Employers Wary of Hiring Jerks

You know that part on your resume where you claim to have "excellent interpersonal skills"? Well, you'd better be telling the truth. Because companies are going out of their way to make you prove it in the hiring process.

Last week, the AP reported on the importance of the "plays well with others" factor.

A resume and a brief job interview can't answer the question that matters most to a new hire's co-workers: Is this person an absolute pain? ... Businesses in fields where jobs are highly coveted -- or just sound like fun -- are stepping up efforts to weed out people who might have the right credentials but the wrong personality.

And to weed out the jerks, companies are holding all day, group interviews where the interviewers grill the candidate in an effort "to rub away fake pleasantness."

Rackspace Chief Executive Officer Lanham Napier said, "We'd rather miss a good one than hire a bad one." ... "They're here for nine or 10 hours, " Napier said. "We're not aggressive, but we haven't met a human being yet who has the stamina to [misrepresent themselves to] us all day."

So why does personality trump competence in the hiring process? Because employers know that nobody wants to work with a competent jerk. And according to a study done by the Harvard Business School, the stats bear this out.

We found that if someone is strongly disliked, it's almost irrelevant whether or not she is competent; people won't want to work with her anyway. By contrast, if someone is liked, his colleagues will seek out every little bit of competence he has to offer. And this tendency didn't exist only in extreme cases; it was true across the board. Generally speaking, a little extra likability goes a longer way than a little extra competence in making someone desirable to work with.

The problem is, most jerks don't have the gift of self-perception; they don't know they're jerks. If you're just beginning your job search or have had difficulty holding a job, it might be a good idea to humble yourself before some other believers and ask if they've discerned any rough edges that may keep you from getting, or keeping, a job.

Comments

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1. Charles H. said the following at 4:50 PM on Nov 27:

I agree with the employers' goal, but a day-long stress interview does not sound like a way to make one's company appealing to talented prospective employees.

2. Marc said the following at 1:12 AM on Nov 28:

Sometimes there are people in high-powered positions who are jerks or have quirks who will be kept-on the company's payroll simply because... well, they're the best at what they were hired to do.

Maybe I'm just naive, but in my own opinion, I'd rather hire a good guy whose quirks and/or bad (read: moody) days are few than one who is great at their line of work, yet has the personality of a bull in a china hutch.

3. kman said the following at 7:18 AM on Nov 28:

-We found that if someone is strongly -disliked, it's almost irrelevant -whether or not she is competent; people -won't want to work with her anyway.

This is just common sense.

And given the choice between two equally qualified people, you're going to choose to work with the one you, and possibly others, get along with well.

I thought that businesses trying to determine is someone is a jerk more interesting. The day long interview seems extreme except for just the last round of picks.

4. P&P said the following at 7:58 AM on Nov 28:

So very true, but it's also a two-way street: I'm leaving my current job because I'm working for a jerk: he's immature, self-involved and just plain rude. He started acting this way on my second day, but I toughed it out for two years in part b/c of the bad economy and also because I kept thinking if I behaved well, he'd get the message and improve.

Sadly, he's been nothing but polite since I gave my notice last week. I think he's scared of what I'm going to say in my exit interview this afternoon.

5. tom said the following at 11:23 AM on Nov 28:

The Wall Street Journal had another interesting article a year or so ago on job interviews. Rather than do the whole-day stress test, some companies take the candidate to lunch and simply judge how he interacts with the waiters. Believe it or not, it's a good way to spot the potential "jerkness" of a job candidate.

One example: a candidate had an entire salad spilled onto his lap by waitress. After a pause, and between her profuse apologies, he simply said, "Well, you'll have a great story to tell the grandchildren."

The interviewer said he decided on the spot to hire the guy and has never regretted it.

6. Kit said the following at 4:27 PM on Nov 29:

P&P said:
So very true, but it's also a two-way street: I'm leaving my current job because I'm working for a jerk: he's immature, self-involved and just plain rude. He started acting this way on my second day, but I toughed it out for two years in part b/c of the bad economy and also because I kept thinking if I behaved well, he'd get the message and improve.

Good thoughts. Have had the same situation, up to and including the part about the guy shaping up after sending him a resignation letter detailing the reasons I was leaving the business.

7. kman said the following at 1:26 PM on Nov 30:

I remember reading somewhere that one way you could get an insight about someone is watch how their pets react to them (if you're in their home). Do the pets run out of the way when they walk through or do they act unafraid. The implication being that animals that have been treated unkindly will make sure to get out of the owner's way and that a kind owner will not do anything to make the animal afraid of them. How someone treats a weaker being does tell you something about how they are.