Each chapter is made up of essays whose titles complete the following:
Under no circumstances should you...

Chap 2 - Building A Team - Thursday, August 20, 2009 9:26 - 2 Comments

…Not Have A Well-Formed Interview Process

Interviewing is one of those things that very few people know how to do really well. There are a small handful of things that you really need to get accomplished during an interview loop, and if people in the loop don’t know what part they are playing, it’s probable that you are going to end up with some bad hires. Bad hires come in two forms: the people who are just bad people, and the people who you aren’t sure whether or not they can do the job. Bad hires are like bad apples, and they can quickly bring down a company.

I was once told by a mentor that I should always look to hire “A” players. Initially, I thought that this seemed incredibly elitist, and somewhat difficult to attain. If we assume that “A” means top 10%, it stands to reason that there is a very limited supply of such players. While that’s true, it turns out there is a very different reason for wanting to hire “A” players. “A” players attract and hire other “A” players. They aren’t afraid of “A” players. They want to work with other “A” players. They believe that having a team of “A” players (not to be confused with “rock stars”) is creating a whole greater than the sum of its parts. “B” players don’t like to hire “A” players, especially for peer hires, because the “B” players might be outshone. “B” players hire “C” players. With this, the death spiral begins.

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