Ah, the age-old hiring conundrum: should you chase after that impressive resume with more sparkle than a disco ball or focus on job fit like a detective hunting for the perfect suspect? It’s a recruiting dilemma that faces many hiring managers and when you’re digging through a mountain of candidates, it can be hard to figure out your next move. Resumes have been the gold standard for decades but do they really lead to making the strongest hire? Or does job fit trump pages of experiences? Let’s dive into the pros and cons of each approach.
The resume: A shiny piece of paper
First things first, let’s talk about resumes. Candidates spend (or should spend) hours perfecting their resumes before sending them off with their applications. They pour over every sentence, every bullet point, to make sure they’re saying as much as they can in a limited amount of space. And when you find one that seems to hit every item on your hiring wish list it can feel like you’ve struck gold. Ivy League education? Check. Decades of experience in the field? Check. A list of skills longer than your grocery list? Double-check. Hire that person, right?
But here’s the thing: a resume is just a snapshot, a single frame in the movie of someone’s career. It doesn’t show you the behind-the-scenes action. It’s the trailer that gets you hyped, but sometimes the movie itself doesn’t live up to expectations.
In fact, it’s estimated that 70% of jobseekers lie to some degree on their resumes. The top culprits are embellishing job titles, exaggerating the number of people managed, and overstating tenure length at previous companies. Suddenly that perfect resume seems a little less shiny, doesn’t it?
There is even debate out there in the talent landscape about whether a resume means much anymore. After all, you can get a person’s professional history from LinkedIn and a view of their life from social media. And really, you expect a resume to show a candidate in the best possible light. That’s the point, right? So, while it can be a useful tool to collect information, it’s always best to gather as much data as you can, from as many sources as you can. Which brings us to job fit.
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Job fit: The unseen superpower
What do we mean when we say job fit? Think of job fit like turning a key in a lock. The right key slides into place seamlessly and does the job it’s meant to do – opens the door. The right candidate slides into place on a team in a similar fashion. What makes them fit well is a combination of a candidate’s personality, work style, and whether their values align with your company’s culture and the role’s demands. A great job fit often means a candidate will thrive, feel motivated, and stick around longer.
Imagine hiring someone with the best resume in the world, but they turn out to be a lone wolf in a team-centric environment. Or they’re super tech-savvy but can’t handle the fast pace of your startup. Looks like we’ve got a case of “wrong fit, right resume.”
On the flip side, hiring based on job fit alone can get you into trouble as well. Think about placing a person everyone on the team loves, but it soon becomes apparent they don’t have the skills to do the work assigned to them. Do you then spend valuable time teaching your new hire what they need to know (something that could potentially take months or years to do) or do you fire everyone’s favourite new buddy and start again? Neither option is great for productivity or team morale.
Read More: How can hiring for culture fit and using AI-powered tools coexist?
The secret sauce: Balancing the best of both worlds
So, what’s the secret to a successful hire? A mix of both! Shocking, right? Yes, it turns out that a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B really does make everything better. You want a candidate with a strong resume that speaks to experience and a vast skill set. But you also want to think about their personality and the composition of your current team. Will they match the culture? Can they thrive in the work environment already in place?
A resume can help narrow your candidate pool, but use the interview to dive deeper into who your candidate truly is behind the words. That’s where, you guessed it, assessments can be very valuable. Adding assessments to your hiring process helps weed out those candidates who might not align with the realities of your team and role. They also provide clearer insight into a candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, and future potential. After all, you’re not just hiring for what you need in the short-term. You should also be thinking about where you want your team, and your company, to go and hire with a view of keeping your talent well into the future.
Don’t you want to know before you hire whether a candidate is a team player, a problem solver, or a natural-born leader? Assessments shed light on who your candidate is so you can make the most informed hiring decision possible.
Hiring for experience and fit: A match made in heaven
In the end, hiring the perfect candidate is like making the ultimate sandwich. You need the right ingredients (skills and experience) and the perfect condiments (personality and job fit) to create something truly satisfying. Don’t settle for just the resume or just the job fit—mix them together and voila! You’ve got yourself a hire that’s bound to be a hit.
So, next time you’re sifting through a pile of resumes, remember: it’s not just about finding the shiniest piece of paper. It’s about finding the right person with the right background and fit who will bring something great to your team.