46% of new hires fail within 18 months. 89% of the time, the cause is attitude and values, not technical skills.
Leadership IQ, 3-year study of 5,247 hiring managers across 312 companies
The cost goes beyond salary. Lost productivity, 6 to 12 months to restart the search, institutional knowledge that walked out the door. For senior roles, estimates range from 1 to 2 times annual salary.
"You don't instill values. You hire for them."Leadership IQ tracked 20,000+ new hires. Technical competence ranked last among failure causes.
The evidence has been clear for 30 years. Most companies still haven't implemented it.
Structured interviews are 2x more predictive than unstructured.
Same questions, same order, same scoring. Better signal.
"Culture fit" is the #1 reason for rejection, and the least defined.
Without clear criteria, "fit" becomes a proxy for bias.
Resume name discrimination is well-documented.
Unconscious bias enters before the interview starts.
Group decisions default to the most senior or loudest voice.
Debrief dynamics override individual assessment.
Interview training and process consulting for tech teams.
Map your current interview loop. Identify where signal gets lost and bias creeps in.
Structured behavioral interviewing for engineers and hiring managers. Workshops, role-play, live calibration.
Define what you're actually hiring for. Scoring rubrics, debrief protocols, and decision criteria your team will use.
Close the gap between what recruiters screen for and what hiring managers evaluate. Same bar, same language.
One-day workshop. Ten behavioral competencies. Question banks, scoring rubrics, and debrief templates included.
37 hours over 4-6 weeks. Full course, role-play rotations, and end-to-end interview simulation with calibration.
30+ years in tech. 500+ interviews conducted. Former AWS. Built interview programs from scratch.
At AWS, coached a 50-person support engineering team from inconsistent interview practices to bar-raising standard. Redesigned the Linux SME vetting process, replacing "guess my answer" panels with structured behavioral methodology.
Berlin-based. Available globally.
"He does an amazing job at drilling down into a candidate's strengths and weaknesses. He doesn't compromise standards and upholds a very high bar."AWS peer review
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