Let’s talk about hiring !

This morning, I woke up early, as everyday, 5.30AM, I won’t be talking about my morning routine, not the topic of that one.

I want to leverage the amazing post of Tom Hunt , here is the link, about a smooth, easy and quick hiring process.

And I thought I could, humbly, add some perspectives on this one, and add some feelings.

I’ve been lucky enough to be a hiring manager, several times, and I do consider that it must quick and easy. Ok we are in agreement on this.

Here, I want to talk about the skills … hard skills & soft skills.

I’m an in-house counsel, since many years, and I do acknowledge that an in-house does not know everything about everything … it’s not possible, you/we cannot know all the case law, all the laws, all the codes (for the civil jurisdictions), especially if your remit is regional or international,

And personally, I don’t know some specific topics or some specific laws in all the jurisdictions, I may have a basic understanding, or I may have heard about the law, but I can admit that I don’t know.

And here is my point, we, as in-house counsels, have soft skills.

It is a soft skill to recognize that you don’t know, you are humble.

Another one is being able to rely on the knowledge of your peers, team members, and also external counsels.

And specifically, when I am hiring, I am not looking for someone who can tell me “I know everything”, again, not possible.

I use as assumption that the candidates have the basics, the general rules & principles. Very true for juniors, trainees, apprentices …

What I am looking for is “soft skills”, you can learn the hard skills, and you learned during your studies to do research, to understand laws, to leverage case law … you/we are able to learn.

The way you will fit with the company, the department, or the team is way more important for me.

If you are curious, if you are willing to learn, if you demonstrate some kind of appetite to understand the topic and you like challenges … it’s key for me.

In my hiring process, I always ask someone from my team to do also an interview with the candidates.

Why ?

Simple, if I acknowledge that I don’t know everything in my specialty, I have to acknowledge that I don’t know everything about my team members, about their own relationships all together, and I need to get a second perspective.

Will the individual be successful in integrating the team ? Will it work ?

I am not hiring the sheep with five legs (very famous French expression), I am hiring the individual that will learn the topic, will fit with the team, and will be happy with us.

My very humble pov.

Happy to read your comments

Disclaimer (I am in-house ??): what works for me cannot work for someone else, and what may work for in-house counsels hiring process may not work for other functions. ?