People do not know how many pull-ups they can do

I had been regularly working out for almost 22 years until a couple years ago I was humbled by how few pull-ups I could do.

I worked out often but never did pull-ups. I quickly realized I was a beginner in the world of pull-ups and ignorantly thought my thousands of hours inside of gyms and sports meant I was an expert at pull-ups. False.

You see — there is no “real” pull-up standard but below is a chart for males, I found on the . There are standards for females as well. It took me a couple years but this morning I did 22 pull-ups. Master level. #humblebrag

Newbie = 1st unassisted pull-up

Beginner = 2–5 repetitions

Intermediate = 6–10 repetitions

Advanced = 11–15 repetitions

Expert = 16–20 repetitions

Master = 21–25 repetitions

Wicked Sick = 26–30 repetitions

Superhuman = 30+ repetitions

Olympian = 40+ repetitions

Pull-up Immortal = 50+ repetitions

What does doing pull-ups have to do with recruiting talent? It comes down to numbers, standards, and goals.

Many business leaders I work with have been hiring people for years but have no real measurements, standards or goals when it comes to their hiring performance.

Like many other areas in business. Recruiting and hiring is a numbers game.

Think about using an Interview Scorecard. A simple one-pager that tells you how the candidate did on 4–5 areas you are looking to hire for. Start by rating each candidate you interview (1–3 scale) on 4–5 areas. Below are 5 you can use.

Technical ability

Leadership skills

Interpersonal/Team skills

Presentation skills

Organizational citizenship (how will the candidate raise the bar at your company and how interested are they in your company)

Assess each area above with gaps, and overall strengths and concerns you have with the candidate. The point is to make sure each candidate has a scorecard.

See how good your candidates are with the interview scorecard. Just like pull-ups, it might take months to years to get real good at hiring but at least you have standards now.

Just like I was humbled by the pull-up scale, you may get humbled by how you think you are doing with hiring after implementing an interview scorecard.

Get after it.

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Comment by Nicholas Meyler on August 25, 2018 at 4:03am: I'm not very good at pull-ups. I have climbed 5.9 and 5.10 rock-climbs, and have a reasonably strong arm, having beaten Olympians at fencing, more than once, but I'm not good at pull-ups. I'm actually appreciative that someone wrote this post. The muscles involved in fencing are "fast-twitch" muscles, somewhat different from weight-lifting and bulk muscles. And, of course, the more muscle one builds, the more the muscle itself weighs, and the harder it is to lift. The muscles involved in a bullet-speed extension or thrust are very different than pull-up muscles, but they are also the same. Sort of makes you think, doesn't it? This is what my fencing coach told me... making he's just trying to keep my arms weak (lol).