Career Corner: Cutting the Horn Off the Unicorn

By Angela Copeland

Isaw the perfect profile for a recruiter recently. It said, “I am not a ninja/purplesquirrel/unicorn hunter, nor someone who hires ‘rock stars.’ I am a strategicand tactical recruiter, meaning I partner with leaders and we hire – at scale,for the niche skills required to make the difference to a business.”

Haveyou ever heard of this phrase – “purple squirrel”? In the world ofthe job search, it is a reference to a hiring manager who wants to find theperfect applicant. They’re looking for that once in a lifetime candidate thatwill bring everything they want to their business and more. The person is oftenalso referred to as a unicorn, a ninja, or a rock star.

Theproblem is this. This purple squirrel hiring strategy is completelyunrealistic. It relies on an environment that no longer exists in 2019.

You may wonder what I mean. Well, think of it this way. The dot-com crash happened in 2000. This is around the same time that Monster.com started to be the way companies hired. Other sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor have also come onto the scene, but the process has remained largely the same.

Employersare able to input a large list of criteria and in return, they can find acandidate who has the qualities that they’re looking for. When the job marketwas terrible, this worked perfectly fine. You could upload a list of, say, 30skills and get a handful of people who matched.

Theissue today is we’re in the middle of the best job market we’ve seen in 50years. Unfortunately, many employers haven’t adjusted the way they hire. I haveto think this is due in part to one thing. People who graduated from collegearound 2000 are 40 years old now. They are hiring managers. And, for those thatage, they’ve never truly experienced a job market where the company wasn’t incontrol.

They’restuck on finding those perfect unicorns and it’s showing. The time to fill jobsis taking longer now than it did in the past. Employers are having a hardertime finding the perfect person. That’s because job seekers have more choices.

So,what’s a company to do? Stop searching for the perfect candidate. Start lookingfor great candidates. Look for leaders. Look for motivated, dedicated, smartemployees. Because, meeting the criteria on a checklist doesn’t measure howdedicated or excited a candidate may be.

Youmight be surprised, but a yellow squirrel can get the job done just as well asa purple one – maybe even better. Just because someone has a resume that’snon-traditional doesn’t mean they won’t fit the job or your organization. Takea step back and look at the bigger picture. Don’t stick to a checklist onlyapproach. You’ll do yourself, your business, and your candidates a huge favor.

Angela Copeland, a career expert and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.

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