Projects Over Resumes

For whatever reason, when hiring global talent - I find “testing skills” 100X more valuable than looking at a resume.

Knowing that someone graduated with honors from Mendoza College in Argentina means nothing to me.

Conversely, seeing a portfolio of their past graphic design work is a game changer.

I don’t care if they are a PhD, or self taught!

Show me what you can do.

In some roles like graphic design, it’s easy.

Give them some instructions, and see what they can do.

In others - it’s trickier!

For example, what would be a test project for an executive assistant?

One that I’ve had good luck is:

“I’m trying to book a trip to Seattle next week - give me some options, as well as where to stay”.

I put this in the job application!

I intentionally give them unclear instructions - I want to see how good they are.

Here are some potential outcomes:

Bad Response:

• “I have a bunch of questions for you”.

• Research that has a bunch of typos, or is hard to follow

• Sloppy mistakes, or unclear output

Good Response:

• Clear, well thought out research to accomplish the task

Great response

• Everything in good PLUS

• I found you on Twitter, I see you are obsessed with Notion - so I created a free Notion account and put my research there.

In the same spirit, I’ve hired a bunch of bookkeepers over the years - and that was a tricky one to test.

Mostly because I just wanted to see how good they were in Quickbooks.

My long suffering business partner Rene came up with this one, and found a “test environment” so we can see their actual quickbooks skills.

Hopefully this is as useful to you, as it has been for us.

You can cut and paste the below, and use it directly!

Quickbooks Online Skills Assessment

Go to https://qbo.intuit.com/redir/testdrive and do the following: (Do this in an incognito window to make sure you’re in a test environment, not a company account)

1. Take a screenshot of each invoice as well as the bill after you have created them. Please send these along with the pdf reports listed at the end.

2. Create an invoice for our new client, “Big Box Self Storage” (Note: You do not need to enter their address or any other details in the Customer record). The service provided was Sod Installation (sod is $25 and we provided 10 units and the installation was 25 hours). They also need to pay for three hours of design services. Since this work will be completed today, they need to pay the invoice today. Only the sod itself is taxable, not the hours of labor. (Note: you can keep the Sales Tax as 8%, which should be the default.)

3. Create a second invoice for the same client. This time it is for one rock fountain (taxable), 34 rocks at $12 each (taxable), 5 hours of design and 8 hours of install (not taxable). This invoice is not due until 30 days from now.

4. Big Box Self Storage has sent in a check for $2,000.00 (Check #1598). They want to pay off the sod project and put the rest toward the rock fountain project. Please record this in QBO.

5. Enter a bill from Tania’s Nursery for the Sod, Rock Fountain and Rocks described above. Use today as the bill date. It is due in 15 days. (send a screenshot of this bill entry)

6. Create a journal entry to record the payroll costs for the above labor. Our designer is paid $32 per hour and the installers are paid $21. (Send a screenshot of this entry)

7. Export a Profit and Loss Report for the Year to Date as a pdf.

8. Create a report showing how profitable the customer Big Box Self Storage is and send as a pdf.

Once you have completed the above steps, please email the following to us:

*Name all files in the following format:

YourFirstName_YourLastName - Description (For Example John_Smith - Invoice1.jpg

1. Invoice 1 screenshot

2. Invoice 2 screenshot

3. Bill screenshot

4. Journal Entry screenshot

5. P&L YTD

6. P&L for Box Box Self Storage

Hopefully you can use this!

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

P.S. In other news, I accidentally started a great business - “Hotwire for Global Talent”.

We (in our normal businesses) are hiring a ton of global talent every month, and often times we have great candidates, that we don’t end up making an immediate offer to.

The hard part is, if I don’t snap them up immediately, they disappear forever (they get other job offers!).

I’ve already spent the money to recruit them, interview them, test them, etc.

Why not introduce them to other people?

It’s all found money for me (remember, I already incurred the recruitment cost!) - and so I can “headhunt” them for you, at a fraction of the price of other folks.

Also, they are IMMEDIATELY available.

No sales call.

No form filling.

Just convenience & a huge discount.

If you don’t like the candidate, don’t bid!

Anyhow, I’ve got a free text message group, where I’ll publish the candidates 24 hours before I launch them on twitter.

Respond to this email with your cell phone number (I will never call you, I’m not a crazy person) and I’ll add you to the free list.

This is Celeste. (Click for full video)

She went through our rigorous 2 week recruitment & testing process.

She passed with flying colors - but our requirement changed.

I texted her out on Friday - never made it to my Twitter!

Picked up by a high quality employer, immediately.

Her start date is Monday.

For less than 50% the cost of “the other guys” and about 2 weeks faster!

Passage of the Week

"You must sleep some time between lunch and dinner, and no half-way measures. Take off your clothes and get into bed.

That's what I always do. Don't think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day.

That's a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more. You get two days in one - well, at least one and a half, I'm sure.

When the war started, I had to sleep during the day because that was the only way I could cope with my responsibilities."

- Winston Churchill