As operators of an on-demand professional hiring platform that's now been around for several years, we've seen a lot of evolution in our still-fledgling industry. This evolution is making hiring for any type of role - temporary or long-term - more flexible and easy to manage than ever before.Graphite started out as an on-demand platform to connect freelancing professionals with employers for short term projects, and that's still our bread and butter to a substantial degree.

A couple years in, though, we started seeing more and more projects posted that seek finance or marketing professionals to fulfill full-time roles. Many of the jobs you'll see posted on our site today are for long term or permanent hires, or hybrids that can turn into full-time. Some clients have found that working with the highly talented professionals they've found through Graphite has led to a more lasting relationship. People who were hired for a short term role are transitioning into more extended roles with the company, and in many cases they've been offered a full time job.

In other cases, we've seen some of our more savvy clients post a role for, say, a temporary CFO when they were actually looking to give someone a trial run before offering them a salaried job, and later made the offer once they knew for sure they had the right candidate. While this makes us sad to lose any of the great talented people we worked so hard to vet and promote, we realize the world of business is fast-paced and always changing, and we're here to make our clients happy. As their business grows, we know they'll be back when they need help again. So we go with the flow and keep our doors open in the other direction, with plenty of applications from professionals coming in day after day to submit to our human-managed vetting process.

We're bringing this to your attention because it can be a great way to approach a critical hiring decision. A CFO or CMO can make or break your startup, new spinoff or repackaged business  - so having options like this puts you ahead of your peers who aren't using Graphite. ‍

There are a couple of reasons this "Try Before You Buy" method can be a great option:

‍1. When the downside risks militate against long-term hiring obligations. If you're not sure this business initiative will really take off, you don't want to be left obligated on expensive contracts that must be bought out later.

‍2. Picking the wrong person is a costly and often time consuming mistake. Clashing personalities, differing levels of risk tolerance, varying work habits - there are lots of ways things can go south even with what seemed like a great hire at the beginning. A short term hire is a lot easier to let go when you find it's the wrong fit after all.

Why not use a "try before you buy" approach by selecting a professional through Graphite for a temporary role, and try out the fit between you before making the full commitment? Our flexible hiring options make this super simple. We've recently added collaboration tools so you can bring in colleagues who want to review candidates you're considering, without having to create long email chains or paste in links and comments.

Ready to try before you commit? Start here to post your project, or browse our 3,000+ professionals to get a sense of the great talent we've got available on demand.