Education, skills and experience are important, but there is more to hiring than those traditional measures, so says Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google. Unless you have been living in a cave (with no Internet connection), you know that Google has dominated the world’s most competitive and lucrative market – the Internet – so hiring the Google way makes sense for any business trying to emulate some modicum of Google’s success.
Many people look good on paper, but employers do not hire resumes. Employers hire people.
I am afraid our schools today are churning out resumes (good test takers), but failing in producing people with creativity, initiative, leadership, communication, and critical thinking… but that is rant for another day.
The attributes valued by Google may not necessarily be the attributes that are best for your business, but the approach they take can be used for any business. Many people look good on resumes, but the best people for your business are not necessarily the best resumes. Sometimes people missing certain critical skills are better than the people with all the critical skills in spades. A candidate with exceptional the ability to adapt and learn on the job may be a much better fit because of the intangibles that do not necessarily show well on a resume.
Employers often overlook and dismiss employee candidates who lack skills, experience or backgrounds desired, without considering other factors that are just as critical, and maybe even more telling, for a good employee. How well do they get along with others? How in tune are they with your core values? Do they have critical thinking skills? Can they take ownership of their own “space”? Can they lead? Can they follow? Are they adaptable? How easily do they learn new things? Are they set in their ways?
Learn to look for clues between the lines of a resume. Learn to conduct interviews that reveal more than the resume already indicates in black and white. In this day of online resume submission, some of the best candidates do not even get a shot. What are you missing in your hiring process? Start with reading this NY Times piece on Google’s approach – How to Get a Job at Google.
Kevin G. Drendel Drendel & Jansons Law Group 111 Flinn Street Batavia, IL 60510 630-523-0543 630-406-6179 fax [email protected] foxvalleyestateplanning.com