Many founders I work with complain about getting tons of applicants for a role, but almost none of them are well qualified, so you have to wade through hundreds if not thousands of resumes, looking for someone worth even a phone call. So, how do we make this more efficient? Work projects, here’s the process:
1. Respond to (Almost) Everyone
Begin by replying positively to all applicants, explaining the first step of the interview process will be a short work project, to show off their skills.
2. Filtering
Schedule and provide a project for a max of 3 hours of work over 48 hours. You’ll find that only a very small percentage of people actually complete the tasks.
3. Grading
Obviously, those producing great work can move on to an in-person interview, but you owe feedback to all those who submitted something credible. This process works well, but that’s the main time cost.
4. High-Quality Candidates
Some very high-quality candidates may push back on the work project as the first requirement. If they’re truly great, it’s probably worth a 15-minute call to convince them to do the work project. But you must stand firm and treat all candidates as equally as you can.
Best of luck out there.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
