Find the Repeatable Skills: How I Transformed My Hiring Process.

As early-stage founders, we face many challenges, but one that consistently tops the list is hiring.

Bringing the right people on board at the right time can make or break our companies.

Back in 2020, I faced a significant hiring challenge.

As the Head of Sales at a Series A startup, we were experiencing rapid growth. We needed to hire multiple Account Executives to keep up quickly.

However, despite an intense hiring process, I repeatedly encountered candidates who couldn't meet our expectations.

While this happened, I noticed other sales leaders around me were scaling their teams astonishingly.

Something had to change.

I contacted a former colleague from LinkedIn who had since moved on to a senior sales management position at Slack.

I was candid about the shared struggles I face in hiring.

I told him I was considering the candidate's past achievements as indicators of future performance, but translating past success to a new environment - with its unique challenges, team dynamics, and products - wasn't working.

My colleague introduced me to a game-changing approach: The Chronological Interview.

Initially, I was sceptical, but then everything changed.

Implementing the Chronological Interview

The Chronological Interview is a crucial step in our hiring process. It comes after initial screenings and before practical exercises or role-plays. This method focuses on a deep dive into the candidate's professional journey, analyzing their repeatable skills through their past experiences.

This method focuses on a deep dive into the candidate's professional journey, analyzing their repeatable skills through their past experiences.

Here's how it works:

• Start with an explanation: Inform the candidate that the interview format might seem repetitive but that this is intentional and beneficial. This format involves deep-diving into the candidate's professional journey and analyzing their repeatable skills through past experiences. It is structured around critical roles in their career, and we will ask the same questions for each role.
• Select key past roles: Choose 3-4 relevant positions from the candidate's earliest to most recent history.
• Deep-dive with consistent questions: For each role, ask the same set of questions:
  • Why did you take this job?
  • What were your responsibilities?
  • How was your performance measured, and how did you fare?
  • What did you love about the job and why?
  • What did you dislike and why?
  • Could you share your manager's name and what they would say about your strengths and areas for improvement?
  • Why did you leave?

This approach reveals a candidate's skills, adaptability, personality traits, and how they might evolve under different circumstances.

Repeating the same questions can tease inconsistencies while highlighting positive behavioural patterns like teamwork and accountability.

Results and Reflections

Since implementing the Chronological Interview in our hiring process, the quality of our hires has transformed remarkably.

We did not hire based on past successes but on understanding how a candidate's skills, personality, and work ethic translate into our specific environment.

Understanding the nuances of a candidate's professional journey can be the key to making successful hires for any early-stage founder.

The Chronological Interview is a powerful tool in this process. It allows us to assess a candidate's skills, adaptability, personality traits, and structure comprehensively, providing valuable insights to inform our hiring decisions.

If you are hiring or planning to hire, try it, you won't regret it.

If you want the entire template, find it here.​

Thanks for reading this far. I will see you all next week!