For the past 5 years, we have helped companies hire people who have started their own companies, worked as 1099 contractors or were freelance workers. Some companies shy away from these people since the natural inclination is to assume they have failed in some way.
We strongly encourage companies to refrain from filtering these candidates out of their process simply for their recent experience. Their experiences and skills are often broader and richer than a career corporate employee.
How to turn failures into selling points provides tips to candidates for explaining their recent career failures. The author provides coaching to candidates regarding their failures – I like this advice:
Rather than apologizing for trying something big, I like to see people puff up their chests and explain how, exactly, their grand failure experience is going to be an asset to this company.
I couldn’t agree more with this approach. There is a worldliness, even a resourcefulness, to people who have tasted failure yet continue to grow. The best candidates are not always the ones who have been on the stereotypical corporate promotion track. Besides, as you know, we are adamant proponents of hiring talent before experience.