We stopped hiring for experience and started hiring for trajectory
Most companies in our industry hire for experience. We started hiring for trajectory.
In a high-turnover seasonal business, the default is to look for people who are outdoorsy, have relevant experience, and hold the right certifications. That makes sense. It also doesn’t solve operational consistency, which is the actual problem.
So we started asking something different: are they going somewhere?
Who that brings in
We leaned toward people with energy and direction. College athletes. Future pilots, engineers, doctors. Builders and operators. Not just people with the experience already on the resume.
Then we built the system around them: more training than the industry standard, case studies drawn from real scenarios, repetition under pressure, and honest debriefs after every trip. Not surface-level feedback. Real conversations about what worked, what didn’t, and what gets better next time.
The culture does the enforcement
It doesn’t need to be enforced from above, because it’s simply who the team is. People who show up ready, take care of themselves, and push themselves outside of work. Climbing peaks, trail running, exploring new rivers, training consistently. Not because anyone asked them to.
When a team is built that way, standards hold, execution stays consistent, and problems drop. That shows up in the operation almost immediately.
Most teams hire, then try to fix performance later. It starts with who you let in the door.