The Philosophy of Hiring

I was reminiscing an interview which I conducted along with one of my senior colleagues over 15 years back. The candidate was very promising, ticking all the competency related boxes and appeared highly suitable for the role of IT Audit & Compliance. Both of us were pleased that we got the right candidate. As a last question, my colleague asked about ‘his philosophy of life?’ His answer was not appealing, and to my surprise, my colleague rejected him on the basis of that sole answer!

If I recollect that incident after these years, I find his judgement absolutely right. Competency alone can’t be the only criteria for hiring, especially senior roles.

The book ‘An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals’ by David Hume provides excellent insight around this hypothesis; “Human beings have inclination for systems of natural philosophy derived from their experience. Even if one tries to attempt reformation in all moral disquisition and hide every potential way to find out their subtle and ingenious personality, a little peep into philosophy of their lives can precipitate real facts around them”.

This might sound abstract, but if managers understand it, a lot of hiring problems can be resolved for many organisations…

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