Why I Stopped Trusting My Gut in Hiring
Most hiring advice starts with the interview.
What to ask. What red flags to watch for. How to avoid bias.
But by the time you’re in the room with a candidate, you’re already downstream.
The real damage happens earlier when we rely on instinct instead of structure.
The Gut Feel Trap
Early in my career, I was told something that sounded wise: “Trust your gut. You’ll know the right person when you meet them.”
It felt like veteran advice. The kind of thing confident founders say. So I took it to heart.
And sure enough, I met a candidate who “just felt right.”
Strong CV
Good energy
We hit it off
I hired him.
Six weeks later, the cracks showed:
He struggled with ambiguity
Missed the nuance in stakeholder dynamics
Made decisions in isolation
And worst of all, he had no real impact
I hadn’t hired the operator. I’d hired the impression.
Gut Feel Isn’t Insight. It’s Familiarity.
We think our gut tells us who’s good. What it really tells us is who feels familiar.
We like people who:
Share our values
Mirror our pace
Match our style
And that’s fine until it blinds us to what the job actually requires.
Because:
A confident communicator isn’t necessarily a decisive operator
Shared interests don’t equal shared working styles
Charisma doesn’t drive outcomes
When you hire on gut, you skip the hard part: evidence.
A Better Alternative: Replace Instinct With Structure
Here’s what I do now. And what I teach every founder I work with to do:
Define the mission, not the personality What is this role actually here to deliver? Not in theory. In reality. Over the next 6–18 months.
Design questions that reveal thinking Stop asking “Tell me about yourself.” Instead, ask how they’ve made decisions under pressure, what they learned, and what they’d do differently next time. Use frameworks like STAR+O or PARLA. Stay grounded in outcomes.
Score the evidence, not the energy Create a scorecard tied to behaviours and competencies. You’re not measuring how much you like someone. You’re measuring whether they’ll succeed in your context.
You Don’t Need to Be Psychic. You Need a System.
Gut feel isn’t evil, but it should never be the whole story.
The leaders who hire best aren’t the ones with perfect instincts. They’re the ones who design a process that makes good hiring inevitable.
That’s what we build inside the Hiring Mastery framework.
👉 Book a Hiring Clarity Path Call: https://calendly.com/konstanty-schoolofhiring/hiring-clarity-path We’ll define what great looks like, design your interview structure, and make sure your next hire isn’t a gamble.
Structure beats instinct. Every time.
