Hire Character, Teach Skill.

In today’s job market, with so many available workers for hire, job seekers have probably noticed a phenomena occur that didn't exist 5-10 years ago.  Job descriptions for openings are very SPECIFIC.  When companies have an opening, they want the perfect incumbent.  Heck, the economy still stinks, so money is tight and unemployment is still around 9%.  Why shouldn't expectations be high?

I’m guilty of this myself.  I used to look for niche tech talent at an Internet company in the Midwest.  I was pretty good at finding needles in haystacks.  Getting them to relocate to Indiana proved to the greatest challenge.  Common requirements would be:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field
• 4-7 years experience in a high traffic consumer facing web environment
• 4+ years experience in iOS development
• 2+ years building an eCommerce product for a high traffic website
• Experience in an agile web development environment

At first glance, not so bad.  Each bullet by itself seems reasonable.  You may have even seen some of these requirements if you've ever come across a job description for a web developer.  However, experience in a high traffic consumer facing web environment knocks out 99% of the population immediately, unless you are recruiting in the San Francisco Bay area.  Further, 4+ years of experience developing iphone apps is nearly impossible since the iphone only went to market in 2007.  Apps then took a year or two to catch fire.  eCommerce used to consist of making retail or brick and mortar business translate to the Internet.  Now, businesses are built for eCommerce  and while it’s not a new function, it takes a level of ingenuity and entrepreneurship that is not rampant among the job seeking population.  Agile methods of working are catching on.  Many candidates may not have experience with it, but are usually familiar with it.

Technical positions are not unique to this phenomenon.  You’ll see it in all areas of business if you browse some career websites.  Don’t mistake me, pedigree is important, but a perfect background does not equal a perfect hire.  Culture fit is key.  By the time I found someone who met every qualification of the position, we had to pray they were also a cultural fit, because they were our only option.  Even if they weren't a cultural fit, we probably were going to hire them anyway, because it’s improbable that anyone else exists who will meet the impossible and unreasonable qualifications we've tied our hands with.  More organizations are realizing this and incorporating a culture fit portion into their hiring process.  I argue this is the most important part of picking a new employee. 

I recently interviewed a candidate whose background and experience were ideal for a position.  He answered every question in a way I would hope to hear.  He had the skill set the organization needed.  However, I felt concerned about the way he might interact with the hiring manager, and other leaders of the organization.  I felt OK about him, but not fantastic, and while gut is certainly not everything, it’s enough to take a second look.  A second interview revealed that he was the type of person who got things done, but potentially at a cost.  He would bulldoze any people or obstacles in his way in order to achieve goals.  That is not how our organization functions.  We needed a “doer”, but this candidate went too far in the direction we thought we wanted, and I saw years of problems down the road.  We let the “perfect candidate” go and started over.

However, we ultimately found someone who worked well with our group and had a great background.  Our hire was lighter on process improvement than would be ideal, but he had the firm but fair managerial character we were seeking.  Process improvement can be taught.  We sacrificed filling the position quickly in order to make sure we brought the right mix of skill and personality into the organization, and we’re more than satisfied with that sacrifice.  On the surface (and by this, I mean by looking at resumes), it looks like I made a mistake.  It looks like I traded my Cadillac candidate for a Toyota.  But I’ll tell you what – our staff sure find the Toyota approachable and really respect the new addition to our organization.