Matt Oberhardt, an executive talent partner at a16z, outlines the most frequent mistakes early-stage founders make when structuring executive hiring processes.
“So I'd say like the two biggest areas of weakness that we often see in the process is, you know, first off the, there's an interview team that doesn't necessarily really know what they're interviewing for. And like the best entrepreneurs out there sit down with their team and say, okay, I want you to focus on this piece. I want, you know, the second interview to focus in this area. So that almost each interviewer is focused on a different area of the candidate's background. And then the other issue that's often broken too is the feedback loop.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading:
filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard
(the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Matt Oberhardt
Insight
Oberhardt: Founders must own executive hiring decisions, not rely on consensus
“Towards the end too, is the founder has to own the decision. You know, you can't have a situation where, you know, you're trying to make a decision based on consensus.”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 7:06a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Oberhardt: Proprietary candidate databases held by executive search firms are now irrelevant
“Access is ubiquitous now, so that's not the game anymore. You used to hire a search firm back in the day because they had a database. Yeah, the database, that's now irrelevant.”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 13:54a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
Matt Oberhardt: LinkedIn cannot fix a flawed internal hiring process
“LinkedIn is still no substitute for having a really strong internal process to manage candidates and really create a great employer brand out in the marketplace. You know, if you've sourced, let's say, 15 or 20 candidates for a position on your own, and you've…”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 0:54a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
Oberhardt: Founders must be the first point of contact in executive hiring
“For an executive search, CEO of founder being really the first point of contact with the company. So that the executive has an opportunity to start developing that personal rapport and relationship with the CEO right out of the gate. And if you're able to star…”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 5:57a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Oberhardt: Candidates performing well in interviews often fail game-planning sessions
“We've had a number of situations where candidates who've performed very well during the interview process have then gone into that game planning discussion and just fallen flat.”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 8:49a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Insight
Oberhardt: Startups should source network and search firms in parallel
“I think what happens sometimes is that you fall into a trap, you know, where you think you have to do things in a serial way rather than in parallel. And, you know, if you do things serial, it's like, Hey, I'll go through my network. And then if that doesn't w…”
Matt OberhardtJan 2, 2019▶ 10:42a16z Podcast | Hiring is Hard -- Here’s How to Do it Right
Made with StarZero
Turn any episode into a week of clips.
This entire site, over 1,000 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable,
runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the
moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.
We use essential cookies to make the site work. With your permission we
also use analytics cookies (Google Analytics and Mixpanel) to understand
usage and improve StarZero. See our Cookie Policy.