Ray E. Toler, Jr.

Note: With this entry I introduce a new category: The Sharpest Tacks. While I consider myself to be relatively patient and easygoing, there are times when sheer stupidity, be it from a person, a law, a system, etc., just astounds me.

For the last six months, I’ve been conducting a job search. One of the inevitable questions I get is “what is it you want to do?” The trouble is, I don’t really know. I want to do lots of things, but have trouble narrowing it down to a sound-bite sentence or mission statement. Mostly, I want to learn, grow, do some good, and help people and companies achieve the best that they can. I’m not all that particular about the particulars, though.

My career has been a series of fortunate events. I’ve enjoyed nearly all of it and learned a great deal. I’ve been an actor, a writer, a secretary, a designer, a systems administrator, a musician, a producer, and a consultant.

The downside to all of this is that it’s very hard to put me in a box, and that’s what HR departments have decided they should be doing in the hiring process. Narrow the job description’s focus and requirements until it’s so sharp you risk getting a nasty papercut just by looking at it. Get the HR person, ironically titled a “generalist,” to check off enough boxes on the list and you get an interview.

In one of the final (and most useful) MBA classes, my teacher, a former Fortune 500 CEO, said the following in nearly every lecture:

1. HR is too important to be left to HR people.
2. Hire for attitude. Skills can be taught

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. The true talent at most companies will tell you that they want multi-skilled employees with the ability to shift, change, and learn. Specialists have their place, but it’s the renaissance employee that makes a company flexible and responsive with an eye on the big picture.

Everyone wants a renaissance employee in their company. Nobody wants to hire one.

And by “nobody” I mean HR.

The renaissance employee can’t be quantified or measured. There are few, if any, objective metrics. It takes a subjective eye, an analytical streak, and some intestinal fortitude to connect the dots and determine whether an applicant is truly multi-talented and has a positive attitude or just someone who hasn’t been able to hold down a job. And even a highly talented hire may not fit in culturally.

In short, there is a not-insubstantial element of risk in hiring this type of worker, and HR isn’t exactly a poster-child for risk taking. And for part of its function, it shouldn’t be. When navigating the regulatory quagmire, you don’t want to jump out and pet the alligators. Unfortunately, most of the HR groups I’ve come across have let the regulatory nanny part of their job bleed over into everything else, when a totally different skill set is required.

Now, I’m not claiming to be a renaissance man, just someone who has a broad experience base and wide variety of interests that makes it difficult to easily classify my core talents, skills, and aptitudes. Put that up against a narrow-focus job description and you have a recipe for disaster.

This is actually the second time I’ve conducted a job search. The first was in 2003 following a layoff. The worst part of the search was dealing with HR folks. Here is an actual conversation I had (I am not making this up) with one particularly obtuse rep after being rejected for a position for which I was actually overqualified.

Me: I was wondering about this rejection letter I got. It says I’m not qualified for the job, but I meet all of your listed qualifications.

Her: One moment, Mr. Toler, let me pull up your application. . . . . . . Ah. Here we are. Yes, this job requires a college degree.

Me: I have a college degree.

Her: You do? It’s not on your resume…

Me: Yes it is.

Her: Where?

Me: Under “Education” where it says BFA, George Mason University, 1990, Cum Laude

Her: A BFA is a degree?

Me: (pause) Yes. It’s a Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Her: Oh. Well, you might want to spell that out for future applications.

…

In my head, I was thinking: “Sweetie, here’s a tip for you. If you see the letter ‘B’ near the word ‘University’ in the section titled ‘Education,’ THERE’S A PRETTY GOOD CHANCE THAT IT’S A FRIGGIN’ DEGREE!!!”

Again, I am not making that up. That is an almost word-for-word transcription of the conversation.

These are the people holding my career in their grubby little gatekeeper hands? These are the people to which one of the foremost hospitals in the world is trusting the hiring of top talent? Or ANY talent for that matter?

Ultimately, I abandoned my search and started my own consulting practice. While I didn’t make $40 million dollars and retire to a private island, I was able to pay the mortgage, grow the practice, increase rates every year, and get an MBA, so I consider it a success.

Sadly, my HR experience in the current job search has been largely similar to the first. While I haven’t run across anyone as delightfully dim as the young (I hope) lady mentioned above, I’ve met plenty of check-box police who are looking desperately for some reason to throw my resume out of the pile.

Like the one who decided that my 4+ years as “Marketing Coordinator” and my 5 years as (among other things) a marketing consultant didn’t satisfy their need for “7 years marketing experience.” Her title, by the way: “HR Intern.”

Or the one who felt I wouldn’t be competitive for a job and an interview was pointless because I only met 13 of their 15 experience requirements, despite the fact that the job had been listed for eight months.

Eight.

Months.

Forget what this says about those individual people. What does it say about the companies they work for? I normally take the approach that I’m interviewing the company to see if I want to work with them, not the other way around.

With that in mind, let’s look at my interactions with these three companies again. What do their presumably best efforts look like?

The first company trotted out someone who couldn’t even figure out that I had a college degree. Really? That’s the first impression you want to make? If the position requires higher education, why isn’t the person reviewing resumes qualified to recognize higher education?

The second company showed that they were incapable of connecting relatively clear dots. If you can’t add 4 and 5 together and find that it’s more than 7, I probably don’t want to waste my time working for you, much less see your books or salary increase calculations. Worse, they sent a rejection letter for a 6-figure job from an intern! If that’s how they try to impress and attract experienced applicants, imagine how they treat their employees.

The last company now looks a little fussy, doesn’t it? Eight months of not having someone fulfilling a strategically important position, yet dismissing a candidate who meets nearly 90% of the qualifications without even spending thirty minutes on a phone interview to see if there’s a fit? Oh yeah – planning sessions must be a joy at that company.

Now, I’m not putting all of the blame on HR. I’ve made some pretty big mistakes myself, but that’s another essay to come.

Finally, lest you think I’m simply bitter, I present to you OTIFOTI: Opinions That I Found On The Internet™

• Why We Hate HR
• Seven Mistakes Internal Recruiters Make
• Flushing Out HR Snakes