Growing as a company could sometimes be difficult.
You need to be able to recruit people (Or outsource them, which will not be handled in this post), train them and get them to be productive as fast as you can.
For a small startup, this is even harder - Every position counts, and every worker might be responsible for great success, or miserable failure. This can make the recruitment decision a very critical one.
For our next recruit, which should be a tier 3 support engineer, we've decided to handle the process a bit differently.
First, we decided to describe the typical workday for the position. What the person would do when he comes to the office, which would be his tasks, how would he work. We write that down.
After that analysis, we focus on what he (Or she) needs to know in order to perform his tasks. It could be deep knowledge of our product, SQL know how, MS Office skills or whatever. Divide those skills into skills he would need to know "From home", generic skills that could be taught, and specific (Our product) know how.
Once we know that, we can actually start looking for the right person. The search would be much more focused, as a lot of skills which you might consider as prerequisites will be shed during the process.
We would also have a clear training plan for that person.
In the end, I love to say that I'm looking for excellent PEOPLE - As most skills could be taught.
Happy hunting!
