One of the biggest challenges when hiring someone is trying to envision their potential.
Sometimes someone’s a sure bet. They’re the perfect person for the perfect project at the perfect time. Their pedigree is exceptional, their portfolio is stocked with amazing work, their experience is vast, they’re a confident interview, and everything just feels right.
It happens, but that’s not how it usually works. There are very few perfect people.
Instead there’s a lot of future perfect people. People who have the potential to become the perfect person in the perfect role if just given the right opportunity.
When I hire designers, I look for future perfect people. Some people have the potential, but they haven’t had the opportunities. Their portfolios are full of mediocre work, but it’s not because they’re mediocre designers. It’s because they’ve been given mediocre opportunities.
A lot of future perfect people are stuck in current mediocre positions. They just haven’t had the chance to do their best work.
While it’s a bonus to find that perfect person today, I find more it more rewarding (for me and them) to pluck the future perfect person out of their mediocre job today. I love betting on people with potential. When they finally get that chance to do their best work, they blossom in such a special way.
And as the owner of a company, few things make me prouder than seeing someone excelling in a way that their resume/portfolio/references wouldn’t have suggested they could.
Dylan
on 23 Oct 13I think this is bang on. Hiring people at this stage of their career also allows you a healthy degree of influence over how they think and approach problems. Giving people their “break” also presents the opportunity to earn their loyalty.
Michael
on 23 Oct 13So, uh. Jason? Jamie? Mig?
Robert
on 23 Oct 13As someone who enjoys being an independent designer, I wish more companies took the approach that 37signals takes. Give us a chance and we’ll make the most of it!
Jason Fried
on 23 Oct 13@Michael, the names aren’t important, but I can say that some design portfolios pre-37signals don’t represent the work people have done since joining 37signals. Looking back on their work, and comparing it to current work, you wouldn’t recognize the work as coming from the same person.
I’ve also made bad calls on future perfect people in the past. I saw potential that never materialized. It’s an art more than a science. I just hope I continue to get better at it.
Michael
on 23 Oct 13Thanks, Jason. Just poking fun. Everyone can’t do their best work at every point of their life and it’s a pleasure to bring out that best in people.
It would be way worse for someone to have portfolio work that’s better than their current work. That would mean something is wrong with either them or their employer.
Aatash
on 23 Oct 13Jason, how do you make the distinction between people who are actually mediocre designers versus those who have simply been given mediocre opportunities? I know you say it’s an art, but curious to know what heuristics you’ve found.
Also, what specifically do you do after hiring that makes folks like this realize that potential?
Charles Roper
on 23 Oct 13The StrengthsFinder test can be a useful aid in plotting a course to future prefect. Do one as part of the interview or as part of induction. It’s a useful tool to share with the team, too. Knowing the individual strengths in a team is tremendously empowering for all and will inspire you to include people and mix-up tasks in unexpected way. Give someone a role that plays to their strengths and it’s like you’re providing a rich, fertile soil they can get their roots into and flourish.
Iarfhlaith
on 23 Oct 13Great post Jason. I’m just starting out on making some really important hires and this perspective gives me something new to think about.
p.s. Small typo: ”...I find more it more rewarding…”.
Erlend Sogge Heggen
on 23 Oct 13Oh man… Pretty sure I’m in this exact position right now. Hired for ‘future perfect’, not ‘current perfect’. NO PRESSURE.
Anon
on 23 Oct 13There are lots of mediocre roles out in the market.
Redo
on 23 Oct 13I’m that person who’s looking for kickass internship, but never had opportunity.
Lee
on 23 Oct 13I’ve been working in development for the last 14 years but due to my position, government work, I had a mostly non-existent portfolio for quite a while. It’s only in the last few years I can even point to something and say “I did that”. My current job, which I love, has really let me expand my skills into the necessary areas and show that I can grow. It’s not only expanded my portfolio, but really re-energized my interest in programming. With the government jobs, there wasn’t any room to expand, and just getting by seemed to be the normal thing. Now that I’m at my new job in Chicago, it really feels like the first time getting into programming, where the sky is the limit.
If you have the opportunity, take jobs where you can grow if they’ll let you in!
Matthew Duff
on 23 Oct 13The world of software gives people a chance that many other industries do not have. For instance, anyone who says that they have not had the right opportunity is missing out on a vast wealth of open-source projects that they could lend their design prowess to. They could go out and find some ugly ass site that needs some love. They can craft their own portfolio. They can do it after hours and for free to help build that resumé.
I actually think that is a great way to interview someone. You encourage them to go pick an open source project of their choice and submit a pull request. You will find out how motivated they are, how they work with others, what type of code/design they can contribute. There may be enough in there to give you a glimpse into promise they have not demonstrated yet on their resumé/portfolio. Another added benefit is that open source projects would start getting a ton of love. The world would be a bit better, but no I am becoming hyperbolic.
I love this post, because I think there are few things in life as rewarding as taking a chance on someone who maybe has not had a lot of chances during life, or has skill and passion that are yet uncovered and seeing them do outstanding work. I think open source is a way that people can craft their own opportunities. Working together these two forces can do a ton of good. Very similar to the idea in Rework about dating before getting married, or hiring someone for a small project before bringing them on as an employee. I think this, or open source, are great opportunities to do a great thing like helping someone realize their potential.
... sorryPinar
on 23 Oct 13“Some people have the potential, but they haven’t had the opportunities. “
This is me right now as a freelance designer. It is very discouraging and depressing that I keep working on my craft to improve my skills but when it comes to using those skills to build real life projects I get rejected. I propose people to build something for them for free for 2-3 weeks but they still say no, they don’t care about your willingness, they only care about your references. I know that once I have a couple of pieces in my portfolio and a couple of satisfied customers the rest will be easier but nobody wants to take a chance on me. I just have to keep trying to find someone who will give me a chance but I’m really tired of prospecting.
Ian Patrick Hines
on 23 Oct 13This describes me almost perfectly (as the applicant). I was hired for a customer-facing role at NationBuilder, but within a few months I’d been pulled from it and shifted — first to our support team, and later to our product team.
I’m much happier now (and doing better work!), but I absolutely did not have the right resume for this job when I first applied.
David Andersen
on 23 Oct 13“And as the owner of a company, few things make me prouder than seeing someone excelling in a way that their resume/portfolio/references wouldn’t have suggested they could.”
I’d say this attitude and the behavior I assume stems from it has at least as much to do with your success at 37s as nearly anything else. It’s genuinely rare; I’ve seen it in about 3 managers at more than 50 companies I’ve worked with.
Rahul
on 24 Oct 13My boss tells me this is how I was hired and how many others at our company have been hired: based on a sense of potential, a gut feeling that he had that didn’t show in our work at the time but he felt would eventually show, given some kneading and positive encouragement.
I’m glad he made the decision he made :)
Matt Drozdzynski
on 24 Oct 13This resonates really strongly with what I’ve been doing throughout my (so far rather short) career. I’d always bet on the underdogs—people with less experience but great potential. You can better at spotting that over time and it pays off.
We recently decided to re-structure our software services company to a master-apprentice model and I couldn’t have been happier with some of our more junior hires who have grown to be our most talented and enthusiastic employees.
Juan Ruiz
on 24 Oct 13So true. Not only because each person skills but also because the company they work to. Usually you change according to what surrounds you…
Kristine
on 24 Oct 13Thank you for such an inspiring article, Jason. I wish more employers thought this way. It takes more skill and insight to hire the right future employee than the perfect one at the time. I hired a great young woman last year (my first hire) and it was a highlight of my performance as I looked back at my results.
Yaw
on 24 Oct 13I’m sending this link in every application I submit, henceforth. I am a programmer. I have huge potential but have not had the opportunity to express my desire to grow while creating useful stuff.
I hope employers read this.
Mark
on 24 Oct 13I really enjoyed this post. Any advice for someone with lots of future potential looking to land a job. How did you discover the future potential designers of 37signals? What was it about them that made you want to take a chance on them?
On a side note. Most of the NFL/NBA draft is based on people trying to correctly gauge a persons future potential.
Chris Desrochers
on 25 Oct 13A great leader should be able to take B- talent and develop them into A- talent. Everyone is trying to hire rockstars but few are willing to pay rockstar salaries or give rockstar PTO. I advise our team to look for average hard workers with passion and develop them into top talent.
This discussion is closed.