How to Increase Your Chances of Hiring a Superstar

At a recent Wharton entrepreneurship event, an interviewer asked me how it is possible for high-growth startups to keep a high bar for talent when they have to scale so quickly. Hiring superstars is always tough because in any pool of qualified candidates, maybe just 10% are superstars. That means your odds of hiring one is 1 in 10; the odds of hiring three in a row is 1 in 1,000. Hiring them fast is even harder.

When faced with 10 qualified candidates, given that all 10 will get hired by someone, I’ve evolved a method over the years that dramatically shortens the time it takes to spot the superstar. It hinges on one key fact: the most time-consuming part of the hiring process is interviewing candidates. The goal of my method is to spot the likely superstar before I interview anyone. I apply fives rules when reading LinkedIn profiles:

1. Can’t leave a good company too soon. Superstars don’t leave companies with a high bar for talent in less than 2 years or fast-growing, successful venture-based companies before the typical 4-year stock vesting period. If a candidate did, there’s a story there and it’s probably not a good one.

2. Can’t move from one company to another too often. Superstars don’t job hop. I define job hopping as 4 or more jobs over a 10-year period, not counting the first 3-5 years of someone’s career, when most people are exploring. If I see this, it’s “10-4, over and out.”

3. Can’t fail to advance in the same company. Superstars don’t stay at the same level in a company for 3 or more years early in their careers or 5 or more years in the middle of their careers without a significant change in responsibilities or scope of the job. I look for managers who’ve been promoted rapidly, from manager to senior manager to director to senior director, and so on.

4. Can’t work for a company in decline. Superstars have lots of choices, so I rule out people who chose to go to work for a company in decline. One caveat: if the person was hired to actively participate in a turnaround that was successful, that changes everything.

5. Can’t make a lateral move. Superstars make step-changes up in level and scope of responsibilities when they change companies. Leaving a good company without moving up or taking a small jump to go to a lesser quality company is a red flag.

In fairness, I’ve met superstars who’ve broken some of these rules, which means that some superstars might fall through the net. But if a person has none of these disqualifiers, the odds are higher they are a superstar. And since I’m just looking for one superstar to fill the job, I’m okay letting a few get away.

Also, there are pitfalls to interviewing people with any of these disqualifiers. Most people in job interviews put their best foot forward and do a pretty good job explaining away career mistakes. Once you invest the time in getting to know someone and connect on a personal level, the temptation to hire them might be too great.

Which speaks to the main benefit of my method: it objectively and dispassionately surfaces disqualifiers and allows you to act on that information before you meet a candidate in person. That’s essential when you’re looking for superstars and speed matters.

Of course, once you’ve identified a potential superstar, the interview counts a lot. I wrote about this in a previous post about the six traits I look for in hiring. Check it out.