Work is changing faster than we realize. Yet hiring practices remain stuck in a bygone era. Whether it’s the grueling gauntlet of interviews or the exhaustive assessments designed to guarantee a “perfect fit,” the process is built on an illusion: that hiring is a permanent decision.

The reality is, nothing about work today is permanent—not the roles, not the relationships, not even the companies themselves. And yet, employers cling to outdated practices that assume otherwise, creating inefficiencies, frustrations, and missed opportunities. To move forward, we need a new mindset—one that embraces the impermanence of modern work and builds trust through action, not assumption.

The permanence myth

Hiring today feels like a high-stakes gamble for both employers and candidates. Employers treat every hire as a make-or-break decision, justifying exhaustive processes as a way to minimize risk. But the paradox is clear: no amount of upfront vetting can guarantee long-term success.

Work evolves. People evolve. The needs of a company today may look radically different a year from now. Employees, too, seek growth, change, and purpose, often choosing to leave roles after just a few years. This fluidity isn’t a flaw—it’s the nature of work in an age of rapid change.

Yet hiring clings to permanence as a guiding principle, frontloading the process with unnecessary friction while ignoring the reality that trust, value, and fit are best discovered through collaboration, not prediction.

Lessons from freelancers

Freelancers and their clients offer a useful contrast. Their relationships are built on trust that grows incrementally, not through exhaustive pre-screening but through doing the work.

When a freelancer is hired, it’s typically for a specific project with a clear deliverable. The client may evaluate a portfolio or testimonials, but the real proof of fit comes in execution. If the work is successful, the relationship deepens. If it’s not, both parties move on without the weight of a permanent commitment.

This transactional approach doesn’t mean the work lacks depth or loyalty—it means trust is earned, not assumed. Both parties understand that collaboration is a process, not a guarantee.

Rethinking hiring as an evolving relationship

What if we treated traditional hiring more like the freelancer-client relationship? Instead of demanding absolute certainty upfront, we could create a system that prioritizes action, flexibility, and mutual growth.

1. Start with clear, immediate contributions. Focus on what a candidate can do in the short term, rather than trying to predict their long-term trajectory.

2. Build trust through collaboration. Let the working relationship evolve naturally, using early projects or trial periods as a foundation for deeper engagement.

3. Embrace impermanence. Acknowledge that roles, teams, and priorities will shift over time, and design hiring practices that reflect this reality.

This doesn’t diminish the importance of full-time roles or long-term relationships—it enhances them by making them more adaptable to change.

Why this matters now

The illusion of permanence in hiring creates unnecessary friction on both sides. Candidates feel demoralized by endless processes, while companies remain anxious about whether they’ve made the “right” decision. The result is a system that’s slow, inefficient, and poorly aligned with the realities of modern work.

By adopting an approach that’s more iterative, we reduce the stakes for both sides. Employers can focus on immediate needs while remaining open to the relationship evolving. Candidates can spend less time proving their hypothetical value and more time demonstrating their actual impact.

Trust over guarantees

At its core, the shift we need is about trust. Trust is rarely built through theoretical vetting—it’s earned in the real world, through shared experience and meaningful contributions.

Freelancers understand this intuitively, as do their clients. It’s time for traditional hiring to follow suit. By letting go of the permanence myth, we can create a system that’s faster, more flexible, and better suited to the realities of work today.

Work isn’t about finding guarantees. It’s about building trust, one step at a time.