Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses • Hacker News Board

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#11

Post by zabzonk » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:06 PM UTC

andrew_v4 wrote: post #7

Two personal counterexamples, whether right or wrong: Management consulting - you want to be perceived as hiring the best - project work that is not known in advance, you need very versatile people - looking for demonstrated desire to jump through the hoops and do the marginal work that makes you the "top" Software Engineering - some overlap with the reasons above - adds to the moat: if they're happy working for FAAN…

> you want to be perceived as hiring the best

Only idiots perceive that consultancies hire "the best" - the best are off doing other things.

> project work that is not known in advance, you need very versatile people

No, you need a load of dimwits you can throw at a project and make some apparent effect.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#12

Post by kevin_nisbet » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:08 PM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #2

>Instead of “how can we find the smartest people?” think about “how can we find people who will make our team stronger?” I would have thought that was obvious? Why would you hire someone unless you had a need for their talents? I guess I'm probably thinking small-business. At the biggest companies, they probably just hire and hope to fit them in because hiring for exact needs doesn't really scale.

I suspect it's a surprisingly easy trap many of us fall into. It's not about hiring someone without a need for their talents, it's that interview processes can amplify team weaknesses if the signal chosen closely aligns with the current team strengths, and as a result is less likely to fill skills and knowledge gaps.

And this is a sort of natural trap, since the skills we're best at judging are things we're already good at. I suspect these biases can happen at large and small companies. It's constantly on my mind that the signal we use for my interviews are too closely aligned with my own preconceptions, especially when it's a problem space I've spent alot of time in, and may be foreign to the candidate.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#13

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:09 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #5

Too complicated. Tell weaker performers they're top talent and let their impostor syndrome do the rest.

^ how I went from non-programmer to completely indispensable in just a few years.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#14

Post by bpcpdx » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:12 PM UTC

SMAAART wrote: post #3

Did you see the movie MoneyBall? That's the point.

Ha I was just about to say that. This sounds similar to what they did.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#15

Post by pottertheotter » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:15 PM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #5

Too complicated. Tell weaker performers they're top talent and let their impostor syndrome do the rest.

I don't think that's how impostor syndrome works? By definition, someone with impostor syndrome is a high performer but they attribute their success to luck, thus they think they are a fraud.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#16

Post by slyall » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:18 PM UTC

AdrianB1 wrote: post #6

If you want a competitive advantage and having a better team than the competition helps with that, then you are looking for a team that is better than the competition's. This is what you hire for. If the competition is very good, you need to perform better - that does not mean every member of your team needs to be better than every member of the competition's team, except when it has to. For example, take professiona…

Except that business is not like sports. There is no "level playing field" that matches teams 1 for 1 against their counterparts.

In many cases most parts of the company just have to be "good enough". If you have a great marketing team and 90% of the market already then you don't need a world beating tech team.

Even when you are competing against equal and similar companies there are areas there are points of differentiation. One Company's product might be cheaper a easy to setup, Another is good at Enterprise Sales, a third has great tech and features.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#17

Post by pseudalopex » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:32 PM UTC

pottertheotter wrote: post #15

motohagiography wrote: post #5

Too complicated. Tell weaker performers they're top talent and let their impostor syndrome do the rest.

I don't think that's how impostor syndrome works? By definition, someone with impostor syndrome is a high performer but they attribute their success to luck, thus they think they are a fraud.

High performance isn't part of the definition. Average performers can feel like frauds too.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#18

Post by briefcomment » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:32 PM UTC

zabzonk wrote: post #11

andrew_v4 wrote: post #7

Two personal counterexamples, whether right or wrong: Management consulting - you want to be perceived as hiring the best - project work that is not known in advance, you need very versatile people - looking for demonstrated desire to jump through the hoops and do the marginal work that makes you the "top" Software Engineering - some overlap with the reasons above - adds to the moat: if they're happy working for FAAN…

> you want to be perceived as hiring the best Only idiots perceive that consultancies hire "the best" - the best are off doing other things. > project work that is not known in advance, you need very versatile people No, you need a load of dimwits you can throw at a project and make some apparent effect.

They literally hire the people with the best grades and test scores from the top universities. Idk how much better you can get than that.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#19

Post by mpoteat » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:38 PM UTC

briefcomment wrote: post #18

zabzonk wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you want to be perceived as hiring the best Only idiots perceive that consultancies hire "the best" - the best are off doing other things. > project work that is not known in advance, you need very versatile people No, you need a load of dimwits you can throw at a project and make some apparent effect.

They literally hire the people with the best grades and test scores from the top universities. Idk how much better you can get than that.

It's well considered by a lot of people in the industry that a prospective's grades and even which school they went to aren't a good predictor of skill.

Re: Don’t hire top talent; hire for weaknesses

#20

Post by acjohnson55 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 11:40 PM UTC

Brilliantly put.

And I think the same goes for talent development, too. Career ladders, carelessly applied, incentivize everyone to do all the same things to check the boxes for the next level. This can lead to a lot of mediocre impact.

I would suggest that we really want is well rounded teams, where individuals are playing to their strengths. It takes a more nuanced approach to evaluation, because not everyone is doing the same things in the same way.