How my Favorite Hiring Interview Was a Mistake.

... and why I don't regret it.

The best hiring interview I ever conducted was on the side of a road, covered in mud.

It was June 24th,  2013. The date sticks out to me because it was the Monday following the 2013 flooding in Calgary.

Context

At the time, I was Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a property management company, and in charge of the maintenance department. We had two maintenance managers, but right as the flooding started, one resigned for personal medical reasons (he was ok, and it was not job-related).

By Sunday, we’d contacted and checked on all our affected properties, and most were either ok, or under control. All affected homeowners were able to be on site themselves, or had family who could help out, with one exception. A house on the inside bend of the Bow river had seen the river wash through, completely submerging the basement level.

With the entire city shut down, I decided to focus our maintenance team (now me and one maintenance manager) on the house in the worst affected street. The owners were overseas, no friends or family able to help, and their tenants were moving out, since the house was clearly not going to be livable.

The Candidate

A few weeks before, I had a call from an ambitious young man who was not happy in his current job. At the time, I wasn’t hiring.

With one man down, and the city shut down, I called him up and asked what he was doing. “I was planning to find somewhere to help out…”

I told him about our client’s situation: “Want to help out here? I’m not sure if any of us are getting paid. We aren't charging the client.” (In the end, insurance paid the company for some of the time we spent).

I still remember how much he impressed us both - he showed up ready to work, and dove right in. He worked hard, and he worked smart. 

Most of the work was tearing out wet finishings, and hauling out soaked possessions, and coordinating volunteers. After a few hours, we were mostly done, and we sat down outside to chat.

After about a 20 minute conversation, I offered him the job. 

He was a great employee, and we’ve kept in touch. When we expanded into the city he had moved to, he was one of my first calls.

The Mistake

If he was such a good employee, why was it bad for business?

Setting aside the liability and other risks I took to do it this way, it was not repeatable. It was anything but systematic. His onboarding and training was similar to the interview - very seat-of-the-pants. He was the first, and only candidate I interviewed.

Would I hire him again? Absolutely yes.

Would I do it the same way? Yes and No.

Lessons Learned

Here’s what I’ve learned from this (and other) hiring mistakes:

1. Don’t rely on one person’s skills to recruit, train, and retain talent. No matter how good (or bad) I was at picking people, one person can't scale themselves!

   
   

2. Consistent results come from first defining the role, and the metrics to measure success. Only then can you build a thorough, comprehensive recruitment process.

   
   

3. A good recruitment process should involve the team. I made that hire in part based on the opinion of the other maintenance manager. Years later, he became more involved in our process.

   
   

4. A good recruitment process should be transparent. Give people a sense of what the work is, and their capability to do the work. Since then, I’ve never since had anyone tear out a basement. Writing samples, roleplay, and even paying someone for a day or two before deciding on a permanent role are all great ways to see how they might fit in a role.

TL;DR

Making that snap-decision hire the way I made it was a mistake.

Fortunately, a fantastic employee helped me better understand who we needed in that role, and the unique interview helped me later build a better recruitment process.