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Recruiting tips based on years of experience at startups:
Be genuinely interested in people. Go into recruiting calls with the aim of building relationships and learning. People you talk to today you might hire years from now or work with in some other capacity.
Think like a career coach. Don’t sell them at all costs. People sense that and will not trust you. Your goal is to help them make the best career decision, which hopefully is joining your company. But you don’t want them to join if it’s not the best move for them.
There is no such thing as an “ideal candidate.” It’s delusional to think there is one person that could do the job and you just lucked into them and you have to put all your energy into closing them. You’ll appear desperate and you’ll get your heart broken.
Always have options. Keep recruiting and interviewing until you close the role. It’s not a done deal until they sign the offer. Having options will also protect against the “ideal candidate” syndrome.
Be kind and transparent. You should aim to have a high NPS even for people you passed on. The best sign is if they refer someone despite being passed on. This is really hard at a startup where you have little resources, but make sure to respond and not ghost people.
I have a lot of thoughts about the interview process and building a company people would want to work at but those are slightly different topic.
