It’s time to rewrite the hiring script

The disconnect between how many companies claim that they only hire the best and how they try to actually do that is perverse. A depressing number of job postings are barely more than a list of technology or process requirements paired with an arbitrary desire for years of irrelevance. That’s then fluffed up by a bunch of trite rah-rah bullshit about the supposed glory of hiring company. Ugh.

It really doesn’t have to be like this, but it’ll continue to be like that until companies drastically change their hiring script. 

Let’s start with how the process is driven. Far too often, hiring is made someone else’s job. Not the responsibility of the team leader nor subject to input from future coworkers. Instead, the job posting is written by someone in HR or the executive who’s too far removed from the domain or the specifics to do a good job.

Second, the matter is rushed because “we need someone yesterday” and “how hard can it be”. No wonder most job ads look like they’ve been cut from the same template because they probably have! Writing a good job posting is hard because it requires you to actually think about what the position entails and how to realistically portray the organization it’s within. This takes time.

At Basecamp, we have no illusions that we’re going to hire “the best”. In fact, even thinking about candidates in such absolute terms is nonsense. The world is full of people who are stuck doing mediocre work in a shitty environment or blessed to do stellar work by virtue of an elevating one. Most people are well capable of doing both! The only thing that makes sense is to hire the best – defined as most complementary to the organization – person out of the candidates who apply.

Which is why taking the time to describe the role, the work, and the organization with clarity and honesty matters so much. The vast majority of potential candidates in this world are not going to apply to your position in any case. The aim of a great job posting is to expand the pool in awareness of that fact. To entice those complementary candidates to apply who might otherwise wouldn’t have. Dropping this “the best” nonsense is a start.

So that’s what we’ve tried to do with renewed vigor over the past few months here. We’ve been in an uncommon hiring spree with five open positions recently. Every single one of those involved a prolonged, careful process of crafting the best job posting we knew how. Yes, some of the framing is similar between the posts, but each one was written for that particular position. Then subjected to critique, review, and editing by a broad cross-section of future coworkers. I think it shows.

It’s a banal statement that hiring is some of the most important work that an organization does. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Although perhaps the endless repetition of that thought has dulled most people to its wisdom, and they’ve failed to act as though they believe it.

Next time your company is hiring, try to get involved. If you like the way we write job postings at Basecamp, feel free to be inspired, but do the authentic work to make them yours. Your next hire will thank you!

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This post was originally written and published by David Heinemeier Hansson on Signal vs. Noise.

Donna Speigel

Donna S Speigel, LLC

5 年

Kudos on smashing the job-definition template. This narrative is refreshing, transparent, intelligent and inspiring. My guess is it attracted the type of innovators you're seeking. All the best for you and you new hire.?

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Don Hussey

FinTech Product Management

5 年

One of the things I like about your job posts is that they are real with respect to the challenges the company has. Most companies hide these problems, trying to portray how great they are. But real problem-solvers WANT to work at companies with real problems, and better people are able to apply to your roles in a much more relevant way. So kudos to you guys

Alexander Besant

Corporate Engagement at LinkedIn

5 年

Thanks much for this!

Heather Ingram, MBA

Advocate for Flow, Joy, Growth, Curiosity.

5 年

I loved the human language and the intention behind this post. A couple of thoughts,? 1. "We are accepting applications for this position until June 28th, 2019." -- well that's a bummer (hint: folks with time-traveling Deloreans don't need jobs ;) 2. If you care about D+I, you might want to check out?Adam Grant's comments on leading with behavioral questions (in his Audiobook Power Moves)? 3. I really liked your trepidatious approach to hiring (In Re:work) - it would be nice to see y'all leading the charge on contract to hire.?

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