Unconventional Hiring

Video game website IGN had the same problem as every business - hiring. IGN took the same path as a Chicago bakery, thinking about hiring in new ways. 

IGN president Roy Bahat thought that traditional metrics like college, degree, and grade point average were “overpriced”. Companies like Google paid up for 4.0 Carnegie Mellon computer science graduates. 

In sports, this concept is known as Moneyball after the 2003 Michael Lewis book. Everyone recognizes players with traits like size or skills so it is more expensive to get them on your team. But what if instead of paying up for excellent players, an organization pays for players who make other players excellent players? 

Or so Bahat thought. 

In 2011 IGN started a “no resume needed” hiring effort. Instead of looking at what applicants had done, they looked at what applicants could do. 

The program continues through 2022. The modern form is an eight-week paid internship with the IGN team. Aspiring designers should be “a self-starter who loves problem-solving and delivering memorable product experiences.” 

Hiring is a regular entrepreneurial challenge. One way to face it is to “pay up” for top talent from top schools who earned top grades. That’s fine, but can be pricey. Another way is to use a little creativity to save a lot of time and money. Find a novel way. 

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