Hey,
Lying to Ourselves turned one back in May. I didn’t even realize it until last week.
Given the occasion, I thought I’d spend this week reflecting on what I’ve learned from a year of writing about hiring once a week.
In the past year of writing I’ve learned a TON from all of you, so thank you again for subscribing and providing feedback. That’s how we make this bigger and better.
-Ben
Lessons From One Year In 🎂
I started writing Lying to Ourselves not because I’m some industrial psychology expert or hiring genius. I started it because I was doing too much reading, thinking, and testing of hiring methods to NOT to share what I was learning.
I think of myself more as an aggregator and as someone willing to test assumptions regarding how we evaluate talent. I’ve spent a good amount of my career as a Product Manager building systems to hire more effectively. As a result, I view hiring not as something I have to do to scale the team but as a product that can be improved through iteration.
Writing Lying to Ourselves has been my way of holding myself accountable to an iterative process. Again, and this bears repeating, I am not a genius, just a person willing to go through the discovery process in public.
The Surprises
One of my favorite things to ask Product people is, “What has surprised you the most about what you’re working on?”
Well, I asked myself this question, and here are my answers:
1. Transparency wins
My absolute favorite message from a reader is when they tell me that they applied an idea I wrote about and it worked out better than they had anticipated. It’s happened quite a few times over the past year for jobs as diverse as finance product managers, school counselors, and client success leaders.
In every case, the reader offered the candidate greater insight into the role - whether it be a salary range, a realistic account of day-to-day responsibilities, or real-time feedback during the interview process.
Just like marketers can sell more by being more specific about who their customers are and why they should buy, hiring managers can attract better candidates by being honest and direct about the role, why candidates should take it, and what traits and skills are required.
Being transparent isn’t easy, but it pays dividends.
2. Legacy hiring practices have staying power
I’ve heard several times throughout the year from readers who are simultaneously angry with me about calling out unproductive practices and pleased that I’m doing so.
Hiring is one of those things many people know is broken. Yet, we are still wedded to the old ways of doing things like “Hiring with our gut” or only hiring from a specific high pedigree organization.
I learned that it’s OK to be conflicted and feel uncomfortable applying the methods I’m advocating. Hell, even I feel strange about it sometimes.
3. Building readership is hard
Two things surprised me when it came to building this newsletter:
I have fewer subscribers than I hoped I’d have, but…
The quality of the subscribers is MUCH higher than I thought I’d attract
I’m conflicted about this. Part of me wishes I had hundreds of thousands of moderately engaged readers, another part of me feels honored to have just one subscriber of the caliber that I have. That said, at the end of the day, I’d rather have quality over quantity.
So thank you for subscribing, reading, sharing, and providing feedback. It has been an honor.
And please, keep the feedback coming. You know where to find me.