I want to work with people I trust and admire. I want to learn from them and also help them on their career path, where I can. I want to welcome a fellow traveler with a shake of the hand, and wave them on their way in to the future with a “let’s do this again some time!”

I want to know who I work with, by which I mean we hit the ground running; we believe in each other; we begin working together today on a shared journey we began tangentially many months or years previously.

This is why I say I am always hiring. This is a commitment to my network. If you want to do good work, and to learn, together, then let’s get started on that journey today.

If you hear about me, my network, my company, my background or my ideas and dreams and you figure you can help, or you imagine I can help you somehow, meaningfully, then connect. Tell me what you want, what you imagine for yourself; I’ll try to support you.

Every member of my team comes from just such a circumstance. I knew them before we worked together. And I don’t mean we were buddies, and I practice nepotism. I mean they had impacted me in some way, often profoundly.

They showed up whole at a networking event; they went the extra distance with a thank you note; they knew people who I trusted and respected and that gave them extreme conductivity. #Electricity.

I favour always the people who are makers, who are believers, who are bushwhackers, who are driven and whole and seekers. Other than that, I am open to all.

Will you be a fellow traveler? If so, maybe one day we might work together, and wouldn’t that be fun?! Let’s get ahead of the employment curve and be ready for action when the moment arises.

I mainly follow the hiring advice of Dee Hock.

“Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience.”

I also enjoy reading Lou Adler, and he would refer to my network partner above as a passive candidate. He wants the best candidates to contact you, and most of them will not be actively looking for work! Instead, you want them to be ready for you when the opportunity arises, How to do that? Tell stories about what is and what could be. Focus on the future, brand the job not the company…

Adler talk about the hidden job market, one that is full of connectivity and openminded acceptance…

Here’s how the hidden job market is created. Before hiring managers formally open a requisition and post it on a job board, they first try to find candidates internally or through their referral network. Over half of these jobs are filled before they’re ever posted. So it’s a huge market. Interestingly, candidates don’t need to be a perfect fit on skills and experiences to get these jobs. Instead they’re assessed on their comparable past performance, promotability and upside potential. It also turns out making assessments this way is more accurate than a combination of pre-screening assessments and behavioral interviewing.

Adler advises to ‘open the backdoor approach to everyone.’ How?

The job posting should emphasize the key performance objectives of the job, minimize the required skill set to the bare minimum and highlight the importance of the job as a career move. This will attract a broader group of top performers including passive candidates.

Boom! So, I am always hiring and this is the that first job posting. Say hi!

←This Much We Know.→