We are hiring three new writers for Ink and Knowledge Conduit, last month we took on a new engineer turned microbiologist, and I am sure that we’ll be hiring again after that for other positions. Every time we do, I get a fresh wave of nervous energy and questions flood my brain.
Is the company, our mission, and direction represented in the advert accurately to attract the best matches?
How can we look for a match of culture without sacrificing diversity?
How can we serve those that serve us?
Will we find people who believe in our mission and help us grow?
Hiring isn’t easy.
I’m pretty sure I feel interview anxiety just as much as the person I talk to. Image found at James Alchuter.
Each time we hire, we are forced to reevaluate our public statements. So, we reread the hiring advert, cross check it with our mission, and check the current state of our goals. Only then can we revise the advert to get the talent that we need.
But that is just the beginning of the “weed out” process. We hope that the way we state things in the advert will draw the attention of those that want to do the job. From there, we try to understand why the people who clicked on the advert took the time to fill in the questionnaire and send in their résumé.
The number one thing we look for is honesty.
There is something to be said about the way that people work their résumé. We tweak it to say just the right thing in just the right way to impress people. There is so much more to be read between the lines, though.
For example, the last application I received from freelance writer Doug McNamee seemed all over the place. Graduated in English with a focus on creative writing in Ohio, then jumped to North Carolina and worked in tech support. After that, it would appear that he was in Colorado getting a few certificates for working on bikes and working in a bike shop. After that, he popped up in California working on tech support. Only then did he finally return to the world of writing and commit to freelance, writing other people’s articles while working on his own poetry in the background — all from his original home ground of Ohio.
With all this, a normal person would scoff and think it a waste of time to work with a “drifter”. I saw a story between the lines, though, of a man who has seen a bit of America, learnt a bit about the world, and knew the value of working for a dollar while pursuing your craft. From this, I knew that he would understand a bit of what Insanitek is, what it does, and what it is trying to accomplish. Doug would get the backbone of the company I’m struggling to build — because he struggled to find himself.
But could he connect the two?
The first question I asked Doug was to tell me about his travels. He uncomfortably told me his reasons why behind the travels, not some sort of superficial answer of the awesome things he saw. Again, I listened between the lines, and by doing so I was able to ask questions that opened him up more about his dreams in the world.
Turns out that while this drifter was a dreamer, he was seeking things he loved and not afraid of risk. He accepted challenges as they came, and did what was necessary to survive. This is something that I could understand on a personal level, and I knew he would understand about Insanitek without much work to get there.
Despite clearly stating that while he is obsessive about the written world and needed the money to survive, Doug could easily connect the two ideas that Insanitek and I are struggling to survive and make our place in the world — same as him. This is fundamental in understanding a bootstrapped startup for sometimes the budget is a bit fluid as we save up money, just to spend a large lump sum on supplies or machinery.
Hurdle one, passed. Two more to go.
The first few times I tried to hire, I failed. I’m learning to work through the hurdles. Most of the time creatively. Image from Malamite LTD (Deviant Art).
One of the things that Doug appreciated about Insanitek was our pay tier. We like to give young people a chance, but we don’t give them the same pay rate simply because they don’t have as much experience with writing on a deadline and in their field of choice. Doug thought the transparency and the layout was pretty awesome, and that made opening up discussions on the technical side a bit easier. He understood that this pay scale is a function of budget and having been their done that. (For the record, we pay slightly more than you’d find a lot of places, but significantly less than people with deep pockets.) Hurdle two, passed.
Hurdle three: making sure our system allowing writers a lot of freedom works is a lot more uncomfortable than you might image for some. Combine with the pay rate, some people who have been around in the freelance world and can get their clients to pay a lot of money don’t usually stick around long. I have found out the hard way that these types of personalities love writing, but don’t love coming up with ideas and truly having the freedom to write about a variety of things. They want things handed to them so all they have to do is a little bit of work and collect the money.
I get that. I just don’t have time — or desire — to hold hands like that. I’m also not a micromanager to any degree. Finding people who can work in this environment is a lot harder than you might imagine. Were they micromanaged by their parents on up through life? Were they too innocent to rebel and stick out? Or, are they just more comfortable following a hive mind? Whatever the reason, I know these are not the people who are comfortable doing what I ask — which is be reliant on their own creativity and push boundaries.
After all, what’s the fun of being a science business incubator and R&D firm if you can’t push boundaries and innovate in every area?
It turns out that Doug is a good fit, and we are a good fit for Doug. He’s off and running getting the hang of the WordPress system, lining up some ideas in his head, but will be writing for INK and possibly Knowledge Conduit, a new division of Insanitek devoted to education, in the very near future.
