Hiring Guru Shares List Of What She Doesn’t Look For When Hiring For A Position

We’ve all been on the other side of the hiring table. Whether it was first interview jitters as a teenager looking for a summer job, or an expereinced corporate guru looking for that next big promotion, we’ve all had to sit in the interview chair and show off our list of credentials.

But what skills out of the list of 100 professional skills possessed are actually the ones that matter?

Not the ones you would think, according to Liz Ryan, contributing writer for Forbes.com and former senior vice president of human resources for a Fortune 500 company.

And she shares what she doesn’t bother with in her article, Ten Things I Couldn’t Care Less About When I’m Hiring, for Forbes.com.

To say Ryan has done her fair share of interviewing candidates for huge positions is an understatement. But one thing, Ryan says, needs to be brought back into the work place is hiring organically.

Today, the hiring process is all about personality tests, mundane scripted interview questions, and a lack of understanding the person who is reciting their monologue on why they are best suited for the job, Ryan said.

Hiring people should go back to understanding that a person is being hired, not a robot. As Ryan says, it’s not about the data, it’s about how well this person flows with the team they will be working with.

The human element when recruiting someone for the job has fallen to the wayside.

So, curious to see the list of things Ryan couldn’t care less about when recruiting someone? Check it out.

1. Impressive educational credentials

2. Blue-chip employers

3. “Progressively more responsible positions” on a person’s resume

4. Tasks and duties

5. GPAs and other forms of externally-conferred recognition

6. Industry experience

7. Employment gaps

8. Your age

9. Your past or present salary

10. Your scores on personality tests

Society places too much emphasis on being The Best, Ryan said, and too many people strive to be The Best without knowing what that means.

Her example she gave was how students strive to attend an Ivy-League school, but why they strive to attend is what matters more.

Was it because they could easily get in and they love being the best at everything they do? Or because the program spoke to the student and was the best choice for their personal ambitions?

“I’ve been hiring people since the early eighties and I’ve never found that corporate-ladder-climbing people are any smarter or more resourceful than people who’ve never set foot in a corporate environment. It may be an inverse correlation, in fact,” Ryan wrote.

What do you think? Agree with Ryan’s list? Let us know!