Valuing the Unconventional Candidate

Having previously gauged my professional value in job placements completed and hours billed, I cannot imagine any greater metric by which to measure my career impact than the number of graduates who have launched successfully into their lives because of the initiatives I have been privileged to lead in education. Not surprisingly, many “recovering” attorneys and business folk like me are increasingly finding their way into education. Work in education is aspirational and transformational. It is satiating and consequential. It is no wonder that non-traditional candidates for opportunities in education leadership have been seeking points of entry. What is surprising are the biases that managers in education still bring - consciously or not - which disfavor candidates with unconventional paths in this (still) talent-driven market where attrition continues to outpace hiring demand.

I was fortunate to have been recruited by my institution’s former President and Dean of the College into an inaugural role charged with rethinking the way our institution prepared students for success in life, and not just work, after graduation. They looked beyond my job titles and industry affiliations to accomplishments and experience in talent recruitment, management and law. In hindsight, they likely did take a chance that someone with my business and legal background would be too “corporate” and not relatable to students or to colleagues whose work centered on encouraging the cross-pollination of ideas and holistic student development. Thankfully, no such presumptions surfaced to hinder what was a very smooth transition into higher education.

Nearly 12 years later, I have “border-crossed” and broken down divisional silos, facilitated campuswide collaborations that have spawned classwide traditions, presented to prospective families and prospective donors on the value of a co-educational liberal arts experience, and never looked back on the legal and corporate paths I left behind. You may not be surprised to learn that, in all of the searches I have conducted over the years, I have welcomed and often recruited non-traditional or unconventional candidates to participate, recognizing their value and relevance because of my own lived experience.??

What does it really mean to be “unconventional" anyway? Over 80% of college graduates do not pursue careers linearly related to their undergraduate degree. An English major can become the President and Chief Operating Officer of a global advertising agency, and an anthropologist can be appointed as the Chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.? (Both examples of graduates of my current institution.)? In such situations, candidates trade more on their potential and the relevance of their competencies than the linearity of their career choices.? It just takes a hiring manager with vision to recognize talent in those who were not born and raised along a singular path, and confidence to diversify their organization’s workforce at the?risk of injecting into it fresh ideas and energy. ?While doing otherwise may seem safer to the status quo, I would propose that the potential organizational impact of someone who can apply their competencies broadly merits faith in the value of an adjusted status quo.

So as education grapples with ongoing turnover and increasing applications by non-traditional talent to access the lifestyle and social impact the field affords, isn't it worth re-assessing talent recruitment and management strategies to leverage broader candidate interest? Having been the recipient of unconventional candidate recruitment three times over, I would respectfully submit: yes.