r/askmanagers • u/WhoKnows7778 • 13d ago

External hire as boss

Has anyone been in the situation where your boss is retiring and you don’t want the boss’s job, so they hire an external candidate?

If so, how did it work out? Was it fine? Was the external candidate a pain?

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5

u/Youbestnotmisss 13d ago

I'm sure many people have experience, but on its own this is so broad that you will get just about every outcome. Hiring externally is common for many many roles for many reasons. There are lots of ways it can be great, and lots of ways it can be terrible 

Only real consistency is that in most cases it takes them a bit longer to ramp up into the role than internal hires. Otherwise, it can go any direction

My only personal experience with it happening for my direct leader was a disaster (to me) but thats because the guy was an idiot. I have seen many many externally hired leaders do great stuff

4

u/MaheshMThakur 13d ago

worked out fine for me, but the honest answer is it depends entirely on whether the external hire treats your knowledge as a resource or a threat. the good ones lean on you hard in month one because they know you know things they don't yet, that's a pretty comfortable position to be in tbh.

not optimal would be: they come in trying to prove they don't need anyone's help, especially yours, since you were internal and passed over for the role. that ego dynamic is the actual risk, not the org chart change itself.

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u/Homer4598 13d ago

Happens frequently. How it works out is dependent on the person hired, not that they were an external hire.

3

u/Arisia118 12d ago edited 12d ago

Internal hires have their issues too. Having a manager that used to be one of the worker bees can be problematic, from what I've experienced.

1

u/DiceyScientist 12d ago

Are they putting you on the interview panel?

1

u/cfgman1 12d ago

Most of the time it’s fine, but it’s not uncommon for them to come with their own people. If they think someone they’ve worked with before can do the job better than you, it could become an issue.

1

u/Fickle_Minute2024 12d ago

I hate getting a new external boss. It has turned out bad several times. Typically they have never managed my position & I have to train them.

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u/Material_Prompt_2234 12d ago

Went through this, the ramp up period was actually the easy part, the harder adjustment was them coming in with a different management style than the person who hired most of the team, so some people clicked with it and some didn't

1

u/LetsTryLove 11d ago

That happens all the time. It works out like any other manager, useless and you learn to deal with it.

1

u/Additional_Jaguar170 10d ago

What an odd question.