While I think Alex is super smart and usually thoroughly enjoy his writing, I strongly disagree with this post for one reason - the way he looks to hire completely disregards learning, adaptation, and growth in a potential hire, and this is super important.
This is certainly not the first time I've encountered this strategy, in fact it seems to be the dominant mindset among successful companies - 'We are only going to hire people who are super good at what they do already. In fact, I want them to be better than me. We only want the best engineers out there, because we are one of the best companies out there, so we look extra carefully at your credentials and if they are not on par with industry leaders, you're out.' Right?
Wrong. If you invest in some stock for a company that is already doing well, there's a decent chance of you making money off it, sure. There's also a decent chance that you won't. It's a pretty standard and usually safe investment. Where the real money comes from is when you do research and find a company that's not already successful, but that you see a lot of promise in. This is (obviously) the entire driving force behind startups and venture capital, and the strategy behind the success of wildly successful investors.
You are winning when you see passion for learning and potential for growth in a candidate and pick them up based on that. This way you don't have to pay out as much as you would for someone that already is well recognized within the industry, and you get a lot more loyalty, and a chance to build this employee and support them along their path to greatness. In the end, if you can find these kinds of people and grab them earlier on, you profit far more than other companies that fight over the few current industry leaders and burn through money and effort to keep them on board.
This is certainly not the first time I've encountered this strategy, in fact it seems to be the dominant mindset among successful companies - 'We are only going to hire people who are super good at what they do already. In fact, I want them to be better than me. We only want the best engineers out there, because we are one of the best companies out there, so we look extra carefully at your credentials and if they are not on par with industry leaders, you're out.' Right?
Wrong. If you invest in some stock for a company that is already doing well, there's a decent chance of you making money off it, sure. There's also a decent chance that you won't. It's a pretty standard and usually safe investment. Where the real money comes from is when you do research and find a company that's not already successful, but that you see a lot of promise in. This is (obviously) the entire driving force behind startups and venture capital, and the strategy behind the success of wildly successful investors.
You are winning when you see passion for learning and potential for growth in a candidate and pick them up based on that. This way you don't have to pay out as much as you would for someone that already is well recognized within the industry, and you get a lot more loyalty, and a chance to build this employee and support them along their path to greatness. In the end, if you can find these kinds of people and grab them earlier on, you profit far more than other companies that fight over the few current industry leaders and burn through money and effort to keep them on board.