High Floor, High Ceiling Candidates

When our team was hiring, I was thinking types of good candidates.

I defined two dimensions to judge a candidate. The floor and the ceiling. The floor is the existing cumulative experience the candidate has. The ceiling is the future potential of growth the candidate has.

A fresher from the top 3 universities can be categorized as low floor, high ceiling candidates. They currently don't have that much experience. But, the raw intelligence, the ingredients, that can be shaped to be a mature software engineers is the high ceiling.

Meanwhile, another candidate with 15 years of experience with a title of Senior Software Engineer might be categorized as high floor, low ceiling candidates. In their 15 years of experience, they're "still" at Senior level.

Please notice the quote on "still" in the sense that being a Senior at 15 YoE of and itself is not inherently bad. But, it does signal low future growth potential, which may not be bad if that's no longer the candidate's priority in their life.

An example of high floor, high ceiling candidates is something like a candidate with 7 YoE with a Staff Software Engineer at FAANG and adjacents. Another example is a 15 YoE as a Senior Director or VP in big techs corporation ladder. Or, it might mean a young 30s founders with unicorn valuation.

There's no right or wrong answer. What matters is the fit. Whether the candidate fits the expected requirements of the role itself.