I had a conversation with an exec the other day who asked a great question, when things don’t work out between a new hire and a company, what are the most common reasons?

It’s often that the candidate didn’t really get brought into a candid interview process, or, if they did, they made assumptions that turned out to be false.  For example, if you are told you are going to come in and build a team, take time to sketch out a staffing plan including seniority, compensation, etc, and review that with the leadership, testing out whether you are aligned with their vision of salaries, etc,  particularly if the company is small and somewhat unknown so you can assess whether you’ll be successful in building that team.

For leadership roles, we encourage candidates to ask detailed questions and set honest expectations.  If the CEO believes the product can be created in 6 months and you think it’s 18 months, that misalignment sets up a pretty negative scenario.

Candidates really have to listen carefully and look for all the clues you can to ascertain whether the role and the company is a fit and if you can be successful there.  Taking the time to figure out what’s really important to you helps, if you want professional development, try to figure out if that’s in the cards in this company.  If you want structure and process, you need to determine if that’s in the CEO’s DNA.

Recruiting is a two way process, creating a culture and environment that drives people to join the mission as well as carefully assessing what a potential employee can do to drive that mission.  For employees, it’s all about the right fit, growth potential and earnings potential.