Business Success: Hire the right kind of people

"I don't hire anybody who's not brighter than I am. If they're not brighter than I am, I don't need them"
Paul "Bear" Bryant, I Ain't Never Been Nothing but a Winner

If you are ever in the position of hiring another person, a couple of words of "advice".

1. Beware the self-reference criteria. You don't want people who say yes because they agree with what you say "ALL THE TIME" what you need are people who will make you question your stance and make you decide whether or not it is the correct one.

2. Don't hire people based on who you think you will like, you also need people who can do the job they're going to be paid to do.

3. Do you hire based on qualifications or experience?  The best combination I've found are people with the qualifications who also have real world experience. But if you had the choice between one or the other? Personally I'd go with experience any day of the week because education has a very short shelf life especially when it comes to technology.

4. Hire people who want the job. Some people see the next job as a mere stepping stone to the "big time". Now it depends whether you think the person will be around long to make a positive difference to the organisation, but beware someone who has a CV that reads like yellow pages, it would make me quesiton their commitment to your organisation.

5. Always ask about future plans. Where do they want to be in 5 years - if they are content to still be doing the same job you are hiring them to do - are they the kind of people you want in your company?

Everything in life is a compromise. You can get more from people with the right kind of attitude than you will ever get from someone with the right bit of paper and arrogance.