The work keeps changing, and hiring decisions need to account for that.

Some of my best hires had never done the job before. Their resumes got them in the door, but their ability to learn earned them the offer. A resume is a rearview mirror, and we’ve been trained to read it like a crystal ball. It tells you what someone has experience in until you realize the work you’re hiring them to do a year from now may not even exist yet.

I founded BriteCo in 2017, and building an insurtech company has taught me that the ground keeps moving. Many of the tools our team used two years ago have already been replaced or rebuilt. So when I look at a candidate, I’m asking, “Can they learn this job quickly and learn the next version of it even faster?”

I’ve believed in hiring the person over the experience since the early days of BriteCo, and our hiring has always been pretty unconventional. Experience doesn’t hurt, and it’s naturally one of two things I look at. But the other factor is equally important, and that’s knowing how fast someone picks up what they haven’t done before.

A resume says, “I mastered these tools, systems, and processes.” In a field like ours, a specific skill you perfect depreciates the moment you list it, just as how an approach that was innovative in 2020 becomes the minimum standard of today.

This is where over-indexing on pedigree burns you. You can assemble a team of people who know exactly how the work used to be done, then watch them freeze when the work changes.

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