“The current job market reminds me of a story about a church committee assigned to hire a new pastor. Numerous well-qualified candidates applied, but none seemed to meet the committee’s requirements. Frustrated with this perfectionism, one of the committee’s members submitted an anonymous résumé with the accomplishments of a certain priest who had lived and preached in Galilee 2,000 years before. The committee reviewed the résumé and rejected it. Even Jesus Christ wasn’t good enough.
Today’s job market is like that.”
GUY NADIVI, Forbes (22 October 2009)
After last week’s piece on promoting from within, a reader came to my website and referred me to an article in Forbes in similar vein. I liked it enough to feature it in Thought Leadership this week. It certainly makes us think about how we recruit people and what we look for.
Guy Nadivi suggests that HR departments and selection committees are so fixated on “credentials” that they would even reject Jesus Christ as a pastor! Which rings true: I can envisage the ensuing discussion as Jesus’s application is considered:
“Hmm, don’t like the beard. Might be too preachy for us. Would he be comfortable with the new technology – can this Jesus fellow blog? Seems to have a lot to say about the poor – is he a communist?” Decision: Reject.
My website reader suggested that even someone called Sunny Bindra might be rejected as a strategy manager these days! That rings true: I have indeed been rejected on my CV in the past (but subsequently hired). And I can picture an officious junior HR executive thinking: “No formal strategy qualification, eh? Not even an MBA. Reject.”
Jokes aside, this is a serious issue. We have become fixated on qualifications and experience, and apply those criteria robotically. And yet, as Nadivi points out, the “perfectly qualified” candidate might be exactly the wrong one, for he/she is very likely to have already mastered the job and may not have much growth left in that position. We should also be wary of “experts”: as Nadivi points out in his piece, “experts built the Titanic, amateurs built the Ark…”
We should always factor in two things: attitude, and passion for the job. If you can get those two things, you have probably got the right person for the job, regardless of qualifications. And which CV is going to capture those things? We should learn from Southwest Airlines, masters of recruitment. This is an airline whose very purpose statement is all about customer satisfaction. So they look very carefully for cabin crew who can empathise and connect with people. Their entire interview process is geared towards unearthing those gems who can behave like warm and friendly human beings – not corporate automatons.
Consider the following people who would have no chance of being hired by modern corporations: Steve Jobs (didn’t finish university); Bill Gates (not enough charisma); Barack Obama (unusual parenting and childhood); Richard Branson (no qualifications to speak of); Paul Kagame (too quiet); Nelson Mandela (a jailbird)!
We are trivialising the idea of talent, people. It really is NOT about what people have already achieved: it’s about what they are capable of growing into next. It’s NOT about how many A-grades they scored – it’s about how impassioned they are about the industry or product or profession in question. It’s NOT about how flawless their career has been to date – it’s about their resilience and ability to deal with unexpected adversity.
But gauging that stuff is too difficult, isn’t it? So we just dumb it all down and look at what people did at school, and who else hired them. Who would want to join the corporate treadmill these days? Not me. Perhaps all this rigidity is a good thing, after all: it’s forcing the REALLY talented people to go out and form their own organisations.
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4 Responses:
November 21st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Hi Sunny
Provocative article as usual. What I fear is that after the really talented guys start these companies and these enterprises become great, they leave the hiring to the HR crew.
And guess what, the HR dept become ‘paper’ driven.
Sunny, it would be impossible to be hired by Apple now if i present just a diploma, even if the practical component outweighed the theoretical section of the course.
Enjoy your weekend.
KW
November 20th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Sunny i agree with you that many employers in Kenya are for what you got in your education system but not on what you can be trained to become.May be I would be claimed pessimistic blaming it all on our education system,for a common Kenyan kid, I included, to fully complete a degree is at 24yrs,yet in other contries at that age kids are killing themselves with PhD thesis.To even make it worst all that we learn is quite different with what the outside world requires.Sunny you wont be suprised to find a computer science graduate who cant even tell you the computer internal parts or a B.com graduate with no B/s ideas,we do not blame ourselves,the system we have doesnt allow us to go into such details.What can we do?
November 17th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Mbogo:
That’s a thoughtful contribution. You are indeed right that many Kenyan firms are frozen from within, and could do with some fresh talent. But equally, I discern some more modern-thinking ones who have gone too far the other way: going to the market for every vacant position.
Both are dysfunctional. Both have misunderstood the idea of talent. Both are failing to achieve the kind of success that comes from sustenance of a high-performing team.
November 16th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Mr. Bindra,
Please allow me to contribute my two cents worth on this theme of promoting from within.
The unfortunate reality is that rather than seek out, employ and promote unconventional employees with game-changing business ideas, most of our companies today prefer to employ and reward conformist individuals who fit into a particular conservative mould, all in the name of “corporate stability and continuity”. Ironically, it is these same companies that then pay huge sums to outside consultants who interestingly enough, offer them the very same ideas that the rejected would-be employee would have introduced into the company!
Apparently, the unwritten management rule seems to be – if the idea comes from within, it is a “risky” investment but if the same idea comes from a blue-chip consultant at triple the cost, then it must obviously be “a proven winner”. (This probably explains why many Kenyan professionals nowadays aspire to be professional consultants!)
But then again, considering that Steve Jobs ideas for the Macintosh were turned down by his first employer, ATARI (they probably assumed that ideas from a college dropout with long shaggy hair and a hippie attitude weren’t worth listening to!), It appears that Kenyan managers are in very good company.
Truly, as the French say, “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose!”
Best Regards,
Mbogo.