I'm a firm believer in the concept of hiring people instead of resumes. A part of me believes this is largely due to poor experience with stimulus and response. The stimulus, I've been excited by someone's impressive job history and industry or experience. The response, I've been let down by seemingly unforeseen character flaws that proved to completely override the perceived value of their job experience. The other part of me believes that if you can just find the right people they can learn and accomplish anything. That people make all the difference and some of the best people haven't yet had the chance to build their experience with a great marketing team like ours.
Three Reasons To Hire Young Talent Over Job Experience
1. Time spent in the past doesn't equate to ability to perform
What makes us believe that a candidate will be a good fit because they held a qualifying title in a related industry? The problem is resumes really just talk about old shit we shouldn't be focused on. The shit everyone outlines in their resumes shouldn't really be the qualifications we focus on. What a candidate has accomplished in the past tells you much more about their potential than how many years they simply held a position.
A good majority of resumes focus on verbs and highlight what candidates managed, created, developed, conducted, etc. While these words are informative, they’re not differentiating. What matters more is the quantitative results of those efforts. Candidates who describe -- in numbers, preferably -- how the work they did benefited the company are great examples of HiPo talent. - Entrepreneur.com
2. A better chance to find the best people before their best years
Would you prefer to hire someone five years after they became great or just before they blossomed? The benefit of looking for people that are about to build their impressive resumes is the potential for them to build that experience with your company.
Sometimes someone fresh out of school will be a better fit than someone who’s done the same job for 20 years and may not have much new to contribute. In fact, the 20-year veteran may actually only have one year of experience repeated 20 times, not 20 years of progressive experience. - forbes.com
You have the chance to pluck great people from the market at a relative discount compared to their more experienced peers and they might have other talents you can leverage. For example, those of us that are heavily dependent on technology might find that younger candidates are digital natives with a high level of technical aptitude that will help them perform at a higher level once they're trained properly.
3. Great culture isn't built with damaged goods
The more experience a new hire brings the more head trash built through experiences at previous organizations. The calluses built through years of frustration, lack of leadership, and a low-trust work environment can present a significant challenge to your existing company culture.
Head trash is the thought patterns and emotional tendencies that hinder your ability to respond to business issues in a productive and professional way as HeadTrash. - headtrash911.com
Fitting in with your team and contributing positively to the culture you've invested in is more important than the number of years someone has worked for a different team. Identifying the characteristics that are common to your team is a great way to profile for your ideal candidate. People that have been burned in the past bring the risk of failing because they're unable to truly believe in the direction and vision everyone else has bought in on.
Find the best people to achieve success
Your job is to look beyond the flash and find those candidates with exactly the right balance of skills and traits to succeed at your company. - inc.com
If you want to build a great team you have to hire great people, and they have to be able to work great with others. I'm extremely proud of the team we're assembling at our little marketing agency. That pride comes from watching the way all of our great minds and talent work together. As their leader I know my role:
- Align systems in their support so they can execute effectively
- Clarify the purpose of our organization and how they can contribute
- Unleash their talent with training, support, and atmosphere
With the right people it can all come together and work experience has very little to do with the potential for synergy. Everything else can be taught.
