The interview process is systemically broken. Candidates wait for days and sometimes weeks just to hear back from companies, only to be screened out of the process because they didn’t match archaic hiring manager requirements. Yet the three most distinguishable traits that I’ve encountered for high performers has little to do with where they went to school, where they worked at previously, or if they graduated top of their class. What stands out in my experience, having recruited for multiple startups and fortune 500 companies alike, is these three characteristics; resiliency, resourcefulness and passion.
These traits are often never discovered because candidates are screened out for trivial findings in their resume. Many hiring managers are more concerned with dissecting someone’s work experience, schooling, or asking arbitrary questions. Additionally, a large percentage of hiring managers have not been trained on what to screen for therefore they are missing out on the candidates that are truly “world class”.
As Aristotle said best “There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Criticism is therefore inevitable in life and more specifically in one’s professional career. That’s why candidates with the ability to be resilient, when times are tough are often top performers. Where most employees might quit, find a new job, change careers, blame others, make excuses, or anything to avoid failure or criticism to themselves. Top performers aren’t afraid to take on tough challenges, embrace criticism and strive to raise the bar to a higher standard to achieve their goals.
Furthermore, taking on difficult tasks requires a great deal of resourcefulness. Specifically, in the modern-day workplace, moving fast with limited resources is more and more common. This is why I’ve seen resourcefulness as one of the true differentiating factors from high performing and low performing employees. As a company, resourceful employees allow autonomy and creativity to manifest themselves as values throughout your company. Most managers don’t want to micromanage their employees nor should they have to. The ability as a manager to give a task to an employee knowing full well that they will find a way to get it done with minimal or no help makes that employee an indispensable asset to the company and the team. Beyond just day to day tasks, resourcefulness isn’t just a nice skill to have skill, it’s a must have. To be a lean startup, successful mid-size or large company, you need people who are doers and simply get things done with limited resources.
Passion, is the characteristic that is the apex of all other attributes, it brings every other characteristic, skill and experience the candidate has together. Passion is an innate characteristic that gravitates people to that person for their expertise. This isn’t simply the person that comes into an interview effervescent and energetic, it’s also the person that shows unique interest in their chosen fields subject matter beyond their normal work day. It could be some of the following things described in an interview; speaking at conferences, open source projects, side projects/ hobbies, podcasts, local or national groups or associations, blogs, authoring books or articles, the list goes on and on. This shows that the person is genuinely passionate and is sincere in that they love their chosen profession. Because the reality is, work isn’t really work when you love what you do. The vibrant passion this person has, will affect everyone they work with in a profound and positive way.
Resiliency, resourcefulness, passion aren’t the only characteristics that are important in a new hire or co-founder, there’s a dozen or more others that are significance. In my experience though, these are the most impactful characteristics in top performing hires. I wouldn’t hire someone on the premise of these three characteristics alone. I assess these three characteristics along with technical and cultural assessments. Overall this has had an immense impact on the teams and companies I’ve helped hire for and I hope it will help you in your future hiring endeavors as well.
Agree or disagree, would love to see your comments below. For more insightful tips and tactics on recruiting and staffing follow me on Twitter @jessetinsley or connect with me on LinkedIn.
Happy hunting!
