The expectation of exactitude or waiting for the “Perfect Candidate” is a bane afflicting many of the hiring decisions.  What does the expectation of exactitude mean? It is impossible to meet the threshold and the perfection of fit that an interviewer or hiring manager expects from a candidate pool. Another way to look at this is the stringency of requirements search for a needle in a haystack. Even though millions of jobs are open, the waiting for the perfect candidate is a big reason employers are unable to fill them.

Let’s look at this with an example.

Tom, a 53-year old veteran in the professional services world, was sitting in front of 27-year old Greg, the head of financial services for a B2B (business to business) enterprise software company.

Now a bit of background:

Greg’s education is liberal arts, and his experiences are mostly one-year stints as an English tutor in Japan, a co-founder of a startup that did not go beyond the concept stage. He joined the current firm as a programmer, and then when the firm started looking for someone to help an implementation at a corporate client, he took that role on and grew in that role over two-years.  Now, he is trying to retry his hand at entrepreneurship with an idea in the Blockchain space.

Tom started as a consultant in a systems integrator and then transitioned over to a financial services corporation as a project/program manager and has two long-term stints – 12 years and 14 years.  He recently took a buyout from the financial services giant trying to “bring in fresh blood.”

The Perfect Candidate: How it manifests in an interview

Greg: “Wow! You have a lot of great experience. But have you implemented B2B software in financial services?”

Tom: “Yes, I have. As a part of the systems integration company, I’ve done several CRM and later on Supply Chain software. And I’ve been part of several implementation and rollouts at the financial giant.”

Greg: “But the CRM and Supply chain software rollouts were more than 15 years ago.  And our software is very different than old-school ERP.  Have you done anything configuring and implementing SAAS (Software as a Service) software at large firms?”

Tom: “Well, I’ve been part of two large SAAS rollouts not on behalf of a software company, but as the program manager for the firm that is implementing these platforms.”

Greg: “It’s very different. How will you staff the implementation team?”

Tom: “At the highest level, it depends on the business model as to whether how big professional services and implementation team do we want internally or do we want to rely on third-party partners. Secondly, the staffing depends on the amount of customization and the scope of the SOW (statement of work) and the phase of work.”

Greg: “Well, that is a pretty generic answer. What roles will you have on the implementation team?”

And so on. Needless to add Tom did not get the job.

What’s insane about the Perfect Candidate Syndrome?

Greg has been a rolling stone and yet while he thinks he is qualified as head of implementations – after an English tutoring job, a failed venture, and a short stint as a developer, he wants his replacement to have EXACTLY done the same thing and somehow be clairvoyant about staffing structure and numbers. Furthermore, implementing complex ERP software for over 10-years is not recent enough and not relevant enough. But Greg’s view is that he is eminently qualified for a new blockchain endeavor. (Whether he is or not is beside the point. It is about the other person’s fit and expectation of exactitude.)

To further illustrate the insanity, let’s look at some absurd interview situations to demonstrate the expectation of exactitude and the perfect candidate syndrome and the impact on the hiring decisions.

The Fast Food Interview:

Interviewer: “Do you have experience in making gyros?”

Interviewee: “I never worked in a Greek or Mediterranean restaurant. But I have worked at Mexican joints making burritos. And also I’ve several years of experience in making Philly Cheesesteaks.

Interviewer: “Well, a Pita is very different than a tortilla or a bun. The ingredients are also different. Have you had experience in making lamb, beef, and chicken gyros?”

The Landscaping Interview:

Interviewer: “Have you done any landscaping in Wisconsin?”

Interviewee: “I am relocating from California where I worked for six years. Before that, I was in Chicago for three years. So, I have been doing this for 11-years.”

Interviewer: “But Wisconsin weather, the terrain, and the native plants are very different than California. And your Chicago experience is very dated.”

Now, you get the picture. The fact is, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

Do the candidates need to have exactly done the same thing the exact way? Or relevant and related work experience and at times even a different experience good enough?  What if a company is blazing a new trail – for example, if a new generation space company is hiring for its commercial space travel, will they find someone who has been a flight attendant on a trip to the moon?

It is not that Greg is necessarily a bad person. In his mind, he is not doing anything wrong. He feels like his charter is to select the “best possible” candidate to take his job.

But the general hubris that afflicts Greg and in fact many of us is while thinking “I am so smart that I can do anything” – from English tutoring to startups to programming to professionals services over a 4-year period, and then step into Blockchain – “others cannot do what I can do without exact experience.”

It is easy to miss out on talent by being stickers to the “exact experience” requirements. And it is an unconscious bias against experienced candidates who may have done some of the work when the current technologies or work methods were not yet invented or in vogue.

We are not suggesting relaxing right qualifications – that is if you require a brain surgeon, education in neurology and experience as a neurosurgeon are requirements that you cannot relinquish. But not all jobs are brain surgery.

We all need to look beyond our constricted vision and myopia and be open to all types of candidates as long as they can do the job. Many a time, aptitude and skillset are transferable, and a company may benefit from candidates with adjacent as well as unrelated experiences.

Next time, when you are reviewing a resume or interviewing keep in mind the basic tenet – Am I looking for someone who can do the work? Or am I looking for someone who has done the same job? In essence, am I looking for the perfect candidate? And is that perfect candidate in my own image?

(In this article we are not addressing the biases – explicit or implicit – of recruiters and hiring managers, whether it is gender, race, ethnicity, language, and sexual orientation.)