Job interview and resumes

There was a search for a pastor during Bible times. After careful deliberation and interview, the search committee came up with the following report to the members of the church:

Dear Member,

We do not have a happy report, as we have not been able to find a suitable candidate for pastor of our church thus far. We do, however, have one promising prospect. The following is our confidential report on the candidates:

Adam: Good man, but has problems with his wife.

Noah: Former pastorate of 120 years with no converts. Prone to unrealistic building projects.

Joseph: A big thinker, but a braggart. Interprets dreams. Has a prison record.

Moses: Modest and meek, but poor communicator; even stutters at times. Sometimes blows his stack and acts rashly in business meetings.

Deborah: One word – female.

David: The most promising candidate of all, until we discovered the affair he had with a neighbor’s wife.

Solomon: Great preacher, but has serious woman problems. 

Elijah: Prone to depression; collapses under pressure. 

Jonah: Told us he was swallowed by a huge fish. He said the fish later spit him out on the shore near here. We hung up.

Amos: Backward and unpolished. With some seminary training, he might have potential. But he has a problem with wealthy people.

John: Says he’s a Baptist, but doesn’t dress like one. Sleeps in the outdoors, has a weird diet and provokes denominational leaders.

Paul: Powerful, CEO type. Fascinating preacher. But he’s short on tact, unforgiving with young ministers, harsh and has been known to preach all night.

Timothy: Too young.

Judas: His references are solid. A steady plodder. Conservative. Good connections. Knows how to handle money. We’re inviting him to preach this Sunday with great hopes that he will accept our offer!

Businesses have the same problem. They look at the resume, interview the candidate and think they have a winner. After a few months on the job, their winner turns out to be a lemon at best and a Judas at worst, and they wonder how this misfit could have gotten through their strict hiring protocols.

Remember this: A job interview is a conversation between two liars. Everything that transpires within the conversation is factual except the truth. The resume is a statement of lie itself. Rarely does it present the real person indicated on the pages.

Most of us spend three percent of our time hiring people and 97 percent of the time fixing our hiring mistakes. We need to revisit the people we have interviewed and take a closer look at their past performance. Here is another thing you may want to do: raise the bar higher so you would know who really qualifies and not.

Hire people for attitude and train people for skills.

Hire slow and fire fast. You cannot afford to get lemons or Judases in your organization. You need to fill your team with the best players in the field.

And hire people smarter than you. Former GE chairman Jack Welch said, “At the end of the day, the team with the best players win.”

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