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I’ve never seen the resumes of most folks on our team at Rocketship HQ.

For many folks I work with, I don’t even know what degrees or diplomas they have.

What I do know(and did know at the time of hiring them), is that they would be AMAZING at their work – even if they had no ‘pedigree’.

(And yes, this is also for folks in advanced/experienced roles – not just entry level roles).

And yet, we have had close to zero voluntary attrition in 4+ years (well, two folks who left voluntarily eventually came back to our team).

Why?

We hire 100% based on take-home assignments. This lets us evaluate exactly how they will perform on what truly matters – their day-to-day work; not on vague credentials like college degrees or past employers.

And what I’ve seen is that diligence, ability to learn, and ability to get things done are FAR more important than even domain expertise(I’ve hired folks with little to no mobile experience over folks with significant mobile experience – and am incredibly happy and proud to see them learn and grow).

And we get great work done(while staying lifestyle first, asynchronous, remote). 

Credentials are a poor proxy for effectiveness. If you’re focusing on credentials, you’re missing MASSIVE opportunities.

So: how do we run our hiring process?

We use a get-to-know-you questionnaire. This is a short questionnaire that lets us see how candidates think ‘in writing.’

Why?

Resumes – and cover letters are the equivalent of candidates putting on suits – they don’t tell you how the candidate is going to do in YOUR company.

And unless you speak to them 1:1 you won’t know how they are in person.

A get-to-know-you questionnaire allows you to accomplish both goals – understand how they are in person, and see how they do in YOUR company.

A get-to-know-you questionnaire is basically a behavioral-interview-in-writing. And it takes 15-20 minutes of a candidate’s time, so it is VERY respectful of their time(and yours).

What you’ll also notice is that the best candidates immediately stand out. I have seen the delta between the best folks and the rest to be shockingly huge when you look at the get-to-know-you questionnaire.

Literally every one we’ve hired was a clear and unambiguous yes from the get-to-know-you-questionnaire – any subsequent interviews and assignments were basically validating our assumptions.

What are some of the questions we ask? We basically look for how they handle mistakes and conflicts, and how they communicate.

We look for detail and specificity – we frame questions so they cannot hide behind hypotheticals. The two most important questions are some versions of: “you make a huge mistake. what exactly do you do next?” and “you get an unreasonable request. draft an email response to it”(so even if you are not hiring for the exact roles that we’ve hired for, you can modify your approach here).

You’ll see exactly what they do and how they behave in these circumstances – without wasting a ton of your time and theirs on 1:1 screening calls.

Here are the exact questionnaires we’ve used to hire in the past:

Growth marketer: https://forms.gle/C2yHQHqbyZuekqP5A

Content marketer: https://forms.gle/2f62uZ4CFim82s3R9

Creative strategist: https://forms.gle/7qeV9ax9hdnHw4Zq5

A REQUEST BEFORE YOU GO

I have a very important favor to ask, which as those of you who know me know I don’t do often. If you get any pleasure or inspiration from this episode, could you PLEASE leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform – be it iTunes, Overcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast fix. This podcast is very much a labor of love – and each episode takes many many hours to put together. When you write a review, it will not only be a great deal of encouragement to us, but it will also support getting the word out about the Mobile User Acquisition Show.

Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement are welcome, whether on podcasting platforms – or by email to shamanth at rocketshiphq.com. We read all reviews & I want to make this podcast better.

Thank you – and I look forward to seeing you with the next episode!