How To Hire: Screening Your Candidates (Part 4)

Sasha: (00:16)
Hi, everybody back again, Venture Scaler here today. We want to talk to you about screening your candidates, and this can be an incredibly time-consuming process. We want to give you three things to focus on in your initial resume screen interactions with the candidate and the official first interview. Yep. Ready? Three things. Red flags to look for in the resume and in the interview, how to talk about comp with the candidate, because you need to do that in the first conversation that you have, and then the questions to ask, to make sure that your candidates are aligned with the actual role and the company that you’re building. Yeah. It’s kind of important. Yeah.

Jake: (00:55)
I’m excited about this one because I’ve, I personally, haven’t been in people out, but I’ve done this

Sasha: (01:02)
A lot

Jake: (01:03)
And I did it the wrong way. A lot of times, like talking and having those initial conversations with my candidate or working with the person on my people ops or HR team and not getting this information upfront, just it, it can add so much stress and time, uh, and like just bad decisions in the process. And you can avoid all that

Sasha: (01:26)
Hundo P as I like to say, I’m like a real hip with the kids, Hundo P.

Jake: (01:32)
All of that, by doing these three things. So let’s dive in and start with the, the red flags that you talked about. So Sasha, what are like the big, the big red flags warning signs to look for when you’re talking to your canvas?

Sasha: (01:46)
Sure. So I’ll break this into two sections. The first is in a resume and the second is in interactions with the candidates. So the first on the resume front, I always look for the job hoppiness. It’s new, it’s a new word of created. So if you’re looking at a resume, let’s use a sales example. You’re looking to hire a sales specialist and you’re looking at this resume and they have experience six months somewhere, then nine months at the next place. Then 12 months at the next place. That for me is a red flag. Why might you ask? Well, thank you, Jake. I didn’t mean to have to prompt you there. Um, but it’s a problem because in a sales role, if you were not hitting your quota and you were not performing, you’re let go. And so when you see someone who is repeatedly having short tenure in roles,

Jake: (02:34)
You say short, we talking about like, what’s the timeframe they’re like less than a year, two years, six months. What’s the flat.

Sasha: (02:44)
I would say, it’s not a flag. If it’s, once I’ve been there roles, aren’t a fit things change. There’s tons of empathy from my side. And I think most people leader team will reviewing resumes. But if it’s a thing it’s consistent. So if it’s under a year, nine months, six months, and if that’s a red flag, it’s not necessarily something I would DQ them for.

Jake: (03:07)
It’s something you need to ask about. Yes. Got it.

Sasha: (03:09)
Yeah. So just something to look out for. So it’s a job, happiness, lack of tenure. Um, it could either mean they’re not good at their job, or they’re an a-hole and they’re getting fired because they’re not a team player. So just like, it’s something for you to note and make sure that you ask about, or you’re cognizant of as you’re going into this interview. Um, I want to make sure that there is a clear growth path. So if someone has been working for five years, but they were a customer success rep, and then they moved into sales and then they moved into people ops and then they did operations. And there’s really, no, I’ll say theme is the wrong word, but there’s no clear, I’m going to say theme. It’s going to, we’re going to keep theme guys. There’s no clear story being told that their profile one, not necessarily a red flag because people change.

Sasha: (03:54)
They might be finding themselves. Totally cool. But something to note, why are they switching jobs? Are they not good at anything? Or are they just trying to figure out what they’re good at? Or do they love everything? And they’re a generalist and can do it all right. Just something to think about. And then this one that gets me every time when I get applications that are like dear wrong name, wrong team. I was so excited for, to apply for this job, wrong job title. I’m like, no, no, no, no. So if they did not care, even the tinsiest a bit about the place they are applying. So when people apply to train you’ll, do you care about train? You, do you care that we are a playbook software? Do you care that we are serving small to medium-sized businesses? Do you care that we are a software startup in Scottsdale, Arizona to CA like some piece of what we do has to resonate with you and has to make me feel like we’re special?

Jake: (04:50)
My little test is, could this cover letter easily be what they send out for any other job, any other type of job,

Sasha: (05:02)
Cover letter, even just like a small blurb, if they friend you on LinkedIn. Um, I’ve had people that have reached out to me that have created three-minute YouTube videos. Like, Hey, I’ve found, Trainual you on Instagram. And it really resonated with me. And here are the things that I think I could help you do with Trainual specifically. And maybe they’re making 10 of these. Like I know the people applied lots of places. I know I do when I’m looking for a new job, but just to feel special, like take an hour to research, five minutes to send schedule. I can’t talk to record a video, or you made me feel so good. I’m like, of course, I’ll hop on a call with you. That is so thoughtful and so unique. And I get it makes me feel special. Maybe I just need to feel special.

Jake: (05:43)
That’s all it is. That’s all it is just make Sasha it feels special.

Sasha: (05:46)
Yeah. Moral of the story today, I think we feel special, but that’s one piece it’s the resume review, how they present themselves. Um, and also like small things is their LinkedIn picture shady, or they’re like smaller things you can look for. Um, like that. The other thing is their behavior. When you are either interacting with them over email or when you’re in person or you’re interviewing them. So couple of red flags, one, if they are rude to anyone, whether it’s the office manager or other coworkers, or they’re dismissive or not super friendly, like this person that interviewing is on their best behavior right now. They always, yeah.

Jake: (06:22)
Yeah. This is like them putting their best self forward.

Sasha: (06:26)
And if they’re being a Dick yeah. Not going to happen, not going to fly. And so when we have people interview in person, we almost strategically set places up for them to interact with people, to introduce themselves, and depending on how they carry themselves, that that for me would be a DQ. Yeah. If you’re not willing to be kind to everyone, regardless of how they are presented to you or what title they have or their seniority, that’s big. Um, another one is their ability to tell a story, and this is more relevant for certain roles, especially customer-facing or people-facing roles. Um, but if I’m on a call and I realize I’ve zoned out and you’ve lost me and telling either your background, your story, or giving me an example, it’s going to be super hard to put you on a phone with a customer because you’ve lost me. And my whole job is to listen to you. So if they’ve, if they’ve lost me on the storytelling piece, that’s, that’s a tough one for engineers, less relevant, as long as they can communicate somewhat decently and translate technical things into normal people speak, then that’s okay. Or just dumb, dumb speed, non-technical people. Um, but those are the anything that you look for on the, either on the resume and the screening piece or in the non-interview question, behaviors, or signals that you look for.

Jake: (07:45)
No, I think you hit the big ones. Those are the things that I tend to look for. It also depends on the role. Uh, I liked your comment about it. They’re going to be client-facing, uh, making sure that they can like actually hold their own depends on the clients too. Like I’ve had jobs where my teams were going to be interacting with C-level executives and it’s, you need to have a certain amount of polish to be able to interact with those types of clients. So I’m looking for that. Um, so it depends, on the job.

Sasha: (08:14)
Quick question. What do you mean by polish? Because this is something that I talk about a lot and try and get the right caliber person. But as I’ve been focusing more on, this is kind of off-topic, but diversity, equity, and inclusion, making sure we’re bringing in people from all backgrounds. I don’t want polish to be a certain thing. So when you say Polish, what does that mean to ensure that we’re still able to recruit a diverse group of people? Yeah.

Jake: (08:37)
Yeah. That’s a great question. So polish, I don’t mean like necessarily background or credentials or what school you went to or anything like that by, by polish. What I’m saying, like, in that example, I need to put somebody in a room to talk to a C-level executive. Then during the interview, if for whatever they are, they’re nervous with me. They can’t make eye contact. They have a hard time answering questions or being concise and like answering a question, those types of things. Okay. I’m not a super intimidating person. And if you’re having trouble with me or anyone else that you’re interviewing with on my team, how am I supposed to put you in front of the CEO of XYZ company? Right. So that’s, that’s kinda what I mean by, by polish being able to hold your own habit, like a great conversation, eye contact, but that, those sorts of things.

Sasha: (09:29)
Okay. So to sum up point 1, look for job-hopping and a track record of job-hopping, look for specialization in their application and thoughtfulness in this role or an applying to this company. Um, look for people that are kind to everyone throughout the interview process. Are they timely in responding to emails? Are they respectful of people’s time? Do they show up to their interview on time? Um, are they were missing anything? I feel like that was mostly it. Yeah. Okay. So those are the non-interview things. The second point that we talked about was talking about compensation with candidates in the first conversation. And this is my pet peeve. I’ve interviewed places before and it gets to the final interview and they’re like, so the compensation for this role is like $10 an hour. And I’m like, that’s not going to work for me. That was like high school pay.

Sasha: (10:21)
Um, and I think it’s a little bit shady to wait that long to talk about compensation because in my mind, like, yes, it can be a little bit strategic in your negotiation, but honestly, I’d rather be straight with your comp from the beginning, make sure that you’re in alignment, don’t play games with me. I’m not gonna play games with you and make sure it’s a logistical fit because honestly, that’s what it is. We find market for the role. We figure out what we’re willing to pay, what our budget allows. And then we find people that fit that. Is that it’s, it’s like a skill box check. You check, can you afford this person?

Jake: (10:54)
Yeah. I’ve been on the other side of it where I’m hiring and I have like the perfect candidate. And I’m so excited about this person. And we got to that last interview and I extend the offer and they’re like, Whoa, no, sorry. We are worlds apart when it comes to compensation, like here are my expectations came in right here. And I’m like, it’s right here. I’m so sorry. This isn’t. And then he does. And then at that point with like final candidates and you’re sending offers, you need to go back and start the whole process over again. So you’re just like out two-plus months of work and you have to restart. So I’ve learned since then to have that conversation ask about compensation.

Sasha: (11:36)
And so asking about compensation is tricky. Yes. Because it is very personal. Some people don’t feel comfortable disclosing. They don’t want, it’s very uncomfortable. I mean, it’s even uncomfortable for me to ask about it sometimes. Yeah. It is illegal in certain states and certain cities to ask what you made in a prior. I never asked that. I think it’s a way to perpetuate the gender racial pay gap because people of certain groups have been historically underpaid. Yeah. So what I like to do, and we’ll talk about this in later episodes is design an equitable comp philosophy, job scorecards that aligned to comp bands, and then you have a budget. So you come in already knowing what role you’re hiring for and what that budget for that role is. So when I’m on my initial screening call with someone at the very end of the call to, Hey, I have a couple of logistical questions for you.

Sasha: (12:24)
Um, I know it might seem a little early, but I like to talk about comp compensation on the first call to make sure that we’re aligned. What are your expectations in terms of base salary or total compensation and in your next role, you get a couple of answers? You get people that are super straightforward. Salespeople are super straightforward. They’re like, Hey, I want to make this. Here’s what I want to make in my total earnings. Uh, if I can’t make that, I’m not interested. Totally fine. You’re very money motivated. And that’s helpful. If it’s another role, they may give you a range like, Oh, something between 70 and 80,000 a year before. I have some people that say, I don’t want to talk about it and that’s that. Okay. And I have some people that flip it around on me and ask, well, what’s your range. Yep. And we’ll do another, um, another episode and handling all of the different objections or talking through handling compensation with candidates. Um, but the way of my general philosophy is like, I’m your friend. I’m here as your advocate. I want to pay you the most that we can pay you, but it’s fair within our organization and against the market for that role. And I don’t want to waste your time. So I’m happy to disclose our range.

Jake: (13:30)
That’s the big one. Like, and that’s how I positioned it too.

Sasha: (13:34)
Don’t waste your time. You’re a busy, smart person. Yup. I like that. End of story. So let’s role play. We’re at the end of our interview, I’m interviewing you. Hey Jake, what are your expectations in terms of compensation in your next role?

Jake: (13:49)
Oh, good question. That’s a great question. Um, well it depends because I, I also got a lot of those different answers before, right. So I’ve got the, Oh, well, you know, as I’ve, uh, you know, I’m looking for a certain range, you know, what, what I’m expecting in my next role is to be between X and X dollars. Um, I haven’t had anybody like straight up, just tell me like, Oh really? Yeah. I also frame it a little bit differently. How do you frame it? So let me go through that. Okay. So the way I frame it, I’m not typically on a people ops team or an HR team. Um, all this advice though, if you’re working with an HR person, people have the person on your team, like have them do this, like ask them to have like add this in their initial conversation that saved me as a hiring manager.

Jake: (14:42)
So much time knowing upfront what the expectations are for comp and whether or not I could make that work within my own budget. Right. And that helps me understand who I should be talking to and who I should probably just disqualify because we’re not going to be able to meet on comparably too far away if I’m having that initial conversation, which I’ve done quite a bit, the way I frame it is I actually kind of, I joke a little bit. I said, look, I’m not an HR person. I don’t know how to play games, but I want to have a conversation about compensation. I like to know ahead of time what your expectations are. And I don’t want them, I want to make sure I don’t waste your time. I don’t wanna take you at the entire way through a full interview process and you get to the end and realize we are way off. So in terms of compensation, what do you need to be comfortable? What are your expectations around the base salary? And that’s usually how I try to phrase it.

Sasha: (15:37)
I love that. Yeah. And quick here. So when we are hiring for early-stage people, they typically want some combination of cash and equity. Yep. And so there’s usually a little bit of wiggle room depending on how cash strapped or well-funded your businesses. Right. Um, so I could be applying for a role and I could say, Hey, my expectations are like to pay my bills. I need $75,000 a year. Ideally, I’d like to be in the 90 to a hundred range, but I’d be willing to take a haircut on base if there was some sort of upside on equity. And it also depends on your benefits. Some startups have really crappy benefits and it’s super expensive, or they don’t even have them, which we’ll talk about in another episode, but that all plays a part. So I like to talk about total rewards. You get some of this information, like what’s important to you, what do you need?

Sasha: (16:28)
And if I say, Hey, I really need great benefits. And so what does that look like? Can you tell me more about what your premiums cost, what types of plans you have, and being able to talk through those details is super important? And having an honest conversation. So in a lot of these comp questions, it goes from base to total comp, with equity, our company bonus, and base to total rewards with our benefits and our perks, and some pieces of our culture and most people at the end of it, like, thank you for sharing. Thank you for being so upfront. I now, like I trust and appreciate that you would share this, that the trust is already built and then say, Hey, I know this is where you want to be. If we can ever, if we ever reach a point where we can not meet your expectations, I’m going to let you know.

Sasha: (17:12)
And I think that’s a good way to frame it. So if I tell you, my, my floor is 75, I’d like to be at 90, but I’m willing to be creative depending on benefits and equity, continue to have that conversation throughout. And if my budget is 60, I say that from the get like, well, I’m so sorry. I can’t get higher than 60, but I can tell you about our benefits that can maybe get you to 75 and we’ll get you more equity. And there’s a little bit of a puzzle, but you have to be knowledgeable in all of the different pieces of compensation and be willing to have a really honest conversation with candidates upfront. Yep.

Jake: (17:43)
Yeah. And then when someone answers me, I’ll get one of two things. I’ll they’ll, they will either tell me what their number is or what their ranges. And then I return them being so transparent to me by being very transparent back and saying, great, this is the range for the role that we’re hiring for. This is what we have in our budget is what it is. And then the other side I’ll have people that dodged the question they’ll sidestep they’ll, they won’t answer directly. They’ll counter by asking what’s your range and great, sure. I know what my range is. It’s not changing. So here’s our range does that. And then I ask after that, if they haven’t disclosed before, I’ll ask them, like, is that a deal-breaker? Or we close? Is that in like the world where this works and they’ll usually be very upfront at that point because you are also transparent? They, they, they, they kind of like pay you back. So at that point, I mean, I’ve had conversations where we were like, you know, 50 to a hundred thousand dollars off in comp and it’s just like, okay, this doesn’t sound like it’s going to work. This feels like a deal-breaker. You let me know if there is room here. If this still is something that you’re interested in, but I’m kind of going to assume that this isn’t going to be a fit and that we’re not going to be moving forward in the interview process.

Sasha: (19:03)
Absolutely. I’ve also had people asked to think about it. So like, Hey, this is your decision. It’s really important that you and your family are taken care of. Yeah. So let me send you all of the details I can, and I’ll usually send a breakdown of all of our benefits, our total compensation. So what we’re paying for all of those different things, the savings they have at triangle specifically, we have a super robust benefits package. So like, here’s what you’re saving and what you’re not paying out of pocket. And try to contrast that against what they’re paying now. And they can do an apples to apple comparison, and then they get back to me if it’s a fit and I’ve had people like play with the numbers and like, Hey here, this is what I can do. And we’ve continued the conversation and others it’s not, and we’ve stayed in contact in later roles, years later. It’s okay.

Jake: (19:46)
Yup. But again, the most important piece of this whole thing is that you’re not wasting their time, and just as important, they’re not wasting your time and you can cut that loss before you go through an entire interview process and have to start all over again. All right. Sasha, the third thing that we wanted to talk about the interview, like pre-screen questions that you wanted to ask any candidate.

Sasha: (20:12)
Yes. So I’ve done so many different interview structures over my very, very long career. Um, but what I found that works really well is doing a standard interview screen for all roles. And this is screening for fit with the company, with our values, and then with the role specifically, but these are generic, let’s say generic, but they’re generic enough questions that we’ll get to the heart of each role. So I’ll go through all of them. And if you have any feedback on them or your take,

Jake: (20:44)
Yeah, sure. I have one or two of my own too.

Sasha: (20:51)
We’ll see. May the better man. Win. Kidding. Okay. So, um, I usually start the conversation with small talk. Hey, how are you? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Thank you so much for your interest. And then I want to know right off the bat, why are you looking for a new role? Are you, were you laid off like it’s, we’re in a pandemic right now? Like, were you laid off due to COVID totally understandable. You need a new role or are you, do you feel like you’re capped out in terms of growth, or are you wanting to make a lateral move into a completely different department? Or do you just love this X company so much, and you saw a role posted like you desperately, like the only reason you would leave your current role is for, or for Google. Like that’s the only reason you would leave and it helps you suss out why they’re leaving. If they’re running from something I like something bad or if they’re getting pulled to something amazing.

Jake: (21:44)
Yeah. It’s just good information you’re going to get. So you never know what you’re going to find out. It’s a good question to ask

Sasha: (21:49)
And people usually are very open. Yeah. So why are you looking? What, like, why right now, why this role, um, and I like to see, cause like, for me, if I’m hiring someone to my people, operations team, I want them to love and care so deeply for people and to be a servant leader and helping the tens or hundreds of employees that you have. And if you’re not super passionate about people ops, then you’re not going to be hired. So sorry, but I need to know that it’s this role and not just a role, right? So why are you looking? Why right now, why this role, and then why this company, um, and there’s a wide variety. I don’t expect every single person, like for the training, for example, to be obsessed with playbook software and to be obsessed with small businesses. I know that’s not going to be the case. Sure. But at least I’ve done some research and either be passionate about the business, our culture, and values, the role, our stage of growth. I’ll put you in one of the buckets of either all of the above or at least one of those things. That’s super exciting too because I don’t want this to be like generic apply. I need you to like care at least a little bit about me again, selfishly care about me.

Jake: (22:56)
I think that’s the most important thing is just, did you do any research prior to getting on a call with me? Like fundamentally that’s like number one stage gate. And if they can come back and give a very thoughtful answer as to why, why this role, why this company, those are two that are always on my list. Great questions. You just get a, you get a better understanding of what they’re excited about, what their career goals are potential. If this really is going to be a good fit for them based on their answers, or if what they’re really focused on is something that’s outside of your values and what you want in this role to you, then, you know, like this might not be a good fit. So good questions. Yeah.

Sasha: (23:37)
Thank you. That’s kind of my job. No, sorry. That was rude. So those are all of the role alignment, team alignment, company alignment, but then there are the specifics as you dig into the role. So, um, I like to hear their story. It’s one validating for the candidate. Almost everyone likes to talk about themselves, myself included. So if someone asks me like, tell me your story, why do you do what you do? Then I’m going to take them way back and give them the full spiel and like the purpose behind the reason, I chose what I did, which provides additional insight into why this role. Um, but usually it feels more organic and people are more likely to like, honestly answer. Like I chose to make a move from this to this because I really want to drive this out. I tried the school, I did this boot camp.

Sasha: (24:23)
Um, and you hear the why, which is super important for me. Um, so once you have the story and the general context around their entire career and their schooling, then I asked for three things that they’re awesome at. And then I asked for a specific example of each of those things in practice. So if I was interviewing you, let’s say, what, what role should we interview you for whatever director of customer success. Great. Um, I would want to know, like what three things are you amazing at? And so say you say team management and leadership, um, I’m blanking on any other things that you’re good at this. Some so, sorry. I

Jake: (25:00)
Hope and create feedback loops with. Oh, great.

Sasha: (25:02)
So good, good sports analogy.

Jake: (25:07)
Basketball just got the job.

Sasha: (25:10)
Okay. And then there’s the third one. Let’s pretend there’s another. So then I haven’t done the research and preparation for this call would say, okay, Jake has worked at X, Y, Z companies. Um, I want to hear more about his feedback loop creation at Uber. So give me an example of a time that you used that thing that you’re amazing at. And I choose the example. Um, so it’s like calls them on their foot sometimes. Um, are you really good at this? And can you provide at least one example at a roll of my choosing and if you don’t have that much time to prep that in-depth region review, um, just ask them to give you an example and they’ll usually pull from one that they’re most comfortable with. And then you could ask for the next example for the second and the third to be different opportunities if they have that much experience. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s kind of fun, kind of funky, fresh, um, interesting on the flip side of that, I asked for three things that either they’re not great at and they want to grow in, or they never want to do again three things. And sometimes that’s really difficult. So for a more junior candidate, sometimes I’ll say one, maybe we’ll just focus on one. Maybe that’s good enough for you, but let’s what, what’s one thing you never want to do again, Jake.

Jake: (26:16)
Ooh, one thing I never want to do again, um, I was, I did a lot of it, but like customer support, actually answering support emails, I will do it. I will roll my sleeves up. I will get dirty. I will answer any support ticket, but if I had my choice, I would not be doing that anymore. Cause I answered like 10,000 support emails when I was at Uber. So fair enough. And that’s, that’s fine.

Sasha: (26:44)
If I was hiring him for a customer support rep hearing that he doesn’t want to answer emails would be concerning, but since I’m hiring him for a director of a team of, let’s say 10, and we have two people already on the support team, I’m not concerned. I know that he’s done it. I know that he has tenure in the function that I’m hiring him for and I feel good about it. Um, and then my last question is how would your last three bosses rate you on a scale of one to 10 and why? And then if there’s anything that comes up that isn’t a 10 or isn’t a nine, then I’ll ask why, or like, what would they identify as your greatest strength or what would they identify as your greatest area for growth? And then you track that when you call them for references if you choose to move forward with them.

Sasha: (27:24)
So you’re looking for themes when they talk generally throughout their career when they give their strengths when they talk about what their bosses said, and then what their bosses actually say, and this I have, um, there’s an interviewing methodology called who, who, um, very analytical and data-driven they, if you follow their actual methodology, it’s incredibly grueling and time-intensive. And there’s so much data that you collect and given the number of candidates and number of roles, I just can’t do that. So I’ve modified, and this is what I do. And then in, in later interviews with the teams and hiring managers, it’s more team-specific behavioral interview questions, but this is how I really get to the root of who the person is, what they want to be doing, and what they’re good at. And I’ve had people that have said, I don’t want to do X, Y, Z. And those are the three key things that we’re hiring for this role. I’ll know why. Wow. And they don’t know that they don’t have the job scorecard in front of them. They just have this like fluffy, salesy job description. Right. Um,

Jake: (28:20)
But you, you found out early in the process. That’s great. Yeah. One note on the scoring, like the one to 10 boss scoring, I would follow if you’re familiar, NPS scoring. So if someone says, my boss would rate me a six, that’s probably a one. So you’re looking for tens or nines. Um, eight, seven is that neutral. So I’d still want to, understand why they’d rate somebody if their boss rating was seven. But if they said a six, that really means they mean one.

Sasha: (28:49)
Yeah. And the way that I frame it to get the most honest answers is when we call your boss for reference tracks, what are they going to rate you? What are they going to say about you? And then people will be like, Oh, well, it’s, it’s like, it’s different. If I say, Jake, like, what do you think a boss would say about you? Like, well, probably a nine, because they’re 11 on this scale, we’re going to call, we’re going to call your boss. What are they going to say about you?

Jake: (29:15)
Uh, uh, like a seven or like a six and a half.

Sasha: (29:19)
Why, what would they say? You’re amazing at why are you not so amazing? And why are they giving you a six and a half?

Jake: (29:24)
Yeah. You really just like going at these candidates now, don’t you?

Sasha: (29:27)
I’m nice. It’s fun. People like to tend to enjoy their time with me. It’s not horrible.

Jake: (29:33)
One or two others that I usually ask, um, always about comps. That’s one of the questions that are that’s in there. I ask, Oh, like, it’s, it’s now getting like a little bit weird, but the idea of like relocation, where are you living? Remote. Yep. So like these logistic questions. So if you do, for whatever reason, you’re still, you still want somebody in office in like in town asking that upfront. And if they’re not in town, if they’re willing to relocate, if they’re open to it. Uh, so just getting that out of the way. And then the, uh, the other question. So relocation comp and there was a third one that, that I usually ask, I remembered my third logistical question. It’s going to bug me a timeline for when an ideal start date is. So just understanding, like if they right away tomorrow, it’s like, great, all right, like you’re, you’re ready to start.

Jake: (30:29)
Or like, you can set the expectation then that, well, here’s where we’re thinking about a start date tentatively. So does that lineup and it might not, they might be looking for something today. And you’re saying that this job won’t start for another three, four, five, six weeks. Right. And then flips, you know, if you flip that, uh, they might say, look, I have like this, these two big projects I need to finish with my company. I’d like another three weeks in between. And I have this trip coming up and it’s like, well, we need this person to start like tomorrow. Yeah. So it’s, it’s those kinds of questions. Just getting it out upfront to understand before again, you waste your time and have to go back and start over again.

Sasha: (31:12)
I know that seems like a lot, but that’s what I do for every candidate. And you do that while trying to provide a really uplifting and positive experience. So even if they don’t get the job, they still feel good about interacting with your brand and your company. And, um, but I think that this cannot be understated or overstated. Whichever one, this cannot be overstated. I think that’s the one that we are. Thank you. Um, because if you get the wrong hire, it can be catastrophic, not only for your team culture but for your budget, you have to go back to square one months and months later after you should have had a role filled. So taking the time upfront to invest in a solid data-driven interview process, where you’re really digging in to make sure this is the right person for your business. And for this role can save you so much headache down the line.

Sasha: (31:59)
I’m all about a little bit of process, a little bit more time-intensive, upfront to save a lot of headache and heartache down the line. 100% and dopey in summation because I have a super short attention span, just so everyone is on the same page, three things the first screen before you even talk to them. So it’s the resume screen, the tenure, any mistakes and flags, red flags, red flags. Perfect. This is how I imagine red flags in my head. And that’s more Morocco’s whatever. So the red flag on the resume, there are red flags in interactions, either in email or in-person RN, the interview process. Second, make sure you talk about competence, other logistical pieces, super important for building trust and aligning expectations. You don’t waste anybody’s time and last asking the right questions to get them, like the real answers and to ensure that there’s alignment between the person and the role that you’re hiring for that it hundo P P up in this hazy. It’s my, this any too much time with my parents. And that’s how we talk. Awesome. Yeah, love it. So those were the top three things you need to do when you’re screening candidates for any role. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Venture Scalar. Don’t forget to like and subscribe. If you want to spend more time with Jake and I, we have more tips coming your way.

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