Looking beyond the Resume

Jake Sully: Former Marine, twin brother to a scientist trained in the Na’vi language, and hired to go to Pandora for the Avatar mission. The corporation has grown an avatar specifically for the brother, at the cost of millions of dollars and months of time.

Jake Sully has buried his brother, and becomes his replacement on the mission. Why?

Because they share the same DNA, and he’ll “fit” in the Avatar. And he’s a trained Marine, so at least there’s that bonus. Another warrior. With no training, no real knowledge of what he’s about to do… he heads to Pandora.

Oh, did I mention Jake is a disabled Marine, not the sharpest tool in the shed, in a wheelchair, with absolutely no use of his legs and carrying a rather heavy chip on his shoulder? He’s now least likely to succeed on a hostile alien planet in a highly scientific environment, right?

Jake may have been picked for this mission solely because he shared his brother’s DNA, and because the corporation really didn’t want to grow another Avatar on short notice, but he becomes an integral part of the program. He is the guiding force behind the plot, because once he reaches Pandora, his superiors are able to look past his resume. Some to exploit, but others because they recognized skills. He becomes a leader.

In HR, as talent managers, we’ve all had rough resumes cross our desks, or met someone, immediately sized them up, and pigeonholed them into a job because this is what their background was… and we’ve all had to change our minds, because people are more than their resumes, more than our initial assumptions.

In my career I’ve met several people like this, People whom I initially put in a box because I’d seen their file, because I listened to their supervisors, or because somehow there’d been a bad first impression. Once I got to know these people, once I saw their talents, and a few of them, wow, did they have some talent, I had to change my mind, I had to look beyond the resume.

Skill, expertise, leadership, motivation. All of these traits can be masked by communication problems, leadership failures, or a lack of proper job fit. And all of them can be resolved if we, as astute HR practitioners, look at employees or candidates for who they are, if we have honest conversations with them, and their leaders, and at least for me, if I listen to my gut.

Do you have examples of people for whom you looked past the resume?
Or maybe a failure for the Junkyard?