5 mistakes you should avoid when hiring for your startup

Hiring your first employees, contractors or freelancers can be rough and very expensive to get wrong. However, it is a key step in scaling your prototype into a successful business while ensuring you have enough time for business expansion. Having gone through the experience many times over, here are my top 5 tips on what NOT to do when hiring for a startup:

1. Focus on skills, not on the CV

In a perfect world, a fancy degree and past jobs would determine the best candidate right away. In reality, though, the most skilled person may be self-taught or come from a career path you didn't expect. Oh, and there is also the fact that around 25% of the applicants lie on their CVs. There are a lot of CXOs of one-person companies out there, but also a lot of people that didn't write about dozens of relevant skills and side projects in their CV.

2. The first impression is overrated

Ruling out a candidate because their resume is a bit chaotic or they behave nervously at the interview can cost you skilled workers or ensure you end up working with people that are only good at talking about themselves. Besides, you have your own unconscious biases and we all tend to want to hire people that look and think like ourselves when we'd most benefit from different perspectives. Choosing applicants by objectively and consistently testing their skills and getting other people's opinions can give you much better results.

3. Be clear about the job specifics and your hiring policy

Building a startup is a long and demanding process that needs some serious effort, so always be clear about what your key expectations are. Otherwise, you may end up constantly training new hires. To attract the best of the best, write an engaging job spec. Start with an attention-grabbing summary of the job that outlines the main responsibilities for the position. People want to work on exciting projects, so tell them why your startup is unique. Then, give a concise list of hard and soft skills you expect from the candidate. Be sure to keep the job spec clear and extensive so you save time weeding out unsuitable candidates later.

4. Be open to hiring remote talent

Finding talented and reliable people for a newly created company is a struggle, especially if you're not yet well funded. Try to look outside your country or even continent (but be aware of timezones!) - you will find so many more talented candidates. It is also a sure way to find people who think fresh and can add a new perspective to your business.

5. Hire all-rounders outside your field of expertise

My personal experience shows that hiring all-rounders within your field of expertise is usually a big mistake. However, letting new hires show their diverse skills in an area you know little about may pay off. The main thing here is not to be a “flying blind”. If you need to hire a person outside your field of knowledge (full stack developer, SMM manager, etc.) it is better to turn to an outside expert (ex-colleague, friend, or third party) who knows the area well and can properly evaluate the candidate.

And one last tip for the road - the hiring process doesn’t have to be long and tiring. You can find the people your startup needs twice as fast using reliable recruitment tools. Start by checking the chatbot we created that can help with the evaluation of candidates in different areas of expertise and turn your screening process into an automated flow.

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Would be glad to hear more perspectives and tips on hiring for startups in the comments:)