Welcome to our curated collection of hiring quotes, where we delve into the insightful words of leaders, entrepreneurs, and visionaries on the topic of recruitment and talent acquisition. In the fast-paced world of business, the process of hiring the right individuals is not merely a task but an art form a delicate balance between identifying skills, assessing character, and envisioning the potential for growth. Whether you’re an HR professional, a business owner, or someone seeking employment, these quotes offer invaluable wisdom, inspiration, and perspective on navigating the intricate terrain of recruitment.
As you explore the quotes gathered here, you’ll encounter a diverse array of perspectives, each offering a unique insight into the dynamics of hiring and building successful teams. From renowned CEOs to management gurus, these voices resonate with experience, knowledge, and the occasional dose of humor. Whether you’re seeking guidance on crafting job descriptions, conducting interviews, or fostering a thriving workplace culture, these quotes are sure to spark contemplation, conversation, and perhaps even a newfound approach to the hiring process. So without further ado, let’s dive into the wisdom shared by experts in the field of recruitment and talent management. Stay tuned as we present a compilation of thought-provoking quotes on hiring.
I don’t know how one would define an affirmative-action hire. I ultimately do not know what role race played in my hiring. Jayson Blair
As we’ve seen time and again, women and girls who are out there working, they are truly force multipliers, spreading opportunity through their families and communities – and not just by creating programs and nonprofit organizations, not just by hiring other women, but also by serving as role models themselves. Michelle Obama
When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses – it was right after ‘Roots,’ and for society, not me, it was great. Nice richly dark-skinned people was the fashion, and I was not. Anna Deavere Smith
We already know that anonymous letters are despicable. In etiquette, as well as in law, hiring a hit man to do the job does not relieve you of responsibility. Judith Martin
Great companies have been reduced by hiring executives that don’t work out. Dylan Smith
TARP is funded by taxpayers, so there are many rules about how that money can and can’t be used. The result: GM spends an awful lot of time checking in with the people who administer TARP over everything from hiring to executive compensation and management. For a global company, that adds up to a lot of distraction. Edward Whitacre, Jr.
One of the big concerns I have is that most of the HR departments in a lot of companies are hiring away from creativity and they don’t know it. For instance, they are requiring everybody to have a college degree. The most creative people I know couldn’t deal with college. Nolan Bushnell
The goal is to not be patted on the back for hiring a woman, because it shouldn’t be an exceptional thing. It should just be commonplace that women should have equal opportunities as men. Margaret Qualley
On balance, I am a supporter of the minimum wage going up. We’ve got to be very careful what we wish for because some employers – and there could be a lot of them – will be scared away from hiring new people or creating incremental hours for part-time people as a result of that wage going up. Howard Schultz
However you feel about Dimebag, this is one of the most influential metal guitar players of the ’90s. I was just talking to someone that I am hiring to bring on the tour who said that, when he was at the funeral, that Eddie Van Halen came and put his striped guitar in the coffin. That’s a pretty big deal. Glenn Danzig
A film set becomes its own family anyway, and all family dynamics come out during a shoot. The trick is hiring people who know how to handle that. Noah Baumbach
The cardinal rule of taxation is that whatever you put a levy on, you’ll inevitably get less of. Taxing corporate activity means less investing, less hiring, fewer jobs and a smaller economy, which hurts the rich, the poor and the middle class alike. Adam Davidson
Talent has no gender. People are hiring young male directors right out of film school, off of a student film or off of a film at Sundance for millions of dollars. You can do the same with a female. It’s not a risk about the work if you respect the film that they made. Gina Prince-Bythewood
All our hiring staff are trained to interview in English. They’re trained to look for Westernized segments because we deal with global customers. Azim Premji
I have, from the beginning, been opposed to Trump hiring any of his relatives. Americans don’t like that; I don’t like that. That’s the one fascist thing he’s done. Hiring his kids. Ann Coulter
By far the most difficult skill I learned as a C.E.O. was the ability to manage my own psychology. Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared with keeping my mind in check. Ben Horowitz
I believe that as a writer and a director, you’re only providing the skeleton of a character, and you’re hiring actors to fill it out. Christopher McQuarrie
Part of the problem with producing contemporary political theater in America today is that many theaters don’t have flexibility or resources, be it hiring a lot of actors or staging a work that might be tough for some audience and board members. Theresa Rebeck
You don’t make spending decisions, investment decisions, hiring decisions, or whether-you’re-going-to-look-for-a-job decisions when you don’t know what’s going to happen. Michael Bloomberg
Big companies are often in the process of laying off workers. Small startup companies are the ones that are hiring. The statistics prove that’s where job growth is going to occur. Jerry Moran
When I started Netscape I was brand new out of college and all the aspects of building a business, like balance sheets and hiring people, were new to me. Marc Andreessen
I had a terrible time hiring rich people. It sounds funny, but the problem is when things go wrong they can ask, ‘Why am I doing this?’ You don’t ever want anybody asking that question. You want them to say, ‘I know why I’m doing it, I need the money, let’s go’ or whatever it is that draws them. Ben Horowitz
Many churches of all persuasions are hiring research agencies to poll neighborhoods, asking what kind of church they prefer. Then the local churches design themselves to fit the desires of the people. True faith in God that demands selflessness is being replaced by trendy religion that serves the selfish. Billy Graham
I had to learn to trust people, and I realized that success was going to be born in hiring really bright people – very self-motivated, very able to make good judgment calls day in and day out. Kenneth C. Griffin
I decided to set out to prove that you could make a reasonable living building for the poor using recycled materials and only hiring unskilled labor. Dan Phillips
Short of hiring a new staff, consider giving subpar workers a chance to improve. Tell them why they’re not measuring up and give them a set amount of time to make specific improvements. Danny Meyer
There has been an attempt to pull in a more cable mentality to the big networks – from NBC hiring Scott Sassa from TNT, to FOX hiring Herzog from Comedy Central. Sam Seder
When choosing between two similar applicants, hiring managers are increasingly turning to social media outlets to supplement information they are unable to glean from applications or interviews. Amy Jo Martin
I don’t watch the movies I make, so I haven’t seen ‘Footloose’ since it came out. You see this young, hungry actor, it’s pretty fun. I was the only one they screen tested. It was an attempt by the director and producer to talk the head of the studio into hiring me because they didn’t want me. Kevin Bacon
In a world where people are hungry for quick fixes and sound bites, for instant gratification, there’s no patience for the long, slow rebuilding process: implementing after-school programs, hiring more community workers to act as mentors, adding more job training programs in marginalized areas. Dan Hill
Of everyone else who was running, and there were some very talented people, none of them had anywhere near the experience I had in hiring people, holding them accountable, creating systems for accountability. John Hickenlooper
Sometimes you walk out of an audition and you kind of know you nailed it and you’re probably going to book it, but you very rarely are told in the room by the people who are hiring you. Michael Cudlitz
The entire business world has figured out how to make huge buckets of money without hiring us to work for them. Michael Moore
The Obama administration is not helping small businesses create jobs. In fact, it is responsible for the regulatory uncertainty nearly 50 percent of small-business owners cite as responsible for their lack of hiring. Sher Valenzuela
A lot of labels are hiring a lot more accountants than people that know music. Taylor Hanson
I’m really good at hiring good people. Sophia Amoruso
Build into each budget the cost of hiring and don’t lump yourself with capital investment. Ann Macbeth
I hope Hong Kong and Asia wants to hire American Asian actresses as much as Hollywood has been hiring Chinese actors from Asia. Ming-Na Wen
When I’m hiring someone I look for magic and a spark. Little things that intuitively give me a gut feeling that this person will go to the ends of the earth to accomplish the task at hand. Tommy Mottola
HBO is really famous for hiring good people and staying out of their way until they ask for help, or need it. And that reputation is earned. Richard Russo
Somehow, the company must stay true to the founding vision while avoiding the pitfalls of rapid growth – and perhaps survive the hiring of a previously successful executive who doesn’t work out. Bing Gordon
Companies are getting bitten by hiring a data scientist who isn’t really a data scientist. Anthony Goldbloom
Fantasy sports went a long way toward developing the sabermetrics formulas used not only by oddsmakers but general managers in hiring players. So the amateur fantasists ended up creating some of the algorithms that Oakland GM Billy Bean’s statisticians used to win games with less salary money available for star players. Douglas Rushkoff
The biggest challenge is to build the team and start the company, while hiring people, raising money, building a brand which has no history, all at the same time. You’re doing a lot of things that in an established company are already done. Henrik Fisker
There is a difference between hiring a CEO and turning over control of the business. Fred Wilson
I like hiring people based on a feeling – this person gets it – rather than what they’ve done in the past. Spike Jonze
I’ve got to let the people who are in the business run the business. I can help them think through their decisions about products, about partners, about hiring. But in the end, the decisions are theirs, and so is the responsibility. Ram Shriram
You want to feel like people are hiring you because they want to work with you, not because of who your parents are. Lily Rabe
I had four or five years in school training as a soprano. I fell into pop singing because of economics. I got out of high school and had to go work, and they weren’t hiring opera singers. Jo Stafford
Several companies have explicit policies against cronyism, with good reason. Hiring a family member simply for a relationship can be troubling and may not necessarily serve a company’s interests. But by and large, financial firms in particular commonly hire people who have certain connections, whether through family or a business relationship. Andrew Ross Sorkin
Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a company’s announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring a counterfeiter. Bill Keller
Hey, I’m happy someone is hiring me. It could be all over. I’m so lucky to have a job. Kevin Williamson
Don’t hire for the sake of hiring. Hire because there is no other way to do what you want to do. Sam Altman
A biopic would have required hiring an actor, and I always wanted to just let Bobby be Bobby. My thought was it would make it a more universal story to focus on ordinary people rather than this extraordinary man. Emilio Estevez
So many actors wear wigs nowadays. Besides, if someone is hiring me because of how I wear my hair, I don’t want to work with them anyway. Maria Bello
I’ve learned my lesson hiring strictly on resume. At the end of the day, if they didn’t match our core values, it was a disaster and I ended up losing other great people within the company – and that’s time and money. Kendra Scott
I don’t want to be in boardrooms talking about hiring hairdressers and minivans. I’m not good at it, and I don’t like to hire and fire people. I hate that. It’s horrible. Kim Cattrall
Businesses should no longer be allowed to depress wages by hiring illegal labor and then falsely claim that Americans don’t want to do the jobs. Dana Rohrabacher
We’ve heard the excuses from those responsible for hiring that they don’t want to take a chance on a new director. But the truth is that the industry hires new directors all the time; it’s just that most of them are white males. Lesli Linka Glatter
Hiring foreigners is more expensive and more difficult than hiring locals, because of the visa fees and long lead times for visa processing. And companies face a backlash by anti-immigrant groups for hiring foreigners. So they do it only because they have to. Vivek Wadhwa
Some people seem to sort of have a gut for hiring. I literally had a gut that was exactly the opposite. So whenever I thought someone would be great, it was sort of the opposite. Wendy Kopp
My parents were involved in community theater in New Jersey. Instead of hiring a baby sitter, they would take me with them. So my love of acting seeped in from watching my parents and seeing them having fun. Jane Krakowski
What I found fascinating was just how quickly the best of the young Negro League players were drafted into the major leagues once Branch Rickey broke the color line by hiring Jackie Robinson. It was clear that all of the major league owners already knew the talents of the black ballplayers that they had refused to let into their league. Walter Dean Myers
Someone could be amazing at what they do, but if you don’t like them, why bother hiring them? Chip Conley
I was always self-conscious about the fact that I didn’t have as much comedy experience as other people at ‘SNL,’ and I kept thinking they were going to realize they’d made a mistake by hiring me. Bill Hader
Today, currently, business owners can go out and find out if the person they are hiring is eligible to work here or if they are not. We need to think about how we are impacting workers. Gary Miller
As somebody who has been an executive producer on a television series, I can tell you that increasing director diversity is as simple as hiring more women and more people of color. Lesli Linka Glatter
Like any director working today, I started out when somebody took a shot at hiring me. It’s how we all start out – male, female, white or minority. Lesli Linka Glatter
Without global human rights, labor and environmental movements, companies would still be hiring 12-year-olds as a matter of course and poisoning our groundwater without batting an eyelid. Rebecca MacKinnon
We wanted to preserve as many jobs as possible, so when our sales continued to decline in August 2008, we did about a 5 percent reduction of our global staff. But in order not to cut any more jobs, we froze everybody’s pay and put a hiring freeze on. John Mackey
Companies are hiring cosplayers to be promotional spokes models for them. There are cosplayers trying to develop a cult following even though they’ve only been cosplaying for less than a year or two. It’s all about the social media or Facebook likes. Yaya Han
I studied philosophy, religious studies, and English. My training was writing four full-length novels and hiring an editor to tear them apart. I had enough money to do that, and then rewriting and rewriting and rewriting. Ted Dekker
Tax incentives might spur hiring in the short run, but how lasting are those gains if the jobs expire with the tax credits and they come at the expense of investing in the new technologies of the future? Myron Scholes
The system is not really particularly amenable to filmmakers who write and direct their own work. It’s much more about the studio already having a property that has a marketable concept and then hiring the director on board. James Gray
Where the gaming world is going – and certainly Activision proved it by hiring me – is being willing to push and bend and move in a new direction of actually capturing the character and storytelling. Kevin Spacey
Everyone else is parsing it in terms of lowering the corporate income tax. Eliminate it. It’s not that big of a generator of income, and it’s a double tax. Get rid of it, and you would have an explosion of hiring. Gary Johnson
If the penalty for hiring illegals is just a fine, it becomes a business decision. But if the penalty is jail time, illegal immigration will come to a screeching halt. Jose Ferreira
I did freelance cartooning off and on from college graduation in 1991 through ABC News hiring me in 2003. I did a weekly comic strip for ‘Roll Call’ for about nine years. I sold cartoons and caricatures to ‘The Los Angeles Times’ and ‘The Washington Post.’ I drew as much as I could. It’s really tough to make a living doing it. Jake Tapper
Few people would doubt that Mark Zuckerberg would build a great product. But I, at least, would never have expected him to become so great at hiring, motivating, managing, and ultimately getting whatever it is his company needs from people. Sarah Lacy
I am proud our government has passed a law that ensures priority hiring of Veterans, as I advocated for this, and spoke about it in the House of Commons. Erin O’Toole
Hospitality is almost impossible to teach. It’s all about hiring the right people. Danny Meyer
Stop pretending there’s anything wrong with businesspeople hiring diligent laborers who will work for less. Let employers sponsor any worker and argue for why that worker should be given citizenship. Such a vetting mechanism would naturally promote the best and hardest-working. Jose Ferreira
I’m set to have my best year ever: I’m hiring some acts and there will be a show in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. I’m going to use my theater to its fullest potential. Mickey Gilley
Message to all you crazed parents desperately hiring tutors and padding your kid’s thin resume: Chillax. Attending an elite college is no guarantee of leadership, life success, or earnings potential. Nina Easton
We hire military veterans because they make great employees. They bring proven technical and leadership skills. They understand teamwork, and they’re adaptable. Bottom line, hiring veterans is good for business. Randall L. Stephenson
Developing a good, healthy culture is extremely important at a startup. Culture reflects the essence of a startup’s operation because it directly affects the success of a company’s hiring practices and overall strategy. Scott Weiss
While social media skills were once a ‘nice-to-have,’ accreditation in the space is becoming a requirement for many of these job titles. Hiring managers and job seekers are realizing that printing stacks of resumes is turning passe, and social media is rising as the new way of generating real-time networking opportunities. Ryan Holmes
When I’m hiring a cook for one of my restaurants, and I want to see what they can do, I usually ask them to make me an omelette. Bobby Flay
Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a company is not allowed to provide a personal benefit to a decision maker in return for business. But hiring the sons and daughters of powerful executives and politicians is hardly just the province of banks doing business in China: it has been a time-tested practice here in the United States. Andrew Ross Sorkin
Whether you’re saying ‘thank you’ to friends, family members, customers, or a hiring manager who interviewed you for a job, the case in favor of gratitude is both altruistic and pragmatic. Charles Best
If you get rich in the name of the poor, fine and dandy. The problem is when you earn it. If you earn the money in the private sector by starting a business and hiring a lot of people, that’s when you become the enemy. Rush Limbaugh
When I meet successful people I ask 100 questions as to what they attribute their success to. It is usually the same: persistence, hard work and hiring good people. Kiana Tom
The dispersal of juniper seeds is effected by the plum and cherry plan of hiring birds at the cost of their board, and thus obtaining the use of a pair of extra good wings. John Muir
I’ve always been really internally focused. I tend to focus on hiring – ensuring that every person we hire is both a really good fit and really good – and also that everything we put out to our users is very high-quality. Arash Ferdowsi
An employer would be a complete fool to let an image like college partying influence their hiring decisions. Nick Denton
It’s very important in a restaurant to really do the right hiring because there’s no restaurant that you have one cook and one chef and nobody else in the kitchen. Generally you have five, ten, 15 people with you. So that’s really important is to train them right, but first you have to hire the right people. Wolfgang Puck
Many think of management as cutting deals and laying people off and hiring people and buying and selling companies. That’s not management, that’s deal making. Management is the opportunity to help people become better people. Practiced that way, it’s a magnificent profession. Clayton M. Christensen
From 20 years of experience hiring artists out of the schools, I know-they get worse every year. They’re absolutely ridiculously retarded now. John Kricfalusi
We focus on two things when hiring. First, find the best people you can in the world. And second, let them do their work. Just get out of their way. Matt Mullenweg
Huge studio movies are handed over to a man with less experience before they’re handed over to a woman with less experience. That’s a fact. But I think it’s not just about men not hiring women: it’s about women not hiring women, too. Reed Morano