If the Big Guy Gets a Break, Why Can’t ‘We the People?’

Dear U.S. Corporations: If the President of the United States gets a break on meeting the criteria and requirements of the job description — can we give each other a little break too?

Pretty much my whole career has been in talent acquisition. Even when I’ve been in a management role, I’ve always been very hands on with talking to candidates. What I’ve seen through the last two decades is clear though: We as hiring personnel have become more and more stringent on the criteria and qualifications of each job requirement.

When I first started as an agency staffing professional, if you were a good project manager candidate and you had, say, five years of experience and a PMP certification, I would be able to send you to any one of a dozen places that were looking to fill a project manager’s role. I did that, and with the right coaching I got you a job. The vast majority of the time the project managers I placed were very successful. I really can’t remember anyone getting fired for not being able to do the job.

As years passed, companies demanded that a candidate have “industry” experience as part of the criteria. Then as new technologies were implemented, so grew the needs and requirements for a project manager to have worked with those technologies.

But then it wasn’t enough that a person had worked with the technology. A “must-have” requirement for the latest version was a must. Really? The candidate had the last three versions, but since she didn’t have the latest, clearly, she would not be able to handle the upcoming upgrade the company she is interviewing for was planning … in 3, 6, 12 months. “We’ll pass on her,” was a common response. Add in the need to satisfy a company’s education demands and team management size and about 1.2 million (ok, just a “slight” exaggeration) other requirements, and wallah! You have a standard 2017 job requirement by company X today.

Candidates call me all time and say, “Hey Vinay man, I can really do this job you’ve posted, but I’m missing one or two things on that job requirement … can you get me in front of the hiring manager — I know I can do the job!”

Unfortunately, I’ve said thousands of times, mostly during my Agency days, “I know you can, I really do … if I had a nickel for everyone I knew who could do the job and got them in — I would be taking this call from my yacht in the Caribbean.”

Today we’ve created job descriptions and hiring processes that basically do everything to eliminate people from getting a job. Some of the job descriptions are so ridiculous that if a hiring manager actually found the person who does fit the requirement he or she would probably move up and take the hiring manager’s job because they have an “S” in front of their shirt. They are a wish list of possible things a person can have, and I often think, “was this hiring manager given a budget so small they are purposely trying to build a requisition of two or three people into one?”

No one unqualified should be hired for a job. That is not what I’m saying. But if the toughest job in the land has been filled by someone who did not have the requisite job qualifications and was someone that we the people thought could be a refreshing newcomer who can bring new perspective, can’t we as hiring personnel do the same for millions of American job seekers who are applying for much less important roles?

And yes, I’m assuming any other job in the country is less important that the President of the United States …