The Myth of the Perfect Candidate

S. Joseph Baker, CPC, President and founder of Search Consultants International, Inc., discusses a hiring attitude prevalent in a significant number of corporations today.

Baker points out that new headlines everyday announce another corporate downsizing---re-engineering is the order of the day. "Surely, with all these layoffs and early retirement offerings there must be hundreds of qualified candidates for those key professional positions we have been trying to fill for the past six months." So goes the current thinking throughout a large segment of corporate America today.

Search Consultants finds this attitude prevalent in many of the markets we serve--mid-level to senior-level engineering / technical and executive/ management positions in the 60K - 180K range. As a result, jobs that should fill in 3 to 4 months with a professional search effort are often still open after 6 to 9 months and some even for a year or more.

Baker stressed that in an attempt to find "the perfect candidate", viable, qualified and interested candidates are passed up or the process is so elongated that when the decision is made to proceed, the finalist is often no longer available, either having taken another position or having lost interest in the company.

Search Consultants statistics show that for any available candidate pool, only 10% to 13% of the people in that pool will possess the qualifications requested. From that reduced pool, only 5% to 10% will be seriously interested in making a move at the point in time you are seeking them.

"For example," Baker says, "if a chemical company is searching for a maintenance manager for one of its plants, a reasonable candidate pool might come from other chemical and related manufacturing plants in several surrounding states. If there are 900 chemical plants of similar size in the target area, there should be approximately 900 potential maintenance managers. However, of these 900 candidates, only 10% to 13% will possess the qualifications that the company seeks."

"Thus, the available candidate pool is reduced from 900 to approximately 105 qualified candidates. Of these 105 candidates, only 5 to 10%, or 8 to 10 candidates will be seriously interested in making a change at this time."Baker stresses that, "It doesn't matter that hundreds have recently been downsized in the industry. There are only about 8 to 10 qualified and interested candidates who can be attracted to your position at any given point in time.""However," Baker adds, "there is hope for the hiring manager--in most situations, this should be more than sufficient to give your management a choice of at least two candidates who share your corporate vision and possess the right blend of 'intangibles' that you seek."

Will your selection be a 'perfect candidate'? Perhaps not, however if your search process follows a planned professional approach, they should be the best qualified candidate available-and you should be able to arrive at that decision in a reasonable time period, that is, while the candidate is still available.

Baker ends by stressing that a sense of urgency on the decision makers part is crucial to take advantage of the candidates availability.