When a C-Player is Better Than an A-Player

Today’s blog post comes courtesy of Brad Smart, the author of Topgrading.  I remember reading his post in September of 2009 and thinking how powerful it was.  When going through my list of topics for what made the most sense to blog about this week I realized that this was as timely and quite a bit more profound than anything I had come up with.  He and Chris Mursau, the Vice President of Smart & Associates, write a great blog that you should definitely read on a regular basis.

I’ve taken the liberty of shortening the article down to apply more to a Hiring Manager than a job seeker so that you’re aware of the kinds of challenges that an A-Player might be having in clearly articulating how and why they’re exceptional.

A players are remarkably … um … inexperienced at job hunting, and they are remarkably inept at it.

C players, however, are nudged out of jobs and companies and they become masters at getting the next job. C players also become masters at imitating A players. They’ve read many books that teach them how to make their resumes look better and how to answer interview questions.

In this economic downturn thousands of companies have folded and hundreds of thousands of not just under-performers but high performers, A players, are out looking for jobs. The unemployed are from every industry and there are quite a few super sharp people out looking for work – sometimes for the first time in their career.

Here’s the problem: C players become masters at imitating A players; their resumes are full of hype and conceal negatives, and their interviewing behavior is well-rehearsed.  So on the surface C players look like A players.  And the poor A player who is looking for a job doesn’t know how to convey – “Hey, my resume is truthful and so is everything I say in interviews.”

Throughout their careers, A players needing a job have simply gone to their network and asked for connections to hiring managers.  That historically has been a very productive method.  “Birds of a feather …” and when A players contact their networks and say a super sharp A player they know is available … hey, job offers pop up.

1. Rewrite your resume, tooting your horn. Keep it to 2 pages and list ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND SUCCESSES.  I’ve looked at hundreds of resumes since the economic slide and I see A players being TOO HUMBLE.  Don’t include much about responsibilities and don’t state your career objective (save that for the cover letter).  Don’t puff yourself up – stick to the facts.  But make it clear when YOU accomplished something and not just the team, of which you were a member.
2. Rewrite your cover letter. Cover letters are usually boring and canned.  Speak from the heart, say what you’re looking for, but here is the key…
3. Make it clear that your bosses in the past decade would give you rave reviews. If you have received overall performance ratings that are tops, say so.  Humble A players rarely do this – too bad because C players don’t do it for a different reason (it ain’t true that bosses gave them top ratings!).
   
4. Offer to arrange personal reference calls with your former bosses (and subordinates and peers, too). Only A players CAN make such an offer and actually follow through, but again they are too humble.  In the past their network got them a job and they knew that others were singing their praises, so they were simply their usual understated self.  In this economy if you won Olympic gold metals, you’d better display them if you want to get on the team.  It frankly impresses the heck out of recruiters and hiring managers to read and hear that your former bosses would praise you and that YOU do the work of arranging the phone calls.
5. Don’t accept low pay. In the past few months I’ve seen some companies take advantage of people they are recruiting and hiring, knowing that even A players are desperate.  Trouble is, when the economy improves, A players who KNEW they were worth more than what they were paid, leave.  Companies you would want to work for won’t try to cheat you in the short term.

Brad writes that he’s interviewed more than 6,500 people over the years as his basis point for the credibility of his thoughts.  I’d make the argument that I’ve seen more than 100,000 resumes in my career and maybe 0.1% of them were well written.  Takeaway value = far too many hiring managers who made snap decisions about candidates based on just a resume even though resumes have a high likelihood of not telling anywhere close to the whole story about someone.

Tags: A-Players, Brad Smart, C-Players, chris mursau, hire better, hiring, hiring manager, Interview, job postings, resume, smarttopgrading, Topgrading, topgrading methodology, TORC, unemployment, unemployment rate