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Tech

Two Things Jack Dorsey Looks For When He’s Hiring

Andrew Nusca
By
Andrew Nusca
Editorial Director, Brainstorm and author of Fortune Tech
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June 1, 2016, 6:08 PM ET
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey at 2016 Code Conference
Still courtesy Vox Media

Jack Dorsey is a busy guy.

He’s chief executive of two publicly traded companies, Twitter (TWTR) and Square (SQ). Both are headquartered in San Francisco.

At Twitter, he’s trying to revive the social media company’s fortunes in pursuit of more users and broader engagement.

At Square, he’s trying to preserve the commerce company’s momentum as it becomes a payments provider of choice for many businesses.

So you could say he needs a little help. A good support system. A great team to trust when he’s busy making decisions at the other company.

At the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., Dorsey shared the two qualities he values in a job applicant.

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First, he wants to see the fire in their bellies: “I want to see passion. Because that’s the thing that can’t be taught.”

Second, he wants to see excellence in diverse backgrounds: “Is this someone that I will learn from? That’s better than me? That will teach me something new and how to run the company better?”

With talented teams at both companies, Dorsey is confident that he can continue his balancing act running two prominent former startups.

“It’s what you do with the time,” he says, not just perfectly splitting the time 50-50 or spending more time at Twitter, which is more troubled.

Adds Dorsey: “I want to make sure we build a company where we trust the people to make decisions.”

About the Author
Andrew Nusca
By Andrew NuscaEditorial Director, Brainstorm and author of Fortune Tech
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Andrew Nusca is the editorial director of Brainstorm, Fortune's innovation-obsessed community and event series. He also authors Fortune Tech, Fortune’s flagship tech newsletter.

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