I would only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person," Zuckerberg said. "It's been a pretty good heuristic for me." He name-checked Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, as a perfect example of someone he'd be happy to report to "if Facebook disappeared and I had to find something else to do."
Every organization needs a deliberate strategy for screening out less-than-stellar candidates, because most companies, especially ones that are growing, have more work they need done than they have people to do it, he said. "Maybe you could compromise on quality today and get a little more work done over the next six months," but companies that do so will live to regret it.