Do You Hire Real Talents or Proud Owners of Impressive-Looking Resumes

The other night I was watching one of Tom Berenger's films, entitled the Sniper.

Thomas Beckett (Berenger) is a top tier sniper in the US army, and he is sent to Panama to take some naughty characters out of the way. But at the previous mission his spotter was killed during a screwed up extraction, and he's going to Panama with a new spotter, Richard Miller, (Billy Zane) a former Olympic shooting champion.

Miller is now working for the National Security Agency, and based on his impressive achievements (a.k.a. resume) he is selected for this dangerous and delicate mission. And he has to work with a veteran shooter who is a n expert in jungle fighting.

There is one problem. Miller has never shot a rifle to kill. He is a sports shooter. He knows how to shoot in peaceful situations but is totally paralysed when the stakes are high and the heat is on.

At one point he even starts shooting at his partner. Whatever qualified him in the first place to go on this mission was a huge blunder of biblical proportions. In spite of his impressive "resume", he has to unlearn his false pride and ego, and properly learn how to work in a sniper element. (Element is the name of the team of two people: The spotter and the shooter)

As a result of Beckett's patience and perseverance, Miller quickly learns the ropes and the sniper's life in the jungle.

What does all this mean to your business development team?

Well, first of all, you make a huge mistake by hiring impressive resumes. Resumes tell you all about people were taught (not what they learnt) in school. There is overwhelming evidence that a large percentage of business school students cheat to pass their courses.

Linda Treviño, Franklin H. Cook Fellow in Business Ethics at Penn State's Smeal College, and her colleagues Donald McCabe of Rutgers and Kenneth Butterfield of Washington State examined survey results from 5,331 students at 32 graduate schools both in Canada and the United States. It turns out that 56% of business students admitted cheating during their courses.

And many students justify their cheating activities by saying that the world of business is built on cheating, lying and deceiving, and these are the only ways of staying alive in the 21st century "kill or be killed" business culture.

Now, if 56% admitted, how much more do you think actually cheated?

The questions is this: What happens if you hire some of these liars with impressive resumes, 56% of which is a lie. You may run an honest, and ethical organisation, but now you're poisoning it with these semi-crooks who learnt in school that cheating is just fine, and the ends justify the means. Any means.

And whatever they learnt in school, they didn't leant the right character traits, which are more important than skills. After all, anyone can learn any skills, but regardless of the number of years of schooling, a liar is a liar and a cheater is a cheater.

And after several years of schooling, a liar becomes a liar, BA, MBA or Ph.D.

So, just think about this when you're assessing the next resume, and realise that the majority of what you're reading on that resume is a lie. That's why a friend of mine, Carlitos, calls it Ridiculum Vitae.

The old saying is still true: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance (real expertise), then baffle them with bullshit (resume).