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.
