Question of the day: Can a candidate's sparking personality and interpersonal skills make up for lack of experience?

Follow up to today's RBC Daily:

Inc.com recently posted an interesting article entitled - Top 6 Hiring Mistakes to Avoid that examined six of the most common errors made by organizations when hiring for leadership positions. Most of these can be avoided by using a good recruiter (OK, I added that one) but in reality sticking to an efficient hiring process should help eliminate some of these traps. I was really intrigued by the first pitfall, 'His charisma was intoxicating'. As recruiters we deal with so many people on a daily basis and we’ve all probably come across an individual who exudes a unique magnetic trait, but have you ever been overwhelmed by it?

Question of the day: Can a candidate's sparking personality and interpersonal skills make up for lack of experience?

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Permalink Reply by Elise Reynolds on February 21, 2012 at 9:49am

Depending on the job I think it can.  I believe that employers often make wrong hires because they are insistent on the wrong criterion.  I know that sounds a tad arrogant on my part. 

One of the most common problems I see are insisting on A-level candidates (ambitious, climbing, fierce) for what are C-level jobs (not a lot of real growth, not the greatest pay).  What you really want is a C-level candidate with a great attitude.  Someone who can do the job and is happy to do the job. 

I would love to hear any suggestions or sucess stories on getting a hiring manager to seriously consider a candidate who did not fit the criterion but you knew would do a great job. 

Permalink Reply by Brian K. Johnston on February 21, 2012 at 10:54am

Yes/Best interview (vs. best candidate) gets job.

Permalink Reply by Elise Reynolds on February 21, 2012 at 11:04am

Hi Brian,

I would be interested in hearing any tips on how to get some of these candidates to the interview stage.  They are usually blown off by the resume alone.

Permalink Reply by Brian K. Johnston on February 21, 2012 at 11:37am

Hi Elise (You are correct)-  You must exude confidence.  Lack of confidence (Mindset) kills your personal/professional life.  Learning/attaining skills in Influence/persuasion (NOT manipulation/control) has made a huge impact in my life.  Dr. Robert Cialdini is a great place to start, and anything on NLP (nuero linguistic programming).  I would also suggest that they are MANY charlatan's in our industry, that sound all put together, but when you spend 5-10min. talking or observing there alexa ranking (web site traffic rank) you see very quickly, the message does not match reality.  MANY are so called "thought leaders" in our industry!!! 

Be careful who you listen too....

Have FUN with it... Life is way too short!  Best, Brian-

Permalink Reply by Bill Schultz on February 21, 2012 at 1:04pm

If they are not qualified, they won't get hired.  Unless it's a position where Front Office Appearance or Customer Service is of the utmost importance.  Of course, if they show an un-sparkling and unfriendly appearance, they are a shoe in for the HR role. (teehee)

Permalink Reply by Amy Ala Miller on February 21, 2012 at 1:25pm

LOL Bill I want to argue with you but I just can't... :)

Bill Schultz said:

If they are not qualified, they won't get hired.  Unless it's a position where Front Office Appearance or Customer Service is of the utmost importance.  Of course, if they show an un-sparkling and unfriendly appearance, they are a shoe in for the HR role. (teehee)

Permalink Reply by Suzanne Levison on February 21, 2012 at 2:02pm

There is much to be said for charisma. I think it depends upon many circumstances such as dynamics of the culture and job responsibilities.

Permalink Reply by Amber on February 21, 2012 at 2:46pm

In some cases, definitely. Unless a special certification or designation is part of the job duties, then "personality" can certainly make up for having 3 years of certain experience vs. the 7 years in the original job description.

Permalink Reply by Gordon Alderson on February 21, 2012 at 7:39pm

So many Hiring Mistakes can be solved with better diligence when taking recruitment briefs.

That requires access to the inner-most thoughts of the Hiring Manager and the Final Decision Maker. After all they are the subject specialists. We are duty-bound to help them reveal their wisdom so that we are precisely targetted in our work.

Then we need to be sure the Hiring Manager and the Final Decision Maker are on the same page.

Overcome these obstacles at the outset of assignments and recruiters will lick almost all these Hiring Mistakes.

The question then becomes how to achieve this without taking up too much of our frenetically busy clients' time while developing rich relationships with them.

Permalink Reply by Caitlin Carruthers on February 21, 2012 at 7:46pm

I agree with Bill - it depends on the job.  When I recruited salespeople, it was all about personality - if they didn't sparkle in the group interview, they didn't get the job, no matter what experience they had.  For qualified roles, I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I hired someone who didn't have the right experience or skills.

Permalink Reply by Linda Ferrante on February 21, 2012 at 8:46pm

There is personality, charisma, and 'that guy'!  Personality fit is a must.  Charisma, depends on the position (sales, then yes, probably), but 'that guy'?!  NO WAY!!  When they act as if they can sweet talk me into hiring them, they have just ventured into 'that guy' territory!

Base line skills are important.  There is no question about that.  Next, and IMO more important, if the personality fits with my client, then we are on to something!  If they have an awesome personality but aren't a good fit for the client, then it's still a no go.  Fit must equal that of the clients. 

Permalink Reply by Cora Mae Lengeman on February 22, 2012 at 7:54am

Yes, sometimes, but no other times.

A great personality and great interpersonal skills can certainly help someone in their career; but if the position is for a very technical accountant (SEC reporting or accounting research) they better have the skill for that too or no go.  Tghey wouldn't get past me.  If the position is a sales position - I might send them in even without the technical skills or product knowledge because in sales personality and interpersonal skills are so important - sometimes more than knowing every bolt on the product - because they are selling the product, not making it!

They could always try their hand at recruiting....

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