Font AwesomeI have people skills. I am good at dealing with people! Can’t you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?
Hiring the right people can be a bottleneck in most companies. But at Font Awesome, we put character first. In this podcast recap, Font Awesome founders, Dave Gandy and Travis Chase, talk about how hiring the right people to the team is the first and best approach to building a strong company culture.
Check out the full episode recap below!
There’s a reason why we don’t hire “Rock Stars” and “A-players”.
There’s a reason why we don’t hire “Rock Stars” and “A-players”. Instead of hiring people with flashy resumes and impressive qualifications, we focus on hiring people who demonstrate humility, value others, and have emotional intelligence. Simply put, we hire adults instead of “Rock Stars”, “A-players”, and “Ninjas”.
“Oftentimes the people that we think of as rock stars are the children causing all the problems that the adults have to clean up. If you’ve got somebody who’s high on Red Bull coding at 2:00 a.m. because they’re a “Rock Star” they’re typically causing more problems in the code base than they’re solving by a great deal.”
Hire for character first, and build a great culture.
Hiring for character first is a great way to ensure that the people you bring into your company are the right fit for the job and who share the same values and beliefs as the company. This allows the company to create a culture of respect and collaboration. And when folks work well together, you’ll get more done, and have more fun doing it.
“We really try to focus on a character fit. We always say we hire for character first. We’re really trying to look at that person and see if they can work with the team, have similar values, and maybe they don’t have the exact fit and competency that we’re looking for. We think that you can learn most of anything in software design.”
Humility is the key to sustainable growth.
Humility is the key to growth in any company, and it is often overlooked. Humility is recognizing we don’t know everything, and being able to learn from others. It’s about being open to new ideas and taking risks.
“Character can mean a lot of things. What we mean when we say it is that character develops when who you think you are, who you say you are, who you actually are, and who you want to be become the same thing. Self-awareness is required. There’s a desire to be better than you are right now. All together that requires an awful lot of saying, ‘I don’t know, but I want to get better.’”
Listen to Podcast Awesome for more!
At Font Awesome, we believe that hiring for character first is the best approach to building a strong company culture. This allows us to create a team of individuals who share the same values and beliefs, leading to a culture of respect, collaboration, and growth. Tune in to our podcast, Podcast Awesome, for more!
