<aside> 💡 Silicon Valley is competitive, to say the least. Beware the mindset that “we shouldn’t have to convince people to be here." More often than not, candidates are taking personal and financial risks to help build your startup, and they want to feel valued. Plus, competition is fierce! 🔥

</aside>

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✏️ Practical tips

  1. Embed a recruiter into your process. They can take the first call, check in with candidates (ongoing), and own the offer/close process.

  2. Set expectations. The worst is extending an offer and it landing flat. Discuss the candidate's comp expectations in advance of the offer. Flag if their cash sounds high:

    <aside> 🤔 i.e., "Hmmmmm, that cash request sounds a little high for us being an early startup. Typically we weight more heavily in equity than later stage companies. Are you ready for that?"

    </aside>

  3. Take notes on their likes and interests! If they're really excited about a specific coding language, gift them relevant books. Or it can be as simple as getting a diet coke lover a diet coke for their interview.

  4. Write them a card! Have all interviewers sign it. 🖋 You can make this electronic, like in Figma or Notion.

  5. CALL THEM during offer stages. Pick up that phone! You can't sense how an offer lands over email!

☎️ Preferred offer close process

<aside> 🎀

Our preferred process is to lean on the recruiter more, while closing a candidate is certainly a team effort!

</aside>

  1. Team decides to offer, alerts recruiter.
  2. Recruiter calls candidate to celebrate and revisit compensation expectations.
  3. Recruiter & hiring manager work together on a fair and compelling offer.
  4. Recruiter calls candidate to extend it. (Exception: For very senior or particularly competitive candidates sometimes the hiring manager extends.) Hopefully candidate accepts. 🤞 They may need to sleep on it. 💤 If so:
    1. Recruiter calls back to discuss candidate's concerns and any counter requests.
      1. Recruiter shares info and recommendations with the hiring manager.
    2. Sometimes this results in the hiring manager, other executives and even interviewers taking additional sell calls, too.
    3. Hiring manager takes the final call to close it.
  5. When candidate accepts, hiring manager and interviewers can email the candidate to say they are ✨ so ✨ excited ✨! Or the recruiter can send a card from the team as not to bombard them with emails.
    1. If candidate declines, ask what might have gone better...