The Danger of "Been There, Done That" Candidates

In over 20 years of combined executive assessment work, we’ve had the privilege of walking through the full career histories of about ~500 CEOs and C-level executives.

The highest performers—the ones who consistently exceed expectations in each role—rarely take on the same job twice. They usually take on meaningful step-up roles offered through connections in their networks.

So if you want to bring these exceptional performers into your company, why are you looking for candidates who have already done the exact job in question? The moment you set the bar at “must have done this job before,” you immediately skew your sample towards weaker performers. That is, you are now filtering for the ones who are open to a lateral move because they are struggling in their current role and/or don’t have better options.

The most common way companies create this negative bias is by including the all-too-common requirement of “At least 3 years in similar product marketing roles” or "Prior experience leading FP&A in a public company." Qualifications like these create a negative performance bias (and can also create serious DEI issues). So what are you supposed to do—just kill qualifications in your job spec?” Yes, pretty much.

Most qualifications are proxies for what you really care about. If there’s a specific skill (e.g., a programming language) that the candidate needs—and that you can’t train them on—that’s fine to include. Otherwise remove these "time in role" filters that attract lateral-movers.

Focus on the actual results and competencies you need in the role. Keep in mind: you always reserve the right to pass on a candidate whose career track looks nothing like the role in question. Just don’t turn away that amazing up-and-comer who might wildly exceed your expectations.

The main fear people have at this point is that they'll have a flood of resumes from under-qualified applicants that they'll have to triage. Not if you have the right sourcing strategy! (That's a topic for a future post—and there's a hint for what we suggest you do in the third sentence of this post).

Happy Hiring!
Jordan & Matt | Jordan's LinkedIn | Matt's Twitter