Shawnee Love   •  
May 14, 2015

I recently had a candidate lament that any company could use him because he was multi-talented and would immediately find a way he could contribute if they would just give him a chance. I hear that a lot actually and I have been thinking about best practices in recruiting systems which tend to focus on defining the job and then finding the candidate that fits.  As a result, we only seek candidates when a clear role is open.  This practice makes logical sense and is a fiscally responsible approach.  However, you can’t do the same things over and over and expect a different result. If your company is trying to innovate and grow, then it might be a better approach to simply find those multitalented, amazing people and bring them onboard and see what they can do.  Google seems to use this approach in their hiring (amongst other solid hiring practices) and they have done pretty well by most standards.  I am curious what you think about hiring for a job or hiring great candidates when you find them regardless of whether you have a job for them. When would your company do either? What do you think are the factors involved?