How Much is Enough?

A friend of mine in Malaysia had an interesting Facebook status today:

"someone wants me to hire him... and teach him everything I know... -.- why doesn't he pay me?"

My friend is a designer, working in films and television and doing the sets for photo shoots. He's had a lot of work lately and needs an assistant, but this one applicant wasn't quite what he had in mind.

When you're hiring new Creatives you'll rarely find someone who already knows everything you want them to know. You may have to set aside time for on-the-job training, or even send them to a class. At a minimum you should expect some time getting used to the job before they can do everything they promised you in the job interview.

With that in mind, you still need to be careful just how inexperienced they are. If you're recruiting an employee for the long run and you can afford inexperience, this is your chance to grow a new employee from scratch. But if you need someone who can start contributing right away, you can't afford someone with no skills at all. Make the job requirements really clear in the job announcement and the interview, and

When someone comes to you and says "I'd like to work for you, please teach me everything you know," it does seem a little strange that they'd be learning from you, but you'd be paying them rather than the other way around. True, everybody has to start somewhere, and it's always seemed like a Catch-22 when you need experience to get a job but you can't get experience until you have a job. It's fun to be a mentor, it's fun to have an apprentice, but sometimes you just don't have the time for all that. One of your functions as a leader is to figure out what kind of new employee you need to hire. Figure out what and who you need at that time, and choose wisely.

And if you want, let THEM pay YOU for a change.