- If you could open your own business, what would it be and why?
- If you won a million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with the money?
- Challenge them with a problem your company is facing: How would you solve this?
- Is it better to be perfect and late, or good and on time? Why?
- What is your ideal management style?
- Tell me about what motivates you.
- What frustrates you?
- What are three positive character traits you have?
Ensure you’re not only asking situational questions but also behavioral questions when screening candidates. Responses to situational questions are entirely theoretical; their ability to give the right answer might not reflect how they would actually behave in that situation.
Behavioral questions, on the other hand, are important because the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Examples:
- Tell me about a time you set difficult goals. What did you do to achieve them? Walk me through the process and purpose.
- Tell me about a time you screwed up. What did you learn from it? How would you avoid the same mistake from happening again?
- Describe the best boss you’ve ever reported to.
- What are the top things you are working on right now? How are you working on them?
Some sales professionals might boast about superficial accomplishments in which they may not have played a significant role. You can uncover this by delving deep with behavioral questioning and applying the STAR(T) interview method when assessing their responses. It’s a red flag if they continually dodge a detailed response in favor of highlighting performance metrics, results, awards, or achievements.
Good vs. Great Responses
Define what a great response looks like and train those involved in the screening process to know what to listen for.
During my time as a retail manager, I had an interview guide with a list of questions to ask. However, not much training was provided on evaluating responses and we had to rely on our own judgment to ultimately decide whether to hire a candidate. Among those questions were some related to the company’s values. For example, if Courage was one of the company values, we had to ask candidates what courage meant to them and for them to give an example of how they behaved courageously.
As you can imagine, it’s not difficult to give a nice-sounding answer. As long as it wasn’t a terrible answer, I would check off this box to qualify that the candidate “met” that value. Knowing what I know now, I should have been trained to listen for great responses. For example:
Evaluating Courage
| Good: | Great: |
|---|---|
| “I’m unafraid of confronting angry customers who are in the wrong” | “I never hesitate to stand up against what I believe is wrong. I’ve attended the Trans Mountain pipeline and Black Lives Matter protests. I am also one of the co-organizers for Rise Up, a non-profit working to advance gender equity and justice in education, health, and economic opportunity.” |
Evaluating Sustainability
| Good: | Great: |
|---|---|
| “I recycle” | “I volunteer every year for the local beach cleanup in my neighborhood. I am also a volunteer educator for SeaSmart, a non-profit educating children on the importance of our oceans” |
Are they here for an Experience or to Achieve a Goal
Avoid individuals who are seeking experiences, as they are likely to leave quickly once their experience is fulfilled or if it is not as they expect. Instead, prioritize candidates with clear goals, as they tend to be more ambitious, resilient, and adaptable. For instance, consider the following scenario,
If you ask:
“Why are you interested in working for us?”
An experience seeker might reply:
“I want to try working for a startup because I’m sick and tired of the corporate environment where my opinions don’t matter.”
Why isn’t this a good response? Many individuals are attracted to the idea of working for a startup. They could seek a similar experience at any other startup and may not be genuinely committed to your company’s mission. Does your startup align with their idealized perception of startup life? They may be enamored by the idea of working for the next up-and-coming business, but have not considered if the fast-paced, uncertain, low-compensation, or long-hours environment common to most startups is suitable for them.
If you notice frequent job changes on a candidate’s resume, it could indicate a propensity for seeking experience. Beware!
Conversely, an individual with a clear goal might reply:
“I’m drawn to your company because I believe other telecommunication companies are exploiting us consumers. Your company seems to be doing things differently and prioritizes the best interest of the consumer.”
Their goal doesn’t necessarily have to be something that aligns with your organization’s mission. Even a career-oriented goal like “I aim to one day be the VP of sales for an organization” is still better than an experience seeker. An individual with a career goal seeks experience for learning and growth, not just to try something different, which I believe isn’t a bad thing.
Reference checks: DO IT
1 in 3 references are bad! Many individuals provide references who may not have worked closely with them, expecting that they will only provide positive comments about their obvious strengths without mentioning their weaknesses or bad habits in detail. Often, colleagues will assure the candidate of a positive reference but convey their true experiences to recruiters if they did not have a favorable interaction with the candidate.
Instead of inquiring, “Would you want to hire this person again?” or “Was your experience working with them good/bad?” Ask specific questions about their work experience to determine if the reference has worked closely with the candidate and uncover their genuine opinion of them. Some examples include:
- Is this person among the top 5 individuals you’ve worked with?
- What contributions have they made that benefited your company?
- Would you rehire them? Why or why not?
- If I were to work with this person, what areas should I focus on to enhance their performance? (Instead of asking for weaknesses)
- What management style is most effective with this person?
- In what areas would you suggest they improve?
- Does this person thrive more independently or as part of a team? Are they more suited to leadership roles or implementing tasks?
Listen to what’s not being said. Certain companies may be restricted from providing formal references. While this restriction prevents them from explicitly criticizing the candidate for legal reasons, their lack of commendation can still hint at a negative experience.