Not sure why it came to mind last night, but I was thinking of the best hire I never made. This expanded into me thinking about folks I have hired over the ages. As a Director of IT and later a VP of IT, I’ve had to make a lot of hires over the years, some better than others. Even when I can’t remember their names (an unfortunate weakness of mine) I can almost always remember their faces and how they worked out. And fortunately, most of them worked out quite well, even the ones who surprisingly might think they didn’t.

Looking back, I would say there was probably only one person I absolutely should not have hired and she was the only person I ended up having to let go because of performance issues. There were a few how were less than stellar, and a few I had to let go because of budget cuts, but even those weren’t necessarily bad hires.

But then there’s the one that “got away” and honestly, when I reflected upon it, I was glad, for both of us. Back in the early days of the first dotcom bubble I was working for a company that was quickly expanding. I can’t recall how many interviews a day I was doing, but it was a lot. We were looking to ramp up quickly and I couldn’t afford to be too picky. That said, some of my best hires came during that period.

In this case she was an ideal candidate, both on resume and in person. She had a great college background, ticked all the checkmarks in terms of classes taken and experience. She did great during the interview, both technically and in terms of how I thought she’d be for the team I was looking to build. In fact, looking back, I think she would have been the first member of said team and as such would have been a good role model for others.

There was only one issue, and we both recognized it in time. We were a startup. We didn’t ask that stereotypical (and I think bad) question of “where do you see yourself in 5 years?” because, heck, we didn’t know where we’d be in 5 years. We didn’t have a clear career path of growth for employees. I mean it was obvious we’d grow and there would be steps up, but there was no clear org chart.

On the other hand, companies like GE, especially back then, had a very clear progression path. If you wanted management, you knew the path to take and it was pretty clear that both parties would work to make it happen.

And, it became apparent, she wanted to know where she would be in 5 years. And there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. We made her the offer, but I half-hoped she’d turn it down and was relieved in some ways that she did. Yes, she would have been a great hire for us. However, honestly, for her own career, it probably would have been a mistake.

But, I have to wonder what things would have been like had she joined the team. She would have been great. She’s the one that got away. And I’m OK with that.