Your skills aren't enough to get you hired

Simon Sinek gave a talk a few years ago about trust and connecting with people who believe what we believe (watch it if you aren't familiar). An example he used to illustrate his point stuck with me: Parents are more likely to hire a seemingly responsible neighborhood teenager with no babysitting experience to watch their children, over an experienced professional they don't personally know. They trust the person they know something about on a deeper level more than they trust the stranger with the best credentials.

After making that point, he then asks, when it comes to hiring, why do we place so much value on a person's résumé? That's a good question, and now with years of hiring experience under my belt, I finally don't.

In the past 6 months, I've hired 4 people into my growing department, and I've developed my process around finding the right fit. After reviewing all the applications and rating them with presentation, attention to detail, grammar, professionalism, and experience in mind, I send my top tier a "cultural assessment," which includes the following questions:

1. What attracted you to this position and what made you apply for consideration?
2. Choose one of our Core Values that resonates with you, and explain why.
3. What is the most important factor that must be present in your work environment for you to be happily employed?

During both rounds of hiring I recently went through, I looked for the responses that stood out to me and I read between the lines of the literal answers (Was the response extensively wordy? Was it abruptly short? Did certain key words attract or repel me?). Some people jumped at the opportunity to tell me something about themselves—about who they
were and what they believed—and it helped me get to know them as people.

My team and I can teach how to be good online marketers, but we can't teach how to be fun team players with positive attitudes who are solution focused and proactive—that's innate. That's what I look for when hiring because those are the qualities of the people on my team.

It really does come down to hiring people who fit. While some may call it a "clique" or a "club," it's simply company culture and it varies from place to place. Whether individuals have the skills or ability to achieve the intended outcome of their positions is not relevant if they don't fit.

My advice to hiring managers: define your team/company culture, and find a way to identify those traits in your applicants. Don't be blinded by someone with a great looking résumé. And the best advice I ever got from one of my mentors--trust your gut, no matter what.

My advice to job seekers: be yourself, and look for opportunities with companies you feel fit who you are. Show your personality in your interview. You'll be much better off in the end if you choose your employer just as carefully as they should be choosing their employees.