I was conversing with a fellow senior HR professional today (who will remain nameless).  We were talking about the state of the job market and how it is affecting candidate and HR behavior.  He went on to bemoan the tons of useless paper that HR departments were getting in response to job postings.  He blamed this mostly on a lack of self discipline in the candidate population and stated that they are not “taking adequate time and care to make sure they qualify for the job”.  The first flaw in this assertion is that job postings are written accurately and have enough information in then to make that determination.  More importantly, self discipline goes out of the window when someone is trying to feed and clothe the family.  When we are in the position to make these judgments on candidates we often forget the critical role that work plays in our lives (Mainly, as a means of sustaining our families and providing for their care and well being).  Work is not meant to be the social experiment that many of my I/O buddies have made it out to be.

I am not so quick to dismiss candidates that are not a perfect fit as I have been on both sides of the table.  I have always tried to counsel folks to look for talent first and to make technical requirements more accurate and slim them down to what is core.  We should be careful not to describe an ideal candidate so narrowly that they could not possibly handle any other role (present or future) except the role that we have posted.  When we are in the position of hiring manager, we must sift down to what is “truly” a core requirement and get back to putting some real athletes on the field.