I have a challenge that I would love an entrepreneur to tackle.
Resumes are backward-looking documents, and are great for when people are looking to do something similar to what they have previously done. They are not great at communicating all-around or cross-functional talent, and the ability for many folks to do something completely different. Currently, they act as historical anchors, making it more difficult for people to make interesting moves.
Some entrepreneurs believe that it’s best to take someone who is super-smart and talented and throw him or her into a challenge, even if the person has no experience in that particular area, over someone who has experience but does not sparkle in an all-around way. For football fans, this is the Antonio Gates theory (despite Gates not having played college football, he will end his career as one of the best tight ends in NFL history).
Despite this, the way the recruiting process often works is very conventional and it takes a narrow view of things and it can whittle unconventional candidates out of the talent pool. My thesis is that this is causing a huge economic and human deadweight loss to our economy and society as talented folks don’t get to move around or it takes them too long to make a cross-functional move. I would love for folks to figure out a way to take on this issue, and I think the result would blow existing career and professional-oriented sites out of the water by reducing the importance and power of the traditional resume.
[...] A theme I have returned to from time to time is how our hiring systems screen out talent. This has implications in one’s own hiring and potentially in one’s investments. There also is an opportunity here for someone to reinvent the traditional resume as I have blogged before. [...]
[...] with Chris Cunningham of Appssavvy from the Corner Office series with some great thoughts on looking forward rather than backwards when hiring and after hiring, setting a vision and importantly letting team members understand how [...]
[...] This is not meant to be a knock on Google, but shows how great people can be underutilized if you hire (or promote) with blinders on regarding the right background. This is from the profile of Sheryl Sandberg in [...]
[...] platforms for finding, matching, and broadcasting talent than the ones we have now. For example, I posted: Resumes are backward-looking documents, and are great for when people are looking to do something [...]
[...] on freeing the talent hunt from traditional HR blinders, a recurring topic on this blog (see Talent category). This is important from both an individual company and [...]
[...] of the metaphors I have used in connection with finding talent is that of Antonio Gates, the San Diego Chargers monster TE who never played college football. With too narrow a view of [...]
[...] Jani tweeted out a few days ago resonated as being in line with this blog’s Antonio Gates theory of talent [...]