An ex-Goldman Sachs employee who launched her own startup shares the most important trait a job candidate can have
(Becca Brown.Courtesy of Becca Brown)
If you want to work for Solemates, a brand of women's shoe care products founded by two former Goldman Sachs employees, you better be a great team player.
Becca Brown, one of the company's founders, says this is the trait she values most in job candidates.
Solemates has just five full-time employees and five additional contracted workers, Brown says, so it's imperative that everyone get along and work well together.
"Candidates have to be willing to work closely with the rest of the team," she tells Business Insider. "We are a small but powerful group, so each person must contribute. In a small company, the sum of the parts has to be greater than each individual."
Other traits and skills Brown strongly values?
"It depends on the role, but excellent communication skills are very important no matter what," she says. "Everyone has to contribute and communicate clearly in order for us to operate in the most efficient and productive way possible. We also look for people who are nice, resourceful, organized, diligent, and creative."
Brown and her cofounder Monica Ferguson, also a former Goldman Sachs employee, were on an episode of ABC's "Shark Tank" this month, during which they landed a deal with investor Robert Herjavec.
Brown says her team also looks for self-starters who can run with projects on their own.
"Since we are small and are growing, we don't always have a strict process or method to go about doing something," she says. "We look for candidates who can contribute by helping to create the process, in some cases, or at least who have a willingness to see something through from start to finish.
(Brown and her cofounder Monica Ferguson.Sarah Jacobs)
"I think that's one of the biggest differences between working at a startup versus a large existing company. At a small company, you have to try a lot of different things, measure their effectiveness, and then based on those results, decide what becomes part of the strategy. We look for candidates that are capable of and excited to embrace this approach."
To figure out whether a candidate is a good team player and whether he or she possesses the other traits she mentioned, Brown has each job candidate meet everyone on the Solemates team.
"This is a hiring practice we used at Goldman Sachs," she says. "The team is only a team if everyone gets a say in the hiring process. When interviewing, it's important for us to have the candidate meet and interact with other team members, so we can decide if it's a good fit for everyone."
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