Team
Projects Are The New Job Interviews
Michael Schrage, the author of a FI favorite, Serious Play, recently wrote for HBR on the HUGE issue Hiring the Right Talent. He has a great and practical idea: Make PROJECTS the Best Way to Determine Someone’s a ‘Fit’!
“Resumes are dead. Interviews are largely ineffectual. LinkedIn is good and portfolios are useful. But PROJECTS are the real future of hiring.”
This fits into our FI recommendations to almost anyone trying to find the right TALENT.
- Profile the Job/Role.“If the job could talk what would it say about the role and job?”
This is particularly important when you’re moving to a new Model or Methodology, e.g. For Impact, Today | Tomorrow | Forever, Sales, etc. - Hire for Attitude… Train for Skill
We’ve seen this rule violated so many times because the ‘candidate’ had all the right stuff on the resume, but their Attitude was totally wrong. - Try It – Test It.
Bring somebody on as an Independent Contractor for 30 days, 60 days or 90 days and give them a Project to actually see if they can make it work. This also is a great way to determine personality fit, attitude, etc.Don’t just sell me on yourself… DESIGN something. PLAN something. WRITE something. SELL something. DELIVER on something.
Final thought from the Old Guy. I have hired and helped hire hundreds (thousands?) of people. Clearly, it’s one of the most important things that we all do. It’s ridiculously easy to hire people but so hard to let them go – Take the time to do it right.
