Consider this. It’s the middle of October and one of your most book-smart employees is leading a lively discussion on last night’s football game. He’s spewing statistics and telling stories about all the games he’s gone to. You’re stopped in your tracks because this challenges all the ideas of what you thought his strengths were. You’d assumed that he was spending his free time solely reading, that he would be resistant to sports talk, and that he would feel uncomfortable in the spotlight.
Your assumptions had gotten in the way of seeing all that he could potentially bring to the role.
The same paradigm can be applied to recruiting. Stereotyping candidates based on traditional ideas of what makes them tick can sometimes impede effective recruiting.
For example, an employer who assumes that a book-smart candidate is solely interested in the quiet confines of an office space may overlook the fact that some of the people with the brightest minds are drawn to more interactive roles.
An electrician, for example, is responsible for the wiring and electrical systems of any establishment. The processes he or she is involved in include both physical components – scaling roofs, hardwiring new establishments – and nuanced problem solving. The hands-on activity is paired with expert analytical project management skills that a recruiter would be remiss to overlook.
Recruiters who choose to overlook construction workers, who are looking to move into an office job, are willingly forgoing a potential employee with excellent project management skills and a developed skillset. A recruiter who shies away from a woman whose resume is less padded because she was a stay-at-home mom for a number of years, would be losing out on an employee who can multitask like no other and is probably a master of logistics.
In addition to the above examples, there are other stereotypes that could impede a recruiter from hiring – for instance, if an applicant is overqualified. Those candidates who are perceived as overqualified, could be turned away from an entry-level position they could be diligently pursuing.
Tradition assumes that more-experienced candidates will ultimately seek out and vie for a role at the level they've worked so long and hard to achieve. In other words, while more tenured careerists may claim to be open to an entry-level role, most hiring decision makers assume the they really just want to get a job to fill a gap, and will jump ship at the first opportunity to reclaim their senior-level role and salary.
However, this is not always the case. In fact, by ferreting out the types of candidates who are genuinely interested in applying their deep well of experience and insight to a lower-level role, you can create a win-win outcome. For example here is what they could bring to the table:
Mentorship attitude
An older candidate understands what it takes to work through certain problems and how to climb the corporate ladder, which makes him or her an asset in mentorship for everyone else on the team. Hiring him or her would add a level of leadership to the department that would be next to impossible to find in any other candidate.
Loyalty to the position
There’s a good chance that if an experienced candidate is applying to an entry level position, outside of his or her regular industry, it’s because he or she is committed to learning. Desire for the role will translate to loyalty for the company and any projects that candidate works on.
Maturity to the role
Often, one of the hurdles of filling an entry-level position is having to find someone who is mature enough to fill the role and handle the responsibilities. With an experienced candidate you lower the likelihood of having to replace an employee for being irresponsible because you’d be hiring someone who understands the work culture.
Recruiting and the hiring process in general is one full of nuances and those nuances extend to the candidates the position draws in. The goal of any recruiter should be to look at the role holistically and to look at any potential candidates holistically. The best candidate for a role could potentially not fit the stereotypical mold for the position, but this does not mean that he or she would not excel in the day-to-day job. A holistic approach guarantees that the boxes the candidate should be checking will not blind you and instead you’ll be able to clearly see what the person is proving they can bring to the role and whether that’s an ideal fit.
