Technology, Strategy, People and Projects

The best hiring advice I’ve heard

by Eric D. Brown on August 23, 2007 · View Comments

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Chapter 13 of “What were they thinking” by Jeffrey Pfeffer has some excellent advice for hiring managers….the chapter, titled ‘Resumes Don’t Tell” has a subtitle that is the best piece of hiring advice I’ve heard in a long time:

Pick people for what they can do, not what they may have done.

I wish more hiring managers would heed this advice.

Of course, a person’s past accomplishments are an excellent way of telling you what that person has done and what they may be capable of doing, they aren’t a guarantee that the candidate will reach the same level of accomplishment while in your organization.

As I’ve mentioned before in previous posts, hiring is one of the most critical functions an organization can undertake and shouldn’t be taken lightly. A resume can tell you a lot about a persons credentials and past but very little about who the person really is and how they work, their ethics and the things that they are most passionate about.

[tags] hiring, human resources [/tags]

Written By Eric D. Brown

Eric is a Consultant, Entrepreneur and Doctoral Student focused on helping organizations cross the chasm that exists between Business & IT. Eric writes extensively about technology, strategy, people and projects at http://ericbrown.com. In addition to this blog and his consulting work, Eric is an avid & passionate photographer and writes about photography, shares photographs and reviews products at Photography Minute.

System Review

It must be an interesting book to read. Resumes can tell successful implementation. But this success is contributed by the project members as well. I agree that "how they work, their ethics and the things that they are most passionate about" should put into attention when hiring.