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Myths of Hiring, Part 1In the next few issues of HIRING LINE we are going to discuss some of the myths of hiring. Some are negative, some are postive. Most of them have nothing to do with predicting the success of an employee. Here is what we hear: "WE NEED YOUNG PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY HAVE HIGH ENERGY." Aside from being legally discriminatory, youth and energy have nothing to do with each other. Almost anyone can measure another's energy by just interviewing them. People with a high energy level have a high energy level regardless of their age. "WE NEED SOMEONE WITH AT LEAST 10, 12, 15 ETC. YEARS OF EXPERIENCE." Try to prove the quality of experience is any better or worse at 8 years of experience than at 10, 12 or 15. We should focus on the quality of experience rather than the amount. A person with 10 years of experience might have one year of quality experience 10 times; it doesn't mean he is necessarily good. We should measure quality by assessing the tasks, quotas for sales people, etc., that were accomplished during the previous positions. Now it is true that a person with only two years of experience probably doesn't know or have experienced as much as the person with 10 years. But the quality of that experience may not make as much of a difference as the time would suggest. More is not necessarily better. "MBA'S ARE BETTER". Society has us all sold on higher education, colleges, and universities. Having an MBA does not make one a better business person. Sociologists have proven that people are successful because they want to be. It is proven that their success has nothing to do with the fact that they have an MBA. They get MBA's because they want to make the perceived steps toward success. Such degrees are easy to use as external certification for companies when hiring. They don't have to make as much of a qualifying decision because some other authority (i.e., the university) has. The universities love it because their cost per student in MBA courses is very low. They help pay for the scientific post-graduate courses with MBA programs. Suffice it to say that people are no better sale people, accounting people, make more money are fallacious. The kind of person who gets an MBA wants to do well at business. He would make that same amount without the MBA. "WE HAVE TO HAVE A DEGREE." Ditto to the above with some rare exceptions. There are some degreed disciplines such as engineering, accounting, scientists etc. that reflect some amount of proficiency and discipline. Honestly, the same amount of proficiency could be predicted with solid on-the-job training. The vast majority of companies that insist on under-graduate degrees don't need them. They require them so they can get some external screener to eliminate a group of candidates so they don't have to interview as many. As the economy changes and as the baby boom bubble matriculates and the pool of possible employees shrinks this policy also does. When companies need good employees and there are few prospects, this policy will bend. As with an MBA a person isn't necessarily a good employee because he has a degree. "PEOPLE WITH HIGH G.P.A.'s ARE SMART." This has no validity. We guess it depends on how we define smart. What a high G.P.A. means is that a person knows how to study and perform well on tests in an institutional setting called college. The vast majority of business environments are no where nearly as contrived as a college curriculum. Our world in business just doesn't work that way. Business takes logic, reason, empathy, sympathy, thinking on your feet, persistence, determination, and mental agility. Good grades mean that a person was diligent enough to study well enough to answer the questions on the tests to conform to the pattern that would get them good grades. They worked the system and got the system's rewards. Nothing wrong in that. In fact, that is commendable to the point that it should say something about a person's ability to work the system. That's what business is too. So if we want to evaluate a person's ability to work the system we can look at their grades. Grades may not tell us anything about how really smart, logical, reasonable, persistent or committed a person is. They may be an indication of how a person studies then regurgitates what he has learned. More "Myths" in the practical hiring function to come! |
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