4 Tips for Hiring for Jobs You Don't Know How to Do

Hiring for jobs you’re not good at is tough. How can you tell if they’re actually good at the job you want them to do?

This is a question I’ve been asking myself for a lonnnggg time. After trial and error, I’ve settled on a few helpful indicators. They’re not foolproof, and I’ve made great hires that didn’t have these (or bad ones that did), but it’s a helpful way to boost the hiring probability.

1. Interest: see if they do the thing as an interest or hobby. If you have a developer with zero side projects something is weird.

2. Details: get them to explain things to you in detail. If they keep it “high level” they probably don’t understand it well. Even if I don’t understand things perfectly, it’s worth asking for the details.

3. Do it in front of you: have them do the thing. Look at the output. Have someone else review it if you need to, but a lot of times you can tell if the thing worked or not. I’m not a video editor, but I can tell if the video looks normal at the end. Bonus: the more work you review, the better your judgement gets, even if your creation skills are still woefully bad.

4. Three Opinions: get at least three opinions from experts or consultants on what seems to be the most important factors. This isn’t a guaranteed method since experts can all be wrong. If you asked mortgage experts how safe the housing market was in early 2007, they would’ve said “very”.

If you have any tips on how to do this, I’d love to hear them!

+ADMG