Joy Adalia
A lot of people would give anything to work in top companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! Of course, we know how hard it can be to get noticed, let alone accepted by these popular companies. Still, there is no harm in trying, right?
In a session of Q&A with Mark [Zuckerberg], the Facebook founder answered several questions pertaining to his hiring style and secrets. His answers were not as surprising as you think they might be.
Hiring Only the Best
According to Zuckerberg, there is one principle he uses in hiring his employees – and he has never been wrong.
I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person.
What does that mean? For Zuckerberg, he would only work with the best and would not settle for less just to have the manpower he needs. So, even if he needs to fill a position really badly, he won’t hire the first candidate who might be able to finish a particular job but won’t be useful in the long run.
The reason for this is quite simple. According to Zuckerberg, if you hire someone who is really good, then this person can help grow your company into something great – something you might never achieve with persons of lesser capabilities.
Learning from His Employees
If you work for Zuckerberg, you are not just his employee, you are also his mentor. Such only shows just how humble and wise this man is. He understands that life is a learning process, so he observes his employees and learns from them.
He gives Sherly Sandberg as an example. He said she is responsible for the 2 million businesses who advertise on Facebook today. Of course, that also means she is the one who helps the company rake in its billions of dollars in revenue. No wonder Zuckerberg admires her a lot!
Attracting the Best Candidates
If you think Facebook attracts all the best candidates, you are wrong on some aspects. There are still more companies that are better than Facebook, companies that offer better compensation or a great work environment than what the social media company can offer.
Thus, the company still has to make sure it can attract the best talents. According to Entrepreneur, “If selecting candidates is one thing, attracting them is another.”
What’s Zuckerberg’s solution to this? He said companies really need to just be honest about what they stand for. As long as people know the company’s mission and goals, there is no need to push too hard just to attract the biggest talents. They will just come to you.
Work Environment at Facebook
Just in case you were wondering how it feels to work on Facebook, Zuckerberg also shares an interesting tidbit of information there.
He said he is fairly flexible when it comes to his employees because he wants them to have the freedom to fully exercise their creativity. After all, it is difficult to work and be creative while you are under constant pressure.
So, does that mean he is a very lax boss who would let you sleep at work the entire day because, maybe you are just re-charging your brain’s creative juices? Well, not exactly. Facebook has a team of around 10,000 people serving billions of people across the world. So, even if Zuckerberg has a flexible management style, he still makes sure the members of this streamlined team are doing their jobs well.
Plus, he makes sure he does as much work as possible so his employees are, somehow, expected to do their best as well. After all, he hired the best. No wonder Facebook is such a successful company.
