Ben Horowitz’s Three Steps Guide To Hiring Don’t judge a book by its cover

Source: The Rosen Group

Step #1 KNOW WHAT YOU WANT

According to Ben, this is the most important step in the process. If you don’t know what you are looking for, the chance of you finding the right candidate is very slim.

For most of the executive searches, look and feel are the top criteria. Instead of looking for someone out of central casting, one must hire the right person for her company at this particular point in time. The other common mistake is valuing lack of weakness rather than strength. If Mark had followed these criteria, he would not have hired Mark Cranney and they might have gone out of business already.

A good way to understand what you want is to act in the role. In addition, it helps greatly to bring in domain experts to provide input and feedback. Read More...