Has it ever happened to you that you have a candidate who ticks all the relevant boxes in resume and yet you are in dilemma of whether to hire him or not? Or Vice-Versa?

I once had someone whose resume was not very exciting, but my gut said the guy had potential. I hired him against my HR team’s will and eventually that guy became one of the top talents at the company.

So, what does it take to hire right for a startup? What red flags or cues one should look at before hiring for a startup? If you also come across these questions and dilemmas, then read on.

Skills vs Potential, the eternal debate: When we look for candidates for our startups, there’s always a challenge, that some candidates look great on resume while others look great in their potential, and it becomes difficult to decide. In such scenarios, I always keep the evolving nature of startups in mind. In this ever-changing business environment, it’s important to remember that skills can be taught, but character and intent can’t. A candidate with the right aptitude can deliver far beyond his experience and skills.

Transferable Skills are also important: While it’s important to look at functional skills, one should keep transferable skills at a higher priority. For example, if you are hiring for Email marketing manager and he hasn’t worked on the tool you use, you should look at his ability to learn quickly and his understanding of the core email marketing.

Soft Skills play an important role: Let’s say the person you are evaluating has all the technical and functional skillsets you need, but if the person has low collaborative skills, or has had issues dealing with emotions in the past, it would be a red flag for me. In startups, it’s important for people to work collaboratively and efficiently.

Culture Fitment: Very important aspect to look at would be if the candidate fits the company culture. If the person comes from a very corporate working style, it would be difficult for them to be agile and fast in a startup. If your startup focuses on quick execution and fast decisions, it’s imperative that the candidates come from the same mindset.

Define Roles and Responsibilities and set expectations: Before you go out to seek candidates, you should work extensively on defining the roles and responsibilities. Make sure you know what you want from the candidate, and you are clear on the expectations. Not just short terms but long-term goals from the position should also be defined and look for the relevant characteristics in the candidate for it. Startups are very agile by nature and are ever changing, roles keep redefining and structures are fluid. Hence, it’s important to look for relevant skills in the candidate.

I would conclude that a good hire can really be pathbreaking for a startup, as we have limited resources to exploit. But we need to look beyond professionally written resumes and see the finer characteristics of the candidates to build an efficient and high performing team.