Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World by Tyler Cowen & Daniel Gross

Author:Tyler Cowen & Daniel Gross [Cowen, Tyler & Gross, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Management, Human Resources & Personnel Management, Careers, General
ISBN: 9781250275820
Google: OAgQEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: St.Martin's
Published: 2022-05-17T20:48:04+00:00

Know Your Place in the Pecking Order

Finally, when interpreting the data you have on potential hires, keep in mind where you stand in the pecking order. If you are at the very top of your sector, the selection process is very different than if you are in the middle or, for that matter, closer to the bottom. In particular, if you are not at the very top of your sector, an apparent positive can be a negative, and vice versa, all because of selection effects.

Let’s say, for instance, that you are Apple or Google looking to hire programmers or management talent. You will be able to choose from some truly top candidates, and in your interviews you should be looking for that kind of quality. You don’t need to be so preoccupied with the question “Why does this person want to come here?” Yes, you should ask yourself that question, because not everyone is a natural fit for your company, but there will be plenty of reasons top people will want to work at Apple and Google. You don’t need a big, complicated theory to explain why that might be the case—rather, you could start with the fact that many incoming and fairly junior hires at these companies start at salaries of about $300,000 or more, with interesting projects to work on right away and further opportunities for significant advancement.

It is different if you are from the middle or bottom tiers of your sector. In that case, not everyone will want to work with you, and perhaps most people won’t want to work with you, as they will be hoping for something better, whether realistically or not. If you are in this position, as many of us are, you need to think especially carefully about what is wrong with the people you are trying to hire. (Sometimes this is called the Groucho Marx effect, as Groucho once stated that he wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would have him as a member.) Some of them will look great, and they also will do very well in the interview and by other metrics you use. But in that case, you need to start getting nervous. If they want to work with you, maybe there is something wrong with them you haven’t seen yet. Why aren’t they already working somewhere much better? Why are they talking to you at all? Maybe they are totally lacking in self-confidence, or their personalities will turn out to be poison, or they plan on leaving after a year and they are just using you in the meantime. We have noticed there is an entire class of highly credentialed, fairly talented individuals who spend their whole lives hopping from one job to another, restless, never happy, and never able to put down any roots. They are good enough to keep on getting hired, but still, most of the time you should avoid them.

To be sure, confronting these possibilities is a little uncomfortable, because it raises

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