Make Non-Obvious Hires

https://www.sequoiacap.com/grove/posts/wrph/make-non-obvious-hires

Some of our top-performing employees come from unconventional backgrounds. Especially in the early stages of a startup, there is so much to do that your priority should be hiring the very best people (scrappy, get things done, cultural fit) and then figuring out how to make them fit in your organization later. You shouldn't be worrying about fitting hires into neat little boxes with specific roles and titles. 创业初期考量手段应该关注是否可以完成任务, 而不应该只是看这个人是否能够胜任某一个角色或者是某一类任务. 许多优秀员工都具有一些看上去比较奇怪的背景.

Here’s how to find them:

Think of everyone you meet as a potential new hire. The person you run into at a conference, an airport or a coffee shop could be your next star employee. # 每一个人都可以是潜在的员工

Think creatively about transferrable skills and experience. Read between the lines of resumes and seek out nontraditional backgrounds. One of our business development managers, Miguel, previously worked on an Egyptian cruise ship on the Nile. It works because he is used to interfacing with a wide range of cultures and personalities, quickly establishing rapport, and adapting quickly to changing conditions. We also have a neuroscience PhD who was researching neural networks now on our data science team. She has discovered that there are interesting parallels between synaptic networks in our brain and social networks, and is now applying machine learning and graph theory to helping our customers grow their business. # 阅读这个人简历, 看有那些技能和经验其实是可以transferrable的, 然后通过带有创造性的思考, 将这些技能和经验用于工作中.

Invent positions for people who are really special but don’t fit a traditional career path. Greg, one of our product managers, is another great example. He was living in Southern California, surfing and doing SEO for a surfing company. We didn't have a need for surfers or for a dedicated search optimization person, so we hired him and decided to figure it out later. He started our data science team and has gone on to become a talented PM. # 对那些有着特殊才能, 但是在传统career path上找不到定位的人, 可以为他们创造新职位. 他们可以在新职位上发挥最大才能.

Ensure culture fit by ensuring everyone you hire shares your company’s values. For example, we value execution speed and believe very much that results trump appearances. We want doers, not talkers. We articulate this and our other values on our careers page as well as throughout the interview cycle. If a candidate is overly focused on title, this is usually a red flag to us that they might value outward appearances over actual results. # 潜在员工必须认同公司文化和价值.

Create a true meritocracy where even non-obvious hires can excel and get promoted according to their contribution and capabilities. Employee #1 at Hearsay, Chris, started with us a year out of college working in customer support. From there, we stretched him by putting him in a product manager role where he succeeded despite not having a technical background. Over time, we asked him to contribute to a growing number of sales deals. This year, we promoted him to run Europe for us. Chris and many other internally promoted leaders inspire the rest of our employees to think out of the box and challenge themselves to grow, knowing that their options at Hearsay Social are limitless. # 为潜在员工设计好的career path, 有很好的晋升渠道.