John JonasOwner, OnlineJobs.ph · Scale Your Business with Filipino VAs

Hire The Best Available Person #ytshorts

22 Jun 2023 · 1 min

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John Jonas advises hiring the "best available person" rather than trying to find the absolute best candidate. He argues that an objectively best person is rarely practical (there's often someone marginally better and the search/mental effort is costly), and that availability and fit (including cultural fit and compensation expectations) often matter more. He illustrates with an anecdote about hiring a strong candidate who turned out to be a poor fit because of how she insisted on being paid.

Chapters

People often come into this, hiring an ofs, and they think, I just want to hire the best person. And the best person isn't realistic, because first of all, there's always someone better. Second, sometimes hiring the best person just isn't in the cards. Like the amount of effort it takes to find a better person than the one you found is really, really high. Or the amount of mental effort to do that is just not worth it. Or sometimes the best person person isn't the best fit for your company. So what I like to say is hire the best available person. And the best available means they're available to work. Because the first two, my previous one and the first one that I hired after the previous copywriter, those aren't. They're not available. And then the best available fit for your company, that second person that the one who I hired was really great, wasn't a good fit for the company. I guess we didn't know that when we hired her. It was just how she insisted on getting paid. So sometimes the best person isn't the right person. Sometimes the best available fit is the right person.