Wanted: Imagination

Recently, someone from one of the leading software services companies in India called me to discuss an opening they had. I had met one of their employees and he had forwarded my profile to this person. The interviewer asked me,
'How much did you score in your graduation?'
'56%' I said.
'How much in pre-university?'
'47.2%'

After an awkward pause, the interviewer said,
'Suman I think we have a problem. The minimum eligibility criteria is 60% marks in school and college.'
I said, 'I am aware of that but the person who referred me to you said that it was not a problem.'
'No, we can't help it. It is company policy.' She said.
She also added, 'What happened to you in pre-uni? Were you unwell or something? If you can prove that I can squeeze you in.'

After 8 years in the industry, this company was rejecting me because I did not score 60% in my 12th Standard. No discussion. No interview. No evaluation of my skills. Nothing.

The interviewer said that she'd make an exception if it were a 'borderline' case but 47.2% was way too less. I told her that even if she did manage to get me past this great hurdle, I was not interested because I did not want to work with such a conservative company. Tomorrow they may say 'if you are above 40, married, and don't have a kid, sorry you can't work for us.' Or worse, 'if you want to join us, you need to quit smoking (or blogging?)'

What we have here is lack of imagination in hiring. David Ogilvy sold cooking stoves and worked as a chef before he set up O&M. And, this was his hiring philosophy:

Ogilvy drove home the importance of attracting great people to his office managers through a unique and effective device--he gave them dolls. Not just any dolls. A set of the nesting, Russian matrioshka dolls. Every new office manager received a set with a personal note from Ogilvy inside the smallest doll. The note said "If we each hire people smaller less capable than ourselves, we will become a company of dwarves. If we hire people greater than ourselves, we will become a company of giants". [Via allbusiness.com]

Indian IT companies need to show some imagination while hiring talent. But, that comes with a genuine desire to hire good talent. When you treat your employees as mere numbers used for billing your client, of course you will rely on number likes scores, percentages and not on what the prospective employee is all about. Services organizations, especially, suffer from a 'template-driven' recruitment process. It is illogical to deduce that those that scored below 50% are not fit to work in your organization and all those that scored 90% are brilliant. It is illogical because our education system does not equip you with the capability to work in a software company. So, it is unfair to assess someone based on his or her marks alone. You disagree? Well, I bet you have a distinction in your 12th and college.

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