“Talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” – Stephen King
I was recently invited to a meet up with Senior execs within the IT arena. A question I was often asked was why is there a talent shortage, in particular within cybersecurity & Software development. Flexible working, correct salaries, flawed interview process, projects to one side. My initial thought was do we actually have a talent shortage? I don’t think we do, there’s lots of good people out there.
Where is the talent?
I have reflecting on my many years in IT recruitment (approaching 24 years!) and what hasn’t changed is the CV, but what has changed is the lack of communication. I am referring to talking and having a detailed chat with someone and the flip side clients actually trusting their recruiter and taking on board their advice and opinion.
I have seen people with the most impressive resumes, honestly, you would think they are Bill Gates’ kid. But they fail to deliver on the job and rarely get past us on the qualification stage. Yet they get interviews, because some candidates are just pros at interviews and “keeping their job”. I’ve seen candidates with CVs that have very little experience but are super talented. I’ve also seen CVs from very experienced people but are not expert CV writers and therefore don’t get to the interview stage because they get filtered out.
Some “rookies” thrive by stepping forward to take on challenges, constantly educating themselves and with an exuberant willingness to learn new things. The tech industry is consistently evolving so candidates folks who have the drive and desire to evolve with the industry are the ones that I consider talented. And this you only get from a proper conversation.
So perhaps it’s time we stop fully focusing on the CV and trust your recruiter in why you should speak to this person. These applicants can have the largest growth potential, so instead of focusing so much on what someone has done in the past consider what their potential is. You hear the expression “gut feeling” after nearly 24 years in recruitment my gut is pretty good. Even internally when we recruit, we don’t just opt for degrees and years in the industry some of my best hires have been people who have shown true desire to exceed.
Stop looking to tick all the boxes, just the important ones and the rest can be quickly developed.
-Vas Constanti
