Hiring today is less about filling a role and more about identifying who will actually stay, contribute and fit within a culture that often defines a brand as much as the beer itself.
For Amber Burton, HR at Hudson North, the process starts by challenging a common industry assumption: that interviews should be structured, formal evaluations designed to quickly filter candidates. In her experience, that approach often backfires.
“I approach interviewing as a conversation,” Burton said at a seminar at CiderCon 2026 in Providence, Rhode Island. “No one wants to do a rapid-fire, pressure, anxiety-ridden interview when it’s already very uncomfortable to begin with.”
That philosophy reflects a broader shift many cideries are grappling with as they compete for limited talent pools. Traditional interview tactics may reveal technical skills, but they often fail to uncover whether a candidate can thrive in a collaborative, customer-facing environment where personality and connection matter as much as experience.
Burton intentionally lowers the barrier early, encouraging casual dialogue and shared interests to build rapport.
“Talk about your hobbies, their hobbies … find the connection to turn it into a conversation from the get,” she said. “Most importantly, be yourself. Don’t put on a professional mask.”
That emphasis on authenticity cuts both ways. While it helps candidates open up, it also gives hiring managers a clearer read on whether someone is being genuine. Burton noted that candidates can quickly detect when an interviewer is being performative, and the same is true in reverse.
The underlying bet in her approach is that connection is not a soft metric, but a business-critical one.
“Connection is so important in the current climate,” Burton said. “People want to feel connected and close and comfortable. We spend the most time together on a weekly basis.”
Yet even with a more human-centered interview process, Burton pointed to early-stage breakdowns that continue to frustrate hiring managers, particularly around reliability.
“Red flags … happen within the talking stage,” she said, citing missed communications or candidates failing to show up for scheduled interviews. Those early signals, she suggested, are often predictive rather than incidental.
One pattern she has observed is frequent short-term employment on resumes. While she believes in giving candidates the benefit of the doubt, Burton acknowledged a correlation that’s difficult to ignore.
“The people that have six-month tenure at places and are bouncing around are the folks that I’ve noticed are not showing up,” she said.
That observation raises a question many may overlook: are hiring teams adequately weighting behavioral signals over credentials? In an industry that often prioritizes experience, Burton’s comments suggest reliability and follow-through might be more predictive of success than a polished resume.
How candidates speak about past roles is another revealing moment.
“We might want to know the gossip, but I do think that it reflects poorly for a candidate to speak badly about a position,” Burton said.
Instead, she looks for signs of professionalism and self-awareness, traits that tend to translate directly into team dynamics.
Equally important is what candidates ask in return. A lack of curiosity about workplace culture stands out to Burton as a concern.
“If they’re not concerned about that, I would probably have a level of concern as well,” she said.
Still, not every hiring decision can be reduced to observable signals. Burton emphasized the role of intuition, a factor that can be uncomfortable to rely on in a business setting but often proves accurate over time.
“I step out of interviews sometimes with a feeling that this was just not the right candidate,” she said. “I can’t pinpoint it, but that feeling is usually always correct, so follow it.”
That reliance on instinct, however, comes with its own challenge: distinguishing between informed intuition and unconscious bias. For HR leaders and cidery owners, you may not be to blindly trust a gut feeling, but to interrogate it and understand what is driving that reaction and whether those people align with the company’s actual needs.
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Beyond individual interviews, Burton pointed to structural challenges that continue to shape hiring outcomes across the industry. Chief among them are generational differences, a constrained labor pool and increasing competition for candidates.
“The generational divide … it’s not about putting people in boxes,” she said.
Instead, she framed it as a leadership challenge.
“Be flexible enough to hold space that everyone you bring in is an individual,” she said.
That flexibility often extends into compensation conversations. While Burton includes salary ranges transparently in job postings, she uses interviews to assess whether candidates have engaged with that information and how they prioritize total compensation.
“For the right candidate, exceptions can be made,” she said, noting that value can come in forms beyond hourly pay, such as additional PTO or greater input in decision-making. That approach reflects a growing reality where smaller companies may not always win on wages but can compete on culture and autonomy.
Ultimately, Burton returned to a foundational point that many cideries claim but fewer operationalize: culture is not a buzzword, but a retention strategy.
“The baseline of this comes down to your culture,” she said. “I can’t stress enough how important culture is.”
