Why You Should Hire "Unqualified" Candidates

You aren't a perfect boss and your company isn't perfect.

It might be your baby, and you would like to think it's perfect, but the reality is, your company is just average. There are positives and negatives. It might be slightly above average. It's not very likely that your company will be in the top 10 percent of companies.

Do you look for the perfect person when hiring? Someone checks all the boxes. You want the best people to work for you. Are you having a hard time filling your positions? Feel free to ignore the rest if you are not.

What if you decided to look at people who didn't check all the boxes?

There is a company that encourages imperfect people to apply. This paragraph is included in their job posting.

Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Tegus we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Would you follow their example? Think about them.

• Just about everybody can learn to do just anything with enough desire and hard work. You didn't roll out of bed one morning and know everything you do now. You had to learn and work and struggle. 
• Lots of skills are similar. If you can program in one language, it's easier to learn a second programming language. Look for similarities; not a perfect match.
• You still have to train. Managers want to hire people who can "hit the ground running," but those people don't generally exist. You have to train everyone. So, don't worry about the stress of having to train someone on a task. You'd have to train them in your systems, policies, and practices.
• There are more critical things than hard skills. You can teach hard skills. There are training classes for just about everything. But does the person have the drive? Are they interested in your industry? Do they have the soft skills that they need for this job? (Not every job requires the same soft skills.)
• You get more candidates. Considering people without 100 percent of the skills broadens your talent pool. If you're really set on finding the right person, getting more applicants can only help with that.

If you reject people who aren't perfect, you have a small talent pool of perfect people who won't want to work for you. Branch out and it will benefit your business.