Hiring? Stop Looking at GPA

If you’re hiring soon-to-be college graduates in consulting, marketing, advertising, agency, or communications fields, there’s a temptation to do the resume-sorting game – the school, the grades, the awards. Two decades ago in consulting, that’s the way we did the on-campus recruiting efforts to winnow the field of potential candidates. But as the technology, media, and business landscape has changed so dramatically, and disruption has come from so many directions, smart hiring managers in the services sandbox are searching for deeper skill sets than simply academic excellence.

Start with the problem of grade inflation. Across a wide range of universities, stories are popping up of teachers being pressured to deliver good grades, because that will help their graduates secure good jobs, which will in turn increase the attractiveness and rankings of the university. From this dive into an A- average for the entire Harvard graduating class, to this broad study of 50 years of GPA data from 230 colleges and universities showing an increase by a full 1.0 GPA (one full grade average) for private universities since the Vietnam War, to Princeton’s ill-fated attempt to reverse the trend it's fairly clear that grade inflation is a real issue across many universities and majors.

But it’s more than simply a question of grades and individual schools. In today’s fast-changing global work environment and intense competition for talent, team dynamics mean more than ever. High-performing teams (read this post on Google’s search for the perfect team) not only drive better business results, but the team members are more dedicated and happy, and as a result stay longer at an organization and are talent magnets.   The days are long gone of senior executives solving the client’s challenges, fueled by a group of “smart, young researchers” back at the office. As a result, you need intellectually curious, positive energy, team-oriented talent.

 There have been several good posts about interviewing (this one from serial entrepreneur Mitchell Harper on probing for A-Level talent, and this dive into unique interview questions of senior executives). Here are five areas I like to explore, way beyond looking at GPA scores:

• What have they done? It's obvious to explore their work experience, but look beyond the companies and the written description. What did they actually do? Get them to share one project they loved working on, and then go for the opposite and get them to share one they hated. It will force real stories to emerge and you can figure out how they worked and what they cared about.
• How do they think? I guest lectured at Tufts University last week and gave the class one of my go-to interview questions – “Assume we’re walking in to see the CMO of a major automotive company, and we don’t have any phone, internet or computer. And I had a brain cramp and forgot how many new cars are sold in the US every year. Quick, what’s the answer?”  The reactions were fascinating -- from clam-up silence, to a few random guesses, and a few statements of how they would figure it out (most required looking up some facts & figures, which defeated the point of the question).  One student raised her hand and began to head down the right path, estimating total population, removing non-driving ages, then hypothesizing about how many people own cars and how often they need to replace them.  That's the point -- do they have the confidence to speculate, using some anchor data as reference points, and piece together a realistic argument?  As I shared in the class, I didn't care about the right answer -- I cared about the thought process.
• What makes them tick?  I love exploring how they spend their time and what are their passion points -- travel, food, art, sports, family, church, animals, whatever.  One class a few semesters ago I was talking about blogs and asked the students if they have them.  One woman in the front row shot her hand up and confidently declared she writes about "marketing, because potential employers will like that."  It was so obviously forced it was uncomfortable.  A somewhat shy individual finally admitted that he blogs about sidewalk chalk art.  I loved it and as I pressed him to say more, he opened up and was completely passionate and genuine about it.  If your goal is to have a team of diverse, interesting, unique individuals, build a team of folks with individual passions, not a group of robotic answers.
• Any good clues from their interest areas?  I've written before that hiring individuals who have done live theater make great employees, because they have to work in teams, are literally "on stage", and something always goes wrong.  If they've performed in a musical group (voice, instrumental), that frequently yields similar experiences.  Hiring debaters is always interesting, because they have unbelievable research skills, and have to put together an argument (Note:  they occasionally need some shaping and team-building guidance, but they pick up feedback quickly.)  Sports teams and other club events also teach team-oriented skills.
• How about some tangential questions?  Ask them to describe a friend or family member doing something they absolutely admire -- you'll often figure out if they are consumed about themselves or have a generous mindset.  Ask them to convince you to move to their favorite location in the world -- again, you'll hear about passion, curiosity, and general awareness.  And if you're really on a roll, ask them to pick a topic they are passionate about, declare it, and then argue the other side -- you will figure out if they are good at listening and being open-minded.

Don't get me wrong -- GPA still matters, especially in certain disciplines and for graduate schools.  But don't let it be the highest-order filter or you'll find out you could be letting the best talent go to your competitors.

What are your favorite ways to interview potential employees and move beyond the resume?  Share your thoughts here or follow me on Twitter at @Glennengler.

(Image from Ashford University blog post)