Here I go again, finding myself in need of hiring someone new to join the team.

Finding the right employee in today’s world, in almost any industry, is a challenge. Over my career, luckily, I have done much more hiring than firing. But hiring is emotionally and mentally exhausting. How do you find the right candidate? Someone who will support the company, understand the culture, want to be part of it, help push the company forward and contribute to its success?

During my 20-year tenure, I have seen how the market has changed. Back in the day, people were really looking for a steady job that paid well, respected the employee, gave them room to have their own life and, in certain cases, gave them an outlet to grow within their craft. I remember when we found candidates on Craigslist, before LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed, and certainly before AI.

Today, I consistently see fewer people who want to really put in the time and effort to invest in their career. I see more candidates looking for an easy life, minimum work, high pay and very little loyalty to the company employing them.

Someone once told me, “I didn’t choose to be born. My parents brought me into this world, they should take care of me forever.” No, it wasn’t during a job interview, but it gives you some understanding of the mentality I sometimes see in today’s market.

Now, a few important points. I am not generalizing here. There are good people out there. Talented people who want to work, grow and build a career for themselves. I also don’t believe any employee should make work or the company their entire life. The opposite.

I am a firm believer that in order for an employee to be productive, they need to have a good work-life balance. They need to work to support themselves, but also enjoy their lives. We shouldn’t only live to work. Even in the endless rat race, one can stop sometimes and enjoy the cheese without worrying.

And some employers simply don’t deserve good employees.

The other night I was sitting at Serafina, and at the table next to me a store manager was talking about her employees. Apparently they hadn’t been paid on time, and she couldn’t understand why it was such a big deal. “A few more days and they’ll get it.”

I’m sorry, but IT IS A BIG DEAL.

If you expect your employee to show up to work on time, you should pay them on time. And as the manager, you should make sure the business owner, payroll company or accounting office does it on time. There is no question here.

So how do you find a good employee? The right one? Especially in an age where AI can take three basic résumé bullet points and turn them into an impressive professional résumé, and somehow turn every cashier into a “Client Experience Support Agent.”

People practice interviews in front of cameras, watch videos and take courses so they can give the perfect interview, only for you to hire them and discover on the first day that they don’t understand some of the most basic things about the job.

Over the years, I have learned to try to identify the right candidates from the “well-trained” ones. When I look at a résumé, I look for longevity. I look for positions where they had to handle a similar type of workload and similar processes to ours. I look at language skills. I look at where they worked and for how long.

What I mostly skip are lines like, “I helped increase company sales by 35%.” First, I can’t verify that. Second, anyone can happen to be part of a great sales year. Or, “Contributed to customer experience success.” Again, what does that really tell me?

I would much rather see that you worked at Starbucks in New York City for several years. That tells me something. You probably know how to handle pressure. You know what happens when five people want something from you at the same time. You know how to follow systems, work as part of a team, deal with customers and keep going when things get crazy.

I also look for some longevity in someone’s previous positions. Sometimes I get a résumé where a candidate has had ten different jobs in seven years. That immediately raises questions for me. There may be completely legitimate reasons, and I always want to hear them, but patterns matter.

Did you leave every time there was a slight inconvenience? Did every workplace somehow become terrible after six months? Are you going to leave us the moment something doesn’t go your way?

Because hiring and training someone is an investment for the company too.

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give anyone hiring is: pay attention to your gut. Not instead of the résumé, the interview and the facts, but together with them.

More than once, I hired the person who on paper wasn’t quite right. Not experienced enough, from a different background, not polished in high-end customer service. One of them was a young girl, not very experienced, but she had vibrant energy. She answered all my questions with confidence in a very organic way, and basically every ball I threw at her, she came back swinging. That made me feel: she gets it. She can think in the moment and act.

She walked in on her first day, jumped straight into action, greeted my clients and started booking appointments before I even had a chance to properly introduce her to the team.

Then there was the opposite. I interviewed a super-polished and experienced receptionist. She spoke beautifully, came from the hotel world and, on paper, was perfect. But something felt off.

I told myself, “Don’t judge it. Try. Worst comes to worst, you are paying for another lesson in hiring.”

On her first day I taught her two basic things: pink, check-in. Gray, check-out. Two days of training later, she still couldn’t remember that, not to mention understanding the booking process or greeting people with a simple “Hello” and “Welcome.”

It was a very short-lived two-day trial.

But the responsibility, of course, is not only on the employee. The manager needs to have a proper training platform. You need to know how to train, coach and provide feedback. You need to make employees feel comfortable, valued and important.

You cannot expect people to give you their time, effort and loyalty without giving something back to them.

Maybe that is the hardest part of hiring. You are trying to figure out in a few conversations whether this person is going to be the right fit for you, while they are trying to figure out exactly the same thing about you.

Sometimes you get it right.

Sometimes you pay for another lesson.

I would love to hear how you approach hiring, and what is your craziest hiring story?