Evaluating Candidates

# Evaluating Candidates - All Guest Insights

*94 guests, 151 mentions*

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## Adam Fishman
*Adam Fishman*

> "The goal of the competency model is not to find a unicorn human being that is an 11 out of 10 on every one of these things, because frankly, that person doesn't exist... The goal is to create a well-rounded team so that you're hiring and balancing skills across your team and that you don't have any gaps in your portfolio."

**Insight:** Hire for team balance and complementary skills rather than searching for a single candidate who excels in every competency.

**Tactical advice:**
- Identify specific skill gaps in the current team before opening a role
- Evaluate candidates against a balanced portfolio of execution, strategy, and communication

*Timestamp: 00:15:18*

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> "I tend to skew more towards internal hire to be perfectly honest, because I believe in creating opportunity inside a company... I also believe that helping people transition into new roles is a way to get more people into the practice. One of the benefits that you get from that is a lot of time they have one of those competencies really nailed already. Could be like customer knowledge."

**Insight:** Internal hires are often lower risk and faster to produce results because they already possess deep institutional and customer knowledge.

**Tactical advice:**
- Look for internal candidates with high execution and customer knowledge to transition into growth roles
- Invest in outside education or advisors to bridge the gap for internal transfers who lack specific growth strategy experience

*Timestamp: 00:32:44*


## Albert Cheng
*Albert Cheng*

> "I saw some of the highest performers just being people that had very high agency, had that clock speed, had that energy, but they didn't necessarily need to have deep experience on that matter. Sometimes experience could be a crutch, especially in this world where the grounds are shifting so fast with AI."

**Insight:** In fast-moving environments, high agency and 'clock speed' (processing/execution speed) are better predictors of success than deep domain experience.

**Tactical advice:**
- Prioritize high agency and energy over years of experience in shifting industries like AI.
- Look for candidates who can intentionally discard old habits.

*Timestamp: 00:01:00*

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> "A lot of it actually happens outside of the interview process interestingly. So a lot of it is the types of questions they asked, 'Have they actually tried your product and gone deep into it?' A lot of it is, it's the references, it's the communication that they have to even set up your interview, it's the energy they bring into the conversation."

**Insight:** High agency is often revealed through a candidate's proactive behavior and communication outside of formal interview questions.

**Tactical advice:**
- Evaluate the quality and depth of the candidate's questions about the product.
- Observe the candidate's communication style and energy during the scheduling and logistics phase.

*Timestamp: 01:09:49*


## Adam Grenier
*Adam Grenier*

> "Anything let's say C or below, comfortable with chaos and willingness to go do something they have not done for probably 15 years are two huge signals for me, because every company I've been part of at every scale now... that's the thing that a lot of people coming from more traditional marketing environments into startup worlds, it's a pace and just the unpredictability and change."

**Insight:** When hiring for early-stage startups, the ability to handle chaos and perform 'in the weeds' work is more critical than seniority.

**Tactical advice:**
- Test candidates for their comfort level with high rates of unpredictability
- Look for senior leaders who are still willing to execute tactical tasks (e.g., writing emails, checking ad data)

*Timestamp: 00:51:53*

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> "Every marketer is going to have a T-shaped career... find out their T, find out their strength, and then spend time figuring out