Why your best hire might not have the best CV

A case for the ‘Scrapper’: why your best hire might not have the best CV

In her Tedtalk, Regina Hartley calls it a matchup between ‘The Silver Spoon’ and ‘The Scrapper’. She describes the two categories of candidates at the outset as:

• The Silver Spoon: “The one who clearly had advantages and was destined for success”
• The Scrapper: “The one who had to fight against tremendous odds to get to the same point as The Silver Spoon”

It's important to note that in her example Regina emphasizes that both candidates are qualified for your job. A proud scrapper herself, she calls for employers to take a step back to further consider The Scrapper for, at the very least, an interview.A Different Road to TakeStaring down at a CV packed with a lot of job-hopping, periods of time out of the workforce and subpar academic records, an employer might come to a few quick conclusions about a candidate, even before meeting them. But Regina, asks us to consider ‘The Scrapper’ and the impact that long road might have had upon them. Real challenges may have been put in their way and well, here they are, still standing. From stepping stone to lily pad, they developed real mettle and grit to get to where they want to be. Career roadblocks have been ever present and they have had to overcome adversity time and time again. Maybe this is the type of candidate you need for your business? Maybe they are worth shortlisting for interview…at the very least?

“Scrappers are propelled by the belief that the only person you have control over is yourself” - Regina Hartley

The Interview Selection Process – Embarking on The ScrapperDepending on the role, you might want to meet 3-5 candidates for first round interviews. Here are three things you can do to allow The Scrapper into the picture…

• Be open and try to reserve judgement on first impressions from a CV. Can you get a real sense of a candidate’s personality from a CV? Let’s face it, the traditional CV does have its limitations in this respect.
• By all means qualifications are a good benchmark to use when selecting your candidate shortlist. Sometimes however, experience can be just as useful as a qualification and specifying that a qualification is desirable, over essential, might open you up to candidates with fantastic experience who have overcome great obstacles.
• If you are working with a recruitment agency, listen to their feedback on who they have screened. Be open to listening to their arguments for putting forward a candidate that doesn’t meet all those initial requirements you set out – they may have just met a scrapper.

“Scrappers know they are who they are because of adversity” - Regina Hartley

Go Forward now and Recruit the Best Candidate for the JobEquipped with our top tips for writing job specifications and Regina’s advice, you now have everything you need to go and hire the best candidate for your position – whether they are a scrapper or not.Best of luck.One of the joys of being in recruitment is meeting candidates and finding them positions that they love. On a daily basis, as a team, we meet up to 10 candidates. We hear their experiences and how they have scrapped. This fuels our desire to help them realize their career dreams. They may have had to reroute or take a career break along the way, but they’re still on track and determined to get to where they want to go. The lessons and experiences they have had along the way are part of who they are and puts them in good stead for any business challenge. If you want to learn more about how we do recruitment at Celtic Careers, you can request a callback here.