Hire Purpose

The more thoroughly I examine the job market, the more completely insane the process of hiring companies undergo seems to me. A friend recently applied for an opening. She was qualified from top to bottom. Cinderella's glass slipper wasn't as good a fit as she was for this position. Fast forward to the end of the process and she wasn't even interviewed.

Amazing. I get that companies sometimes hire people that aren't the specific choice of others who aren't part of the process. I mean, I think we've all fixed people up (or have been fixed up) on a blind date that ended in disaster. Sometimes who you think is a good fit and who someone else thinks is good can differ. But no interview? Why would you be that stupid? As a person charged with hiring for your company, your job is to improve your organization. Maybe this friend isn't the right fit, but surely she's worth talking to.

I know some married people who dated in high school, were each others first boy/girlfriend, got married and are the love of each others lives. Sure, it's conceivable that it's true that each of them could not find someone better. However, they can never know for certain because they have no comparison. Maybe, as one other friend suggested, the organization hired from within. That's the same as this married scenario. From within, there's a familiarity and comfort. But you don't interview someone? You don't want to take 30 minutes out of your life to be certain? Isn't it your objective to make your organization as strong as possible?

In sports, professional teams never have this issue. Even when a team is supposedly set at a position, with Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning, for instance, they still bring quarterbacks into training camp every year to A. compete as a backup to those guys and B. who knows...maybe guy #2 is the greatest quarterback ever. I mean, Tom Brady started out as a no name backup at one time. Pro teams try guys out all year long, sign players, release them, sign new ones. They're always looking to improve their team–even if they are Super Bowl contenders.

But some companies, many it seems, don't trouble themselves to do the same thing. Here's an opening and a person who is highly qualified for the job. In the interest of making our organization as strong as possible, should we see if they might be good for this position? No...no, probably not. We'll just go with whomever is lying around.

The other day I saw a jobs report on the news. It said that unemployment had dropped a bit but that there were still three unemployed people for every one open position. Add to that the fact that these unemployed not only have to compete with each other for jobs, but also with people who already have jobs.  No wonder the jobless rate is only inching downward. Tom Brady can just wait his turn.