Do Companies Make "Personality Hires" within Legal?

In-house legal teams care about personality -- after all, their lawyers cannot scare internal clients away -- but no company I know of has the luxury of making "personality hires," which the Wall Street Journal describes as "charismatic employees [who] lay the foundations of positive corporate culture" but "leave teammates to pick up the slack."

Why would a company make a personality hire? WSJ posits positive personalities are needed to prop up a sagging culture. The article cites some negative stats. Employee engagement is near an all-time low, half of employees report feeling a lot of stress, and almost half say they are interested in new job opportunities. As a result, "bosses are desperate for good workplace energy. They say camaraderie is hard to build on hybrid schedules, so they prize upbeat employees whose energy is (hopefully) infectious."

Does this actually happen in Legal? No, I have not seen anyone get the job based on personality alone. In-house legal hires must have the requisite skills to get the job done because there is usually a mountain of work waiting for the hire. Why? Hiring managers can only get their headcount approved after they prove business need. There is no way a manager would ignore pent-up work and hire someone who can make everyone feel better but can't get the work done.

If you are a candidate with the right skills AND the right personality, your odds of getting hired increase exponentially! Work on ways to show both during the interview process.