We're pretty selective in our hiring at Tivix. We have a variety of characteristics we look for, but if there's one particular thing we want it's people who have the lifelong habits of a rapid learner.

Partly that's just because technology is such a fast-moving field that if we hire for today's skills, our company will be obsolete tomorrow. So we don't hire for skills, we hire for learning aptitude (university degrees can be an indicator of learning aptitude, but only an indicator). 

I was thinking about this last night as I attended a presentation by Laura Wentworth and Carissa Romero from Stanford on some recent research they've done, based on the seminal work of Carol Dweck. 

Carol's original work suggests there are two kinds of people (researches love to simplify like that): people who believe their success is based on innate ability (what she calls "fixed mindset"), and people who believe their success is based on hard work, learning, training and doggedness (which Dweck calls "growth mindset"). 

Fixed-mindset individuals tend to dread failure because it is a negative statement on their basic abilities, while growth mindset individuals don't mind or fear failure as much because they realize their performance can be improved and learning comes from failure.

These two mindsets play an important role in all aspects of a person's life, according to Dweck. She argues that a growth mindset will allow a person to live a less stressful and more successful life. 

Pretty interesting stuff.

Now if those Stanford researchers could just tell us how to write an algorithm to find "growth mindset" within the hundreds of resumes we receive, that would be very helpful. 🙂