Memberstack's Hiring Process - Set your Hiring Goals

Spoiler: I will attempt to convince you to hire a part-time contractor before launching into a full-time, long term hire. This decision (to always start with part-time contractors) has saved us SO MUCH trouble. I want that for you too.

Full time vs Part Time

Full time and founding roles are a lot of pressure... kinda like looking for a spouse. There’s an underlying assumption of a long term relationship and more of a partnership than a traditional “job.” If you want to find someone who’s a reeeeally good fit, then it's probably going to take you a long time to find that person.

Have you considered hiring a part-timer or freelancer? Someone who might turn into your full timer or buy you some time until you find someone "perfect" who’s ready to become a long term member of your team.

Why not take the pressure off. Look for someone short-term, and update your requirements to ONLY include those things which are essential. From there, you can continue the search, collect more data on the role, and make progress in your business. And who knows! Maybe your short term hire will enjoy working with you so much that you can offer them the full time position.

If you commit to the idea of a full-time role and you need to hire ASAP then you'll likely have to settle for whoever happens to be available at that time.

Contractor vs Employee

Do you feel confident setting goals, giving feedback, and making hiring/firing decisions based on those goals?

If no, then you 100% need to hire a freelancers / contractor. Expectations are SO much easier to manage for contract roles. They will recover from poor management faster and you will learn a ton. You’ll get a clearer picture of who you are looking for and how much you are willing to pay for their time. If you got lucky and hired the perfect short-term freelancer then you can try to convince them to join your team full time. If you are doing something exciting, having a good time, and have created a supportive working environment then that will be much easier! If they are unwilling then you can make your “real” hire with 100x more confidence.