Hiring people is such an organic and human activity, it kills me to see how many companies do it badly. They try to make recruiting a linear, data-driven and analytical process, but that's impossible, because recruiting is all about the energy that flows between and among people.
It has nothing to do with data. It has nothing to do with particles -- like all human activities, it is all about waves!
Recruiting has nothing to do with keyword-searching algorithms. How sad it is to see how my HR profession has devolved!
We can bring the human element back into recruiting and make it the human, organic process it always should have been. Smart companies are doing this already. They've gotten rid of their lumbering, wheezing Applicant Tracking Systems and their pointless personality tests and insulting, scripted interview questions.
They are throwing out their broken recruiting systems and learning to hire people, not bundles of skills and certifications. Their shareholders and customers will be glad they made the shift!
When I hire people, here are ten things I couldn't care less about:Impressive educational credentials
1. Impressive educational credentials
2. Blue-chip employers
3. "Progressively more responsible positions" on a person's resume
4. Tasks and duties
5. GPAs and other forms of externally-conferred recognition
6. Industry experience
7. Employment gaps
8. Your age
9. Your past or present salary
10. Your scores on personality tests
I trust my own experience and my instincts, and I trust my colleagues' instincts too! Why would I care which college a job-seeker went to, or whether they went to college at all? There are lots of other cool things to do with your time apart from going to college, especially these days.
I understand why people are drawn to top-tier universities and blue-chip employers. When we aren't sure where our path lies, often we simply strive to hit other people's marks by being at the top of the class or working for the most-sought-after employers.
When we don't know where we are headed, we might work hard to hit the same milestones everybody else is trying to hit, just to prove we can.
I understand that impulse and I don't hold it against a person, but I want to know, "Why did you go to that Ivy-League school?"
Sometimes the answer is "I wanted to go to that college because they had a program that fascinated me and spoke to me" and sometimes the answer is "I wanted to go to that college because I could get in, and I always want to be the best in everything I do!" It is terrifying to realize how many people simply aim to be The Best, not knowing why or what The Best even means.
I don't care if someone has risen through the ranks in one or two companies, taken twists and turns throughout their career or jumped on and off the conveyor belt. Why would I care? I've been hiring people since the early eighties and I've never found that corporate-ladder-climbing people are any smarter or more resourceful than people who've never set foot in a corporate environment. It may be an inverse correlation, in fact.
There are smart and creative people everywhere. Corporations and institutions stupidly reject highly-qualified applicants every day, because they don't fit the mold. That's bad for them, but good for any leader smart enough to snap up those non-cookie-cutter folks!
I don't care which tasks and duties someone has performed at their past jobs. I want to know something else. I want to know the answer to the question, "What did you leave in your wake at each job you've held?"
I don't care what someone got paid for their work, or whether they got paid at all. Why would that matter? If someone built a fantastic house and you need someone to build you a house, why would it matter whether they got paid to build the first house? That has nothing to do with anything.
I don't care about gold stars like a person's GPA in college or their awards and commendations. We are trained in our society to rely too much on other people's approval, and to seek it out and even long for it. I don't care about industry experience. New industries are springing up everywhere we look. Industry experience is more often a hindrance than a help, especially for organizations who want and need to innovate.
Employment gaps signal to me that a person is not afraid to shift course when it's appropriate. I don't care if someone is a different age than other people in the same job. In my first supervisory role at age 20, I hired a dozen customer service people. Some of them were my age.
One of my co-workers, Sally, was close to retirement when she started working with us. She was a lovely woman who spent all her free time with her horse. We learned about horses from Sally and our customers loved her. What does a person's age have to do with their ability to do a job?
I couldn't care less about your past or present salary. It's irrelevant, just like the stupid questions that hidebound organizations ask job-seekers, including "What's your greatest weakness?" and "Why should we hire you?" I hope that more and more job-seekers get up and walk out of insulting job interviews. When enough job applicants get up and leave, interviewers will get the message.
It's a new day. Only the people who get you, deserve you. Not everyone will get you, and that's OK.
The people who can't see your brilliance are on their path, and you are on yours. Don't waste your precious mojo wondering why someone doesn't get you. There are 7 billion people in the world. Not all of them will resonate at your frequency. Your job is to find the folks who do!
Sometimes it can feel very lonely being yourself in a business world full of clones and zombies, but don't get discouraged. When you pay attention you will see that there are more and more humans in the workplace every day!
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