He sat across from me for 90 minutes.  He demonstrated drive, humility, sales skills, and the character I love to hire.  The problem was his background.  I was hiring for a high-end medical sales position.  But, he was selling dumpster pick-up service to restaurants.  I really liked Jeff.  But I hired someone else because Jeff didn’t fit the mold.  I made the wrong decision.

Can I Still Call Jeff?

Three Lessons In Breaking the Mold When Hiring

1.    I Can Teach Skills.  I Can’t Teach Integrity.

In my early years, I spent more time worrying about the resume instead of the person.  I think a lot of managers focus too much on the resume.  Resumes are great for determining if someone has the ability to do the job at hand.  But, they tell us nothing about a person’s character.

As a manager, I know I can train anyone with the talent and the intelligence needed to do the job they interview for.  But, the lack of talent or intelligence rarely is the cause for failure.  It is almost always a character issue.

Lesson:  I need to dig into the character of the person I am interviewing.  Also, if I differentiate between candidates based solely on current skill level this promises me a team that has common backgrounds and lacks diversity.

Solution:  Only hire people that you would ask to raise your children if you were hit by a truck tomorrow.

 2.    College Pedigree Means Nothing.

I used to want to see resumes of people from big name schools.  That was the pedigree I thought would guarantee success.  Experience taught me that pedigree in schools is highly overrated.

In fact, I love hiring people from small schools.  They seem to leave college with less of an entitlement mentality.   It is not where you went to college that matters, it is what you learned while you are there.

Candidates are even more attractive hires if they worked while in school.  If their parents paid for school and they did not work during college, I will not hire them until they have 2-3 years of work experience.  I want to see something that shows internally driven work ethic.

Lesson:  Where someone goes to college means little and means less with each year after college.  Recent college graduates are less of a risk if they paid a portion of their tuition by working and chose to go to a smaller school for financial considerations.

Solution:  Ignore the name of the school and focus on the person in front of you.  If possible, look for people from smaller schools.  They are more likely to appreciate the opportunities you give them.

 3.    I Want A Grunt

Some of the best people I ever hired for high-end medical sales came from less than glamorous professions.  While some people believe that the professionalism of past work experience is hugely important, I break the mold by looking for the opposite.

I call them the grunts.  These are people who built a successful career by selling in industries that lack the reputation of medical sales or software sales.  Most drove their own car, wore polo shirts on sales calls and had a small to non-existent expense budget.  But, they made it happen.

Lesson:  The grunts are accustomed to hard work, no frills, and modest compensation.  In an industry that requires hard work, but provides great benefits and lucrative bonuses, the grunts are more content, more loyal and out perform people from sexier professions.

Solution:  When you get a resume from a grunt, move them to the top of the list for initial phone screening.  Ask about their typical day and learn.  She may be working at a tire manufacturer, but she could be the diamond in the rough you need.

When Did I Break The Mold?

Not long after turning Jeff down, I realized my mistake.  I began to look at applicants differently.  I decided I did not want people who fit the mold of what we always hired.  I wanted a team full of mold breakers.

Though my boss often pushed back, I hired them against my boss’s advice.  In each case, my mold breakers proved me right.

• Chris:  He was a private high school principal.  He played hockey at a small school, and he had at bad final interview with my boss.  Even though he blew the dismount, I fought to hire him because he broke the mold.  He went on to win multiple sales awards.
• Dan:  He had medical sales experience.  But he broke the mold because he had left the industry eight years earlier.  Not to mention the fact that most people his age would be considering retirement.  I hired him despite some snickers from my peers.  He owned his territory and worked harder than people 25 years younger.
• Christina:  She was selling industrial carburetor parts.  She told me she was the only woman she knew doing it at the time.  At 13, she arrived from another country not knowing English and her sales experience did not fit the mold.  I hired her because of these two factors.  She earned many sales awards and promotions in her medical sales career.

The Bottom Line:

Then there is Jeff.  I tracked him down 12 months after turning him down the first time.  I wanted him on my team badly.  He had a new job, but I was able to hire him away.  He exceeded every one of my expectations I had for him.  He broke the mold and he helped teach me a valuable lesson in hiring the right people for my team.

Question:

Who do you work with that breaks the mold?  When you are doing the hiring, how can you break the mold at your work?