Look for active people. If we still decide this looks like something we are both interested in, then we really get into a formal interview process.
I’m trying to find people who have experience in larger companies and who have worked at enterprise-level organizations so that they can bring in the processes and the ability to scale an operation. At the same time, I’m also wary of those people who need an entire team of people in order to do anything.
Would this person roll up his sleeves and lead by example? Or would this be more of a manager who is only going to manage but not do? On the sales side, has this person been successful because he or she worked for a well-known brand that does the selling? Or can he or she represent a relatively unknown company and be confident, positive and enthusiastic about establishing a brand?
I’ll ask the person to describe to me what a typical week looked like for you last week. If a lot of time is spent talking about how well they managed people and how many meetings they attended, those things are certainly important. But I’m also looking for more hands-on activities that they may have done.
Use your resources. Although I am the CEO and I may make the final call, I do value the opinions of the people that I have on the interview panel. It’s not just for formality that I have them in on the interview. I truly value their opinion.
So if somebody does not feel strongly about a candidate, I take that very seriously. The process we typically follow is once the interview process is done and everybody has met with the candidate, we get together and have each person that was part of the interview give his or her opinion.
The emphasis in getting the feedback is not how they felt about the person but to try to be more objective. What were the traits they were looking for? Are they able to substantiate why they thought the person was not the best fit? I typically reserve my opinion for last. If I give an opinion, I don’t want the rest of the team to give me what they think I want to hear rather than what they really thought of the candidate.
Don’t rush it. We’ve made the mistake of hiring in a rush. It’s better to not have somebody on board than to hire the wrong person. We would rather not hire than hire somebody we are not 100 percent confident about.
How to reach: Akraya Inc., (408) 907-6400 or www.akraya.com
