#StartupFails 😬 Have you ever had to let go of a new hire and felt completely responsible? I recently fired our first marketing hire, and it was all my fault…😅 Can you believe it? After just 5 weeks, we had to part ways. Here’s what went down:
First off, I didn’t clearly define what I wanted from her. She seemed so eager and convinced me she could help build our brand, but I failed to understand her strengths and limitations. Turns out, she was more of an influencer than a design/videographer/social media manager. And she needed step-by-step instructions for everything! When I asked her to post on social media four times a week, she just slapped a fancy font on a black screen. Talk about ineffective! 🤦♂️
To make matters worse, she was a friend of a friend. Big mistake on my part.
But hey, we live and we learn, right? Moving forward, I’m taking matters into my own hands to fully grasp what the job entails before hiring anyone else. And no more hiring friends of friends for me!
So, here’s my burning question for you: Have you ever been in a similar situation? Any tips or advice to share? Let’s chat!🚀💬 #StartupLife #LessonsLearned #HiringFailures
It seems like you’re confusing hiring people in your network as a bad hire. There’s nothing wrong with hiring people you know if you have clear expectations and qualifications vetted.
Doesn’t seem like that bad of a decision…
You took a risk on someone that has a track record in social media, but not doing exactly what you guys need. There’s a chance they would have worked out, and if they did, you’d be paying them a lot less than someone with social media management experience.
Hiring for start ups is tough: you often can’t pay a ton of money, so you’re looking for people without a lot of experience, but with a lot of potential, who are also really good culture fits. The best advice I’ve seen for this, is to just interview a lot of people.
As they say, Hire slow Fire fast.
At least you did one step correctly! 😂
I’m not saying you have to use their specific method but it would be a good idea to adopt a structured approach to interviewing. You might want to take a look at “Who: Solve Your #1 Problem” or some other books about this topic.
The process I use for hiring new roles (I run Growth) is to always MVP the role internally just as you’re describing in your next steps.
Do the job yourself or use existing personnel. You can also hire short term contractors specifically with a focus on the function you want to hire for.
Document everything. Every step in the process. Every input and output and results.
Your goal is to not only understand how to move the needle and get positive results but to also see whether you actually need the role in the first place or whether it’s just a board member or someone external putting undue pressure on the company to “get a CRM person because you need email” but in reality this isn’t an optimal channel for you at your stage. You need to figure this out.
Once you know the impact of the role you can then map what managing this role looks like. What do they need from you to succeed? What direction can you provide them to set them up for success.
MVPing roles is crucial IMO otherwise you have completely misaligned expectations at hire and everyone leaves with a bad taste in their mouth a few months later with you and the company losing valuable time and momentum while disrupting a person’s life and income.
I don’t quite agree with avoiding hiring anyone you know personally though especially when the meet all the criteria for the job.
Good on you for taking responsibility and learning from experience.
Being a boss is hard, hiring people I found to be tremendously hard especially for skill sets that you’re not skilled in! Even for skill sets you are.
Good job!
The company I work for often makes these types of hires where the person has never *actually* done the job they’re being hired for, but they’re motivated and interested.
In my opinion, these are always bad hires. Hell, I’ve *been* that hire at a previous company.
The thing about hiring people with no experience is if they ACTUALLY wanted that specific job, they would find a way to demonstrate their ability. As a software developer, this is a given in our field. We are always expected to have a GitHub profile demonstrating our familiarity with the subject matter. I always have found it strange that other fields don’t apply this same standard.
In the future, I would avoid hiring anyone with zero experience and zero portfolio. Tell them if they’re really interested, they can create a dummy portfolio that at least demonstrates their current ability. If they aren’t willing or are incapable of doing that, they probably aren’t fit for that role.
Even better (again borrowing from typical software hiring practices) is to give an applicant a ‘take home’ assignment as a demonstration of their ability. This can be difficult for clerical roles, but for a creative role where specific output is expected (in this case: event plans and marketing materials), I believe it is reasonable to ask the applicant to produce a brief mockup showing what they’re capable of.
In this case, it probably would have revealed to you that this person’s planning and editing ability is significantly below the requirement. We waste our time AND the applicant’s time if we don’t ask for proof of competence prior to hiring. This can be frustrating when you’re already working with a limited pool of applicants and a low salary cap, but it saves time and energy in the long run.
Thank you for posting about your experience here for the community! It’s easy to hide away mistakes, but when they’re public we all have the chance to grow from them – I hope I’m in a position to make a mistake like this one day! Good luck on your app.
Well, you have learnt now and did a good thing, firing fast.
Good lesson to learn and good attitude – dealing with it sooner is admirable, most people can’t take responsibility – but when you do the next step is clear.
I personally remind myself that nobody can do what you’re dreaming of unless you can clearly define it… unless you just get lucky. Good entrepreneurs do get lucky but they don’t run their business depending on it happening. Taking time to clearly understand, capture and communicate what you actually need is one of the most valuable things we can do.