In Startup Recruitment, Agility is Required

October 25, 2011

Recruiting for a corporation is so incredibly different to recruiting for an expansion stage technology startup.

Photo from PhotoCity

In a Fortune 500 company, it’s normal for a requisition to take weeks — even months — for final approval. There are so many layers of red tape involved that when you know it’s approved, it’s there to stay until an offer is made and accepted. In a startup, however, if a CEO, founder, or managing director says, “We need to hire a right away,” then consider the requisition fully approved and begin your search!

But at the same time, don’t expect the hiring need to be permanent.

We all know that in a startup environment, things can change with the flip of a switch. A director of sales one minute could be the top hiring priority, then suddenly it’s irrelevant and the goal is to bring on board a software engineer ASAP.

Agility, part of OpenView Venture Partners’ aspirations and values, is absolutely critical. If you’re not able to shift gears quickly and turn your day upside-down to deliver results, then the venture capital and startup recruitment world may not be for you. This is exactly how things go in a young organization – it’s volatile, it’s crazy,  and it’s actually really fun — especially when you pull off your goal under a pressing deadline.

Just a few weeks ago, I was originally tasked with hiring a lead qualification specialist and an event marketer for an IaaS provider in the Northeast. Barely 48 hours later, the event marketer opening was nixed and the lead qualification specialist need went from one to three! And these hires needed to be made yesterday.
Still, I enjoy the chaos expected and the agility required in this role and believe I’ll have three offer letters signed by the end of the week. I’ll keep you all posted – thanks for reading!

Director of Recruiting

Victor Mahillon is the Director of Recruiting at <a href="http://kamcord.com">Kamcord</a>. Previously he was a Talent manager at OpenView.