Hire Smart from the Start

FOREWORD

WHEN DAVE CARVAJAL TALKS about recruiting for more than just “technical chops,” he reminds me how I’ve tried to look beyond the job specs. While spending nearly a decade as an executive at Microsoft and later as the founder of the not-for-profit, Room to Read, I’ve searched for candidates who were passionate about what we were trying to accomplish. This was my sine qua non for filling any job.

Obviously, the two organizations are quite different: Microsoft a titan of the technology world, and Room to Read, a little-known startup promoting literacy and gender equality across the developing world. Yet despite the differences in purpose and size, I recruited the same type of people for both—people who communicated their zeal for and excitement ...