Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, recently revealed in an interview with Y Combinator what he most looks for in job candidates.
Most would assume that experience would be at the top of the list, but Zuckerberg feels otherwise.
"We invest in people who we think are just really talented, even if they haven't done that thing before," Zuckerberg said. "That applies to people who are fresh out of university, as well as people like the CFO who took the company public [David Ebersman], who had not taken a company public before."
Zuckerberg went on to explain that just because someone doesn’t have past experience in a given role, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have the potential to excel in that position.
He also would emphasize how a company needs to allow employees opportunities for growth and development. After all, talented individuals will only want to stay on board if they are given opportunity.
Zuckerberg would elaborate by saying, "One of the things that we've done well is giving the people at the company a lot of opportunity. People see that you create opportunities for people, and that keeps the best people engaged and makes the best people want to come work at your company."
Facebook has been good at attracting high-level talent, which is reflected in their 4.5-star rating on Glassdoor and their many corporate perks.
