hiring for behaviors instead of qualifications
It’s crucial that the CEOs go into their hiring process by defining behaviors—rather than qualifications—that yield success on the job. My clients who lead AI safety firms interview a lot of candidates with engineering backgrounds who believe in the mission of safer technology. Leaders want to discern which candidates have sound analytical habits when they come face to face with material they’ve never seen before.
As an example of how to do this, the CEOs will give candidates code to interface with or an app to use during their job interview. They’ll explain: This is how we tend to test this for potential dangers. They’ll give the person a list of instructions, then have them analyze and run the test. The person will typically do a mediocre job. It’s the first time they’ve ever done this, after all.
After the first round, the CEO provides some feedback on how the candidate can improve: I’m going to give you three pointers to level up before you try again. After that, I want you to run the test again to see how you do with the tips we’ve given you. Then the candidate makes another attempt.
Now with two points of reference, the CEO has the ability to track improvement, regardless of performance. If they do better the second time, it’s possible to extrapolate how the person is able to improve over time – a much better metric in any sector, compared to baseline competency.
In other words, finding candidates who can continuously improve is better understood by tracing the slope of someone’s line (i.e. how much they are able to improve), than simply looking at the dot that represents their abilities when they walked in the door. One candidate might be quite strong on the first round, but only respond marginally well to advice given for the second and third attempts. Another candidate—perhaps the candidate who can grow most effectively—might start off with lower abilities, but be able to constantly adapt to feedback that improves their performance. Even though that candidate might need more assistance early on, they’ll eventually grow into the higher performer of the two.
This type of exercise not only helps managers find great candidates, it also opens the door to setting realistic expectations for new hires from the get-go. You worked your butt off, and you took feedback really well, the CEO may tell the candidate they’re hoping to hire. It looked to me like you enjoyed figuring out how to rise to the challenge. But you should know that if you work here, that’ll be happening every day. There’ll never be a plateau. You’ll never feel like you ‘arrived.’ What feels good to the people who work here is constant growth. Is that something that’s appealing to you?
Whether you work on technology’s bleeding edge or in a practice that’s centuries old (like law or education), hire for behaviors over credentials.
-ben
