I screened thousands of profiles, took many interviews, and hired more than 100 people at various roles in many startups. Generally, people ask me what is my preferable methodology while hiring? According to me, different people have a different take on it but to my limited experience, I always give weightage to versatility & adaptability of a new skill set over the stability.
Generally in startups, people always avoid hiring candidates from MNC’s due to lack of exposure & versatility of the candidate but at the same time, people expect stability from startup guys. Doesn’t it seems contradictory behavior, interesting!!!
Everyone knows that 9/10 startups fail and remaining startups might be caught in bureaucratic culture. I always appreciate those people who has the courage to work in startups irrespective of tenure & role. They always love to build the product, enjoy the work pressure. If the startup is not funded then everyone has to work hard to ship the product so the startup can raise funds and if a startup is well funded then again need to work harder for next-level growth so they will be ahead from other competitors.
I never judge any person based on their length of employment on each company they worked with despite that I try to figure out a few answers …
- What value addition that person will bring on the table?
- What kind of challenges that person had faced in the past?
- Fitment in our current problem statements? etc…
Everyone has own stories and own path, we should not be judgmental. Whenever people interviewing especially from HR or Senior Management team they always forget to see the flipside of the coin, never try to see their own career path & own mistakes while sitting another side :-). Apology if you find my words are too straightforward but this is the truth :-).
Sometimes HR has myths, candidate changes job often due to opportunity & salary hike but is it really a valid reason? If you compare the career growth of such candidates v/s stable candidates then you will find out there is no much difference among them, then why are they doing it? I guess they choose bumpy road over the smooth path for the ride & now they are used to it. 😉
We all often listen and also believe in it…People don’t leave companies they leave people then why are you worried before hiring if you have a good team, employee-friendly culture & policy then everyone must stay longer, isn’t it:-).
But if you are looking for a life partner, not an employee, then you don’t need to change your view to perceive things but Divorce rate also increased significantly in India Nowadays 🙁
In short… I would love to hire a person as long as he has a versatile profile, excellent knowledge & solved challenges in the past because this may not be his/her first or last company and we should understand and respect it because we are also partially or fully in the same boat. 🙂