This candidate is too good…to be true!

Candidate is too good…. to be true! Said the Vice President and the hiring manager to the leadership hiring specialist who was working for over three weeks on a senior position to fill.

Education from a top school, consulting experience with the large organizations, extensive overseas travel and experience of working on huge multi-million dollar transformation projects, presales and solutioning experience, with outstanding communication, interpersonal and leadership skills are mandatory for this position, said the Vice President to the team of leadership hiring specialists.

Knowing how difficult it was to hire for this executive and now with a long list of tall requirements all the recruiters were shaking their heads as they walked away after the meeting. “where can we find this guy on this planet” another said “there will be some mismatch all the time” another added “we want the best guys but we pay peanuts as compared to the market, how can we ever fill this position?” the last one added “after interviewing all your candidates he will say none of them is good and will hire an internal guy for this position”

The new addition to the leadership hiring team however was not discouraged hearing all such comments. He ran through all his contacts and found few good candidates and shared the resumes with the Executive. Some resumes were not shortlisted on citing some mismatch or other, others were just ok but nothing close. Not losing heart he put in more efforts and after a couple of weeks of hard work , the hiring specialist found one awesome resume and after doing his initial screening he found him to be a good fit for the position . He rushed to the Executive with great excitement and told him, I have finally the found the candidate you are looking for. He meets all your criteria, this candidate is good. He is too good. “Set up an interview quickly “said the executive.

And now here he was... hearing this feedback “candidate is too good to be true”. The senior executive could see disappointment writ large on the face of the recruiter and told him, “your assessment is right, candidate has education from a top school, good pedigree, seems to have done some good work, grown over the years, has a good team, a great boss, comes across a very humble, down to earth, everything has gone right for him wherever went, speaks the right words every employer wants to hear. However, he is just too good to be true... He comes across as a prince riding on a horse from a fairy tale but the fact is we live in a real world and nobody has such fairy tales to share in real life. He is just not being honest in sharing information with us. He is taking complete credit for the team’s success and has not much to share regarding his failures and challenges despite my repeated probing questions.

I am looking for real people, who not only were successful but faced failures and overcame them through grit, hard work and resilience. Nobody has a smooth ride. Life is a roller coaster”. The recruiter downcast with the feedback, nodded his head and as he was leaving the room the senior executive said “and remember anything in life that is too good to be true can never be true”

This recruiter worked hard over the next few years, grew up and the ladder and was leading a team. He had to fill a few positions in his team and assigned the job to a young energetic team member. His team member came up with a resume and with great excitement said “I spoke with this guy... He is good.. He is too good” to which he replied “sure set up an interview quickly with him but let me tell you something…. anything in life that is too good to be true can never be true” He noticed the weird look on his team member’s face and laughed to himself and thought “few years back, I guess I had the same look on my face”