Identify Hungry People
Your company needs people for growth. But, you don’t want to hire just anyone. You want to hire the right people. You interview numerous people attempting to find the right candidates to help your company grow. Sometimes you hire the right people and sometimes you don’t. Hopefully you identify your hiring or screening mistakes and can correct them.
I’ve interviewed dozens of people. People with and without security backgrounds, interviewing for security positions. When you talk to people, you need to look at more than what their current skill sets include. But, how do you identify the right people for you and you’re company?
If you only attempt to hire people who are rock stars, then you better be the prettiest girl in school. Because rock stars have their choice of any company to work for. So, you need to be able to find pieces of goal you can nurture and grow into rock stars. But, how do you identify valuable resources the market is undervaluing.
We did this at SourceNinja when we hired Matt Lindley, our designer. He knew a little HTML and CSS, but we quickly taught him how to use SCSS, git, and jQuery to turn him into a unicorn.
Company culture fit is important for a good fit and one of the easiest ways to validate the right candidates. But, there’s something else. You need to identify if they’re hungry.
Hungry people aren’t satisfied with the status quo. They’re always looking to better themselves and grow. They aren’t satisfied with what they’re doing. They never say things like, “Well, I like this place because it’s comfortable.” They may have switched career paths and jobs often.
You can identify them, because they may be interviewing for a job that doesn’t exist or for a skill set they don’t have. If you come across these people, you need to qualify if they are smart or crazy. There is a fine line.
If you hear them say, “I don’t know how to do this, but I’m learning more about it every day” or “I don’t have a background in this, but I’ll give it my best shot” they are the right people. They want to bust their ass for your company. There is a reason they reached out to your company, and not others. They are passionate about you and your team.
In hiring these people you are creating a loyal employee. They are interviewing for a position that’s out of their reach because they want to work with you. Give hungry people an opportunity to grow with your company.
Hungry people may not now be the most valuable resource. But, if you make an investment in them they will live and die with you.