What is the 70/30 rule in hiring?
The 70/30 rule in hiring usually means hiring someone who already meets about 70 percent of a role's requirements and developing the other 30 percent on the job. It is a recruiting rule of thumb, not a standard, and the same name is also used for decision confidence and interview talk time.
The 70/30 rule in hiring, defined
70/30 rule in hiring A rule of thumb: hire a person who meets roughly 70 percent of the role's requirements today, and plan to build the remaining 30 percent through onboarding, mentoring and the work itself.
A hiring manager splits the job ad into must-haves and learnable skills, and stops waiting for the candidate who already has both.
Four things people mean by the 70/30 rule
Search the phrase and you get at least four different ratios. Only the first is about who to hire. Check which one a speaker means before you argue with it.
| Meaning | What the 70 and the 30 refer to | Where it is written down |
|---|---|---|
| Hire at 70 percent fit | 70 percent of requirements met at hire, 30 percent learned on the job. | Recruiting blogs such as Glints (2026), which names no origin, and Workable. |
| Decide at 70 percent confidence | Act once you are about 70 percent sure, rather than waiting for certainty. | Workable credits Marine Corps teaching. Amazon's 2016 shareholder letter says 70 percent of the information. |
| Interview talk time | The candidate talks about 70 percent of the time, the interviewer 30. | Informal interview advice. The documented version is 80/20, reported by the ABA Journal in 2010. |
| 70-20-10, often misheard | 70 percent of learning comes from challenging work, 20 from people, 10 from courses. | Center for Creative Leadership research. A development model, not a hiring rule. |
None of these four comes from SHRM or another standards body. Each is a heuristic, so quote it as one.
Where the hiring version comes from
Nobody owns it. Workable's version borrows a Marine Corps decision rule, take action once you have 70 percent confidence, and applies it to hiring someone who meets about 70 percent of the criteria and training the rest. Glints states the 70/30 split directly and claims no origin for it.
The decision rule has a better known cousin. Jeff Bezos wrote in Amazon's 2016 shareholder letter that most decisions should be made with around 70 percent of the information you wish you had, because waiting for 90 percent is usually slow. Neither source measured hiring outcomes at 70 percent.
The honest version
The 70/30 rule is a prompt to separate what a new hire must bring from what they can learn. The exact number is decoration. A 60/40 or 80/20 split is just as defensible if the role demands it.
How to apply the 70/30 rule to one open role
The rule only works if the split is written down before the first CV arrives. Otherwise 70 percent becomes whatever the most likeable candidate happens to have.
- List every requirement in the job ad Skills, tools, years, credentials, industry. Include the ones nobody says out loud, such as time zone or travel.
- Mark each one must-have or learnable A must-have is something the person cannot do the job without in month one. Everything else is a candidate for the 30. Must-have: has shipped payments code. Learnable: the team's internal ledger tool.
- Write a plan for the learnable part Name who teaches it, how, and by when. Glints warns that without a plan the 30 percent gap can stay open too long.
- Screen on must-haves only Nobody who misses a must-have goes through. Nobody is rejected for missing a learnable skill alone.
- Check the gap at 90 days If the 30 percent is not closing, the error was usually in step 2, not in the person.
When the 70/30 rule fails
It fails in roles where a gap is a liability rather than a learning curve. Glints itself says finance, legal and advanced engineering roles often need closer to 90 to 100 percent readiness. Licensed, safety-critical and regulated work belongs in the same group.
It also fails when nobody trains. SHRM's 2026 Talent Trends survey of more than 2,000 HR professionals found that 41 percent train existing employees for hard-to-fill roles. The rule assumes the employer is in that group. If there is no mentor and no time, a 70 percent hire stays a 70 percent hire.
Using the 70/30 rule well
Do
- Write the must-have list with the hiring manager before sourcing starts.
- Put the learnable skills in the job ad as nice-to-haves, labelled as such.
- Give the new hire a named owner for closing the gap.
- Raise the bar toward 90 percent for regulated or safety-critical roles.
Do not
- Use 70 percent to justify a rushed offer to the first decent candidate.
- Count a must-have as learnable because the pipeline is thin.
- Quote the rule as research. Every version of it is a heuristic.
- Confuse it with the 70-20-10 learning model, which answers a different question.
Must-haves and learnables in a candidate search
Every person is judged against the brief's must-haves. Anyone who misses one drops lower. Nobody is removed.
The same split carries into sourcing. In The Cognitive, a plain-English brief becomes editable filters over ~900M public profiles. If a profile is silent on a must-have, the person stays in with the gap named to confirm. A profile that contradicts a hard requirement is left out. Each result opens with a "Why this match" line from the profile.
The 70/30 rule in 4 lines
- Most often it means hiring at about 70 percent fit and training the other 30 percent.
- It is a heuristic from recruiting blogs and decision advice, not a published standard.
- It only works when must-haves and learnable skills are written down first.
- Regulated, licensed and safety-critical roles need a much higher starting bar.
Keep reading
The 80/20 rule in recruiting · The 5 C's of recruitment · Intake meeting questions · What is a structured interview
Frequently asked questions
What is the 70/30 rule in hiring?
The 70/30 rule in hiring usually means hiring a candidate who meets about 70 percent of the requirements and developing the remaining 30 percent on the job. It is a rule of thumb from recruiting articles, not a published standard. The same name is sometimes used for decision confidence or interview talk time, so check which one is meant.
Who came up with the 70/30 rule in hiring?
No single originator is documented. Workable's version credits a Marine Corps teaching, act on a decision once you have 70 percent confidence, and applies it to hiring. Glints states the 70/30 split directly without naming an origin. Amazon's 2016 shareholder letter uses a similar 70 percent idea for decisions in general.
Is the 70 percent rule of hiring the same as the 70/30 rule?
Mostly, yes. The 70 percent rule of hiring, as Workable describes it, says to hire someone who meets about 70 percent of your criteria instead of waiting for a perfect match. The 70/30 rule names the other side too: the 30 percent the employer commits to developing after the hire.
Does the 70/30 rule mean lowering hiring standards?
It should not. Glints, one of the main sources for the rule, says plainly that the goal is not to lower hiring standards. The 70 percent should cover the core of the job, and only skills that can realistically be learned on the job belong in the 30 percent.
When should you not use the 70/30 rule?
Skip it for roles where a skill gap is a risk rather than a learning curve. Glints says finance, legal and advanced engineering roles often need closer to 90 to 100 percent readiness, and licensed or safety-critical roles fit the same pattern. It also fails when the employer has no time or plan to train.
What is the 70/30 rule in an interview?
In interviewing, 70/30 sometimes means the candidate should talk about 70 percent of the time and the interviewer about 30. It is informal advice without a primary source. The more often documented version is 80/20: a 2010 ABA Journal report cited a law firm's hiring partner and recruiting coordinator advising that the candidate should do 80 percent of the talking.
Is the 70/30 rule the same as the 70-20-10 rule?
No. The 70-20-10 rule from the Center for Creative Leadership describes how leaders learn: about 70 percent from challenging assignments, 20 percent from relationships and 10 percent from formal courses. It supports the idea that a new hire can learn on the job, but it is a development model, not a hiring rule.
How do you decide what counts as the 30 percent?
Ask whether the person could do the job in their first month without it. If they could not, it is a must-have and belongs in the 70. If they could, and someone can teach it within a few months, it can sit in the 30. Agree the list with the hiring manager before screening starts.
Does the 70/30 rule help candidates apply for jobs?
It can. A job ad that labels must-haves separately from nice-to-haves tells candidates which gaps are acceptable, so people who meet the core requirements have less reason to rule themselves out. A job ad that lists every skill as required sends the opposite signal.
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