Interview #1

Yesterday I met with the first candidate for the open part-time position my company has. It was an interesting experience being on the other side of the interviewing table. I've certainly interviewed candidates before but it was always to come in and work for the organization I was currently employed with - this was the first time I've ever interviewed to come work for me.

In a nutshell, she was really great and someone I think would do a good job and be a good personality fit to work with. She's finishing up her degree so is looking for some real world experience to beef up her resume. (On a tangent - looking at her resume reminded me of that time we've all gone through where you're desperate for someone to give you a break so you can have something else on your resume aside from part-time jobs in retail or summer positions lifeguarding.)

Given where she is in her life and career, I want to give her as well-rounded an opportunity as possible while working for me but, sadly, I also realize that my chances of holding onto her long-term are small. I realize that she's most likely looking at this as another stop on her resume that will give her the experience necessary to get bigger and better jobs. That being said, I don't hold it against her at all since my company is small and offers little in terms of room for advancement or those fun things like benefits (though I am offering an above-average hourly rate). I know that if I were in her situation I'd be doing exactly the same thing.

My hope is to one day grow the company to the point where I could have a handful of people on full-time. In reality I'd love to grow it to the point where I had a whole staff but for some reason the idea of hiring people to work for me is really scary and I've been taking very very slow steps to this point. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'll be giving up some of the product quality control to another person so it's a matter of learning to trust that another person can do this job as well - if not better - then I can. I'm also pretty worried about the fact that despite my MBA training - I've never had a good manager in my career (which is probably one of the key reasons I opted to go out on my own) so I'm worried that I haven't actually learned the skills necessary to manage people effectively.

But I'm committed to trying to work on my weaknesses this year in addition to building the business - in fact I think if I can work on them it should add to the business significantly. And one of my big weaknesses is managerial skills so now's the time to jump in and get my feet wet.

After our meeting I told Candidate #1 to think about it for a day or two and give me a call so hopefully I'll hear something one way or another by the beginning of next week. In the meantime I need to get myself registered with the state to employ workers and figure out what the best options are with regards to payroll which will be another post in and of itself. If anyone has any suggestions on any of this I'd love to hear it as I'm feeling slightly outside outside my comfort zone.