My 4 Personal Learnings for Hiring Well

1. Brand names are not a guarantee of great PMs

After interviewing hundreds of PMs, I have learned that brand names are no guarantee of great PMs who consistently deliver outstanding impact.  Amazon has over 300,000 tech employees. It is statistically impossible that every single one of them is a good fit for my team.

I don't just get impressed by brand names like FAANG or Harvard/MIT on a resume. I ask candidates to dig deep into what they achieved at those companies and how they did it. And I don't just take their word for it. I give them a skills test that mimics real work at LINE MAN Wongnai . This test reveals more about their future job performance than anything else.

Harvard University , Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Chulalongkorn University , Meta , Apple , Netflix , Google

2. Look for scars, not stories.

In interviews, many candidates know how to polish their resumes and present themselves well. But I've found that some of these "storytellers" don't actually deliver on their promises. On the other hand, there are hidden gems who are great executors but don't know how to dazzle in an interview.

Great execution comes from learning from failures and mistakes. The best product managers and leaders I've worked with have calluses and war scars. They've faced challenges and came out stronger. I look for these scars, not a flawless, blessed career.

3. Learn from our mistakes.

We've been very strict about who we offer jobs to, but we still have candidates who don't pass their probation period or leave us. My fellow hiring managers and I take our post-mortems seriously. We honestly ask ourselves why a candidate we thought was great during the interview didn't work out.

Most importantly, mistakes are painful. They're painful for us (we have to hire again) and painful for the employee (they have to find another job). So we make sure we fully experience the pain so we can incorporate our learnings into future hiring.

4. Find people who are unafraid, think critically, and stay open-minded.

The work we do is hard. It's like banging your head against a wall every day. But if you're unafraid, you'll find a way to make progress. And if you're critical and open-minded, you'll be a valuable asset to our team.

We base our decisions on logic, data, and results. We don't care about rank, role, or alignment. So critical thinkers thrive with us. But you also have to be unafraid to challenge.

We're unbiased and systematic in evaluating information and arguments. We're constantly identifying our own and others' assumptions and biases. So we value open-mindedness. That doesn't mean being indecisive. It means being able to change your mind when presented with new evidence.

We're looking for strong decision makers who can update their conclusions and decisions based on new information. If you're unafraid, critical, and open-minded, we want you on our team.