Hiring for coachability when the résumé is thin

Most people who do well in the field arrive without a relevant résumé. Screening on experience filters out the exact candidates who tend to succeed.

The first signal is how a candidate describes being corrected. Someone who can recount a specific piece of criticism and what they changed afterward is telling you they can be coached.

The second is competitive history of any kind — sport, music, debate, a sales job in high school. What matters is familiarity with practicing something badly before doing it well.

The third is the follow-up question. Candidates who ask what the standard is, or what the first week looks like, are already orienting toward performance.

We weight these over polish. Polish is trainable in weeks; willingness to be coached is not trainable at all.