Aaron Levant, the CEO of Complex—a media and e-commerce platform—has made news for his outside-the-box hiring practices. LeVant has decades of experience in starting, incubating, seeding and growing businesses. The first places a higher value on real-world experience and entrepreneurial ambition than academic credentials when judging prospective hires.
Levant’s unique approach to hiring is influenced, in part, by his years of experience as an entrepreneur. So whether he’s building a team of five or 500, he knows how to read between the lines. His formative experience indeed colors his evaluation criteria, where job history takes center stage. He believes that assessing a candidate’s readiness for a role requires a keen understanding of what they have accomplished in their previous positions.
“Experience is crucial. It reduces the time companies spend getting new hires up to speed,” Levant stated. He seeks people out who not only have the right chops, but who have a “propensity to be a hustler.” This trait is key to Levant. It reflects an employee’s ambition and drive that extends outside of their official job descriptions.
Above all, Levant has a soft spot for a candidate’s side hustles. He views these enterprises as windows into passions and their interests that might infuse their professional work. “I don’t care if it’s making crochet blankets and selling on Etsy … that tells me something about you and your personality, and goes back to that hustle factor,” Levant remarked.
Although he is supportive of the fact that most of the applicants likely have impressive credentials on their résumés, Levant continues to be dismissive towards formal education. “They may have it on [their resume], but I just don’t even look,” he asserted, emphasizing that hands-on experience often outweighs academic credentials in his hiring decisions. Rather, he prefers skills learned in masterclasses or online certifications that demonstrate a unique desire to learn on one’s own.
Levant’s current approach to selective hiring involves looking for red flags in a candidate’s employment history. For example, he treats a record of seven jobs in seven years as a big red flag. “If I see someone with seven jobs in seven years, that’s a red flag to me,” he explained. Repeated such patterns can be a serious red flag for instability or lack of commitment. These qualities run counter to the community and culture he wanted to create at Complex.
Nowadays, Levant is less interested in a one-size-fits-all hiring model. “Now I’m at the point where I’m very much trying to hire people one-to-one,” he noted. This method allows him to better assess each candidate’s fit within the company and ensure that they align with its goals and ethos.
This inclusive hiring philosophy is one way Levant hopes to speed the pace of change inside Complex. They recruit for people who can add real value from day one. So he is on a constant hunt for talent that possesses those skills. He seeks out people who personify the risk-taking, experimentative entrepreneurial spirit that characterizes his administration.