Hiring (and Admitting, I hope) successful people

- 2 minutes read - 240 words

Randy Nelson of Pixar University is filmed at Edutopia talking about hiring the best, and most creative, people possible. It’s a 10-minute video that won’t take much time to watch, but which has some great insights.

Here’s the link: http://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video

Here were my rough notes:

  1. Failure avoidance (in test pilots) was not the quality [NASA] wanted, failure recovery is the mark of the person they desired in this innovative field [i.e. walking on the moon].
  2. “Remember the proof of a portfolio versus the promise of a resume.” For those of you in-between jobs right now, I think this is an important one. Especially college grads coming out with little work experience. A light last semester where you get some work done and uploaded on github may seal some deals.
  3. We need people who are broad: interest_ed_ not interest_ing_. Do they amplify me. They want to know what you want to know. Lauren is immensely good in this capacity. Awesome, in fact.
  4. Communication: Can you communicate between fields? If technicians know enough about art to pre-translate, they can have a much greater force-impact. Working with them re-kindles that thing that interested you a long time ago. What joy!
  5. Collaboration is not “I could do each of the roles, given sufficient time” – collaboration means “amplification.” Bringing separate depths and great breadth with multi-level inter-communication is what makes collaboration not mere helping do all the bits of bolting-on tha assembly line requires.