Column C based Employee Recruiting

Yesterday I interviewed a pending graduate of the UNC Comp Sci program. He was interested in working in Germany and he was looking for introductions and information about opportunities there. By the end of the discussion I had interested him in a 18–24 month gig with us as a stepping stone to his ultimate goal. During the dialogue we coined the phrase Column C recruiting.

Typically recruiting is done based on Money (Column A) or selling of the Vision (Column B). At our company we excel at recruiting based on what I’ve dubbed Personal Goals (Column C). In the case of the interviewee above his goals are to get a job abroad at some point. We offered to help him build his skills with us but more importantly to connect him to the more than 100 data partners we have based all around the world. By using his work with us as a resume builder and entry point he can significantly increase his ability to select the right place to move but also have pre-built relationships once he gets there. We get a junior developer who has a interest in being successful with us that goes beyond recruiting bonuses and we are able to insulate ourselves from others poaching him based on the personal alignment.

When I step back many of our team were recruited this way. Another recruit wanted to join a company where she could make a difference and she was encouraged by her entrepreneur father to follow that path. She rejected offers/interests from Google and similar companies for our little slice of heaven. Another recruit wanted the flexibility to work alongside his family business while helping us grow ours. For us this was not a problem to provide.

Can this model operate at scale? Most likely not. Once you are hiring 10’s and 100’s of employees it is very difficult to align the business function with personal needs but when operating in early growth mode say between 1–25 employees this is absolutely a legitimate method for competing for great talent by attacking on the weak flank. It also helps you as a Founder/CEO to better understand your team, their drivers and how to get the best performance from them along the way.

Think about this when looking for that next hard to find recruit and let me know if Column C recruiting works for you.