Collaborate, then commit

When hiring for any of the projects/companies I’m involved in, one of my heuristics is to invite the candidate to work with me for a week.

Along with the invitation is a clear metric of what I am looking for, what will need to be true at the end of our mini-collaboration for me to commit to hiring them for the role, and what may happen at the end of the collaborative phase.

Unlike what I have seen elsewhere, I am not trying to find ‘gotchya’ moments. I’m not trying to ‘test how well they can adapt to chaos.’ Instead, I want them to see what is to be done, and decide if it’s the best use of their talents. I want them to shine if the role truly aligns with them.

Sometimes, this one-week-paid collaboration is too short to finalise. In that case, we’ve started testing out a three-week-paid collaboration.

There are numerous traits that you won’t find on resumes and CVs. You’ll only find them when you collaborate.