Hiring Goes Both Ways

Over the years, I’ve been involved in hiring 30+ team members to WooThemes, of which 24 remains on the team today. If I had to distill all of that experience into one piece advice it would be this:

When hiring someone that you really want to join your team, it’s critical that the individual wants to join the team as badly as you want them to join.

My wife always tells me that her dad used to warn her about potential boyfriends when she was younger. He would always say: “Never chase after a boy or a bus.”

This resonates with my experiences of growing our team; when I’ve aggressively chased a hire and compromised on what exactly I wanted (i.e. salary, exact job description, benefits, etc.), it generally meant that our relationship started on the wrong foot.

Instead we’ve had most success hiring the individuals that would do everything in their power to be part of our team. On paper, these individuals probably won’t be considered the best candidate, but in practice - due to their passion for our company, our team and our customers - they’ve exceeded all of our expectations.

(This also reminds me of how important hiring according to company culture is. I love Dharmesh Shah’s words in this regards: “Culture is to recruiting what marketing is to product.”)