![]() ![]() What’s my obsession with pilot projects? In the past five years, I’ve created and administered hundreds of them for all kinds of roles-everything from auto-scored, 30-minute pilot projects for data entry candidates in the Philippines to 3-hour, manually-scored data analytics pilot projects for PhD I/O psychologists in Austin.īut it’s also personal: I’ve been hired, twice-by the same founders, for two very different roles-by pilot projects. (Plus, of course, you always pay people fairly for these projects, so they’re usually appreciative even if you don’t hire them.) ![]() In this way, they’re a win-win for employers and candidates. They’re the final step in the hiring process to help you differentiate top candidates from each other, as well as to give them a realistic preview of what the actual job entails so they can decide if they’re a good fit. Pilot projects (sometimes called “take-home projects”-my colleague Debbie coined the new name and we much prefer it here at Laskie) are simply brief, paid projects sent to finalists that mirror your actual job as accurately as possible. And this new, data-driven approach not only applies to finding candidates worth interviewing, but to vetting them as well. The business model of the major job sites (caveat: I worked at Indeed for 3 years) is largely predicated on volume (clicks, job posts, messages, etc.), not quality-just like it was when employers placed an ad in the local newspaper in 1930.īut today, with the ability to use smartly structured and personalized data on both sides of the matchmaking process, there's no need to think about hiring in the same way we used to. And it's not your fault-hiring is still stuck in an early-20th century paradigm of job posts, resumes, and interviews. If you're laughing, it's because you've either done this or know people who still do. Let's think of the worst way to hire for a minute: Post a job description that's somehow both vague and overly specific on a website that charges you per click, receive hundreds of applications from people with experience totally unrelated to your job, manually pore though crazily-formatted resumes and generic cover letters ("Dear Sir and/or Madam") looking for a diamond in the rough who's at least worth interviewing, set up an interview and then both show up totally unprepared, attempt to ‘shoot the shit' and get a feel for them as a person without asking them any probing or insightful questions, use your intuition to decide that you like them and that they’re a good fit, pass them along to your colleague or manager for a second interview where they do the same thing, hire them, and pray for the best…
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