We can’t stress this enough: in recruitment, there’s no such thing as a perfect application!
As a result, the endless grocery list of criteria to be ticked off, without which an application is eliminated, is a big capital NO.
On the other hand, openness to atypical profiles is a big YES!
Professionals and their bosses agreed to answer our questions to explain what an atypical profile is and how you can and should take advantage of it, whether you’re looking for a job or offering one.
Mélodie and Maud
Engagés : Mélodie, can you give us an overview of your educational and professional career to date?
Mélodie: Of course. Thanks to my university training in intercultural management and translation, I held jobs in coordination and project management at the start of my career. Initially, I worked in the private sector, but to better reflect my values, I quickly branched out into NPOs, with smaller organizations. So I wore many hats.
Engagés: Did you like being involved in a bit of everything?
Mélodie: Absolutely! I discovered that I had an aptitude and a taste for working in talent acquisition, because one of my tasks was to match mentors and participants in various programs. People were so pleased with the matches that I thought, “Why not look into recruitment?”.
Engagés : At that point, did you consider going back to school to support an eventual career change?
Mélodie: No, I jumped right in! Engagés had just posted a vacancy for a Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant. On first reading, the organization’s offer caught my eye, and a quick tour of their social networks and website confirmed that their values matched mine. I decided to send a message on LinkedIn to the recruiter, Maud, to introduce myself and express my interest.
Engagés: Maud, you are co-founder of Talent IQ and Engagés, which offer recruitment services for the corporate and NPO sectors respectively. So you’re used to finding candidates. Did Mélodie’s approach surprise you?
Maud: Surprised, no, but impressed, yes. Mélodie’s message was concise, but complete: first she mentioned her interest in the type of position advertised and my employer brand. Then, she told me she didn’t have all the skills I was looking for, but she was highly motivated, which seemed to be the case since she had asked about the organization’s culture. Finally, she highlighted her added value to the organization through concrete experiences: I could see that her project management skills could be put to good use in a possible talent acquisition position.
Engaged : And that convinced you to hire him?
Maud: Wait a minute, it’s not that simple! (laughs) It made me want to find out more about her. I invited her to a virtual coffee, to have an informal chat about her goals and mine.
Mélodie: You know, when I wrote to Maud, it wasn’t to get the job at any price. I was hoping for a meeting, yes, but mainly to find out about the recruitment sector and how I could fit in; there’s nothing like having an insider’s view and the insight of someone with experience like Maud. This virtual coffee was the success I’d been hoping for. The job afterwards was a bonus!
Maud: And that’s exactly the right way to look at it. Candidates with atypical profiles have to seize every opportunity. By knocking on doors, the right opening will present itself, as it did for Mélodie with Engagés. Because in the end, yes, I hired her!
Engagés : Does hiring someone who doesn’t tick all the boxes on a job offer mean more work for the employer?
Maud: Let’s get one thing straight: nobody ticks all the boxes! There’s no such thing as a perfect application, or a perfect job for that matter. As an employer, you have to be open to distinguishing the added value of each application.
As soon as you write the job offer, you need to ask yourself a few questions. For example, do you really need a bachelor’s degree to achieve the job’s objectives, or is a technical background enough? You can’t act automatically. It’s the same for reading CVs: you have to detect relevant experience and skills that are hidden in them and may not be written down in black and white. This is what we call transferable skills. It’s a worthwhile exercise, as it helps you to avoid rejecting perfectly valid applications. And at the interview, you have to ask yourself why you’d hire the person in front of you, not why you wouldn’t hire them.
But, to answer your question, no, I didn’t work harder to welcome Mélodie to the team. Any integration requires time, commitment and procedures. It’s an all-too-common mistake to think that, just because you’ve hired someone with experience, you can let them stand on their own two feet as soon as they’ve arrived on the job.
Engagés: Mélodie, would you say that you had to work harder to find your place in this new field?
Mélodie: I definitely had a bit of imposter syndrome at first. But I had to trust myself. And Maud accompanied me so well, giving me feedback and increasing responsibilities according to my learning pace, that I was able to build new reference points. Now I’m as happy as can be!
Maud: And I don’t regret hiring you at all! It’s by welcoming a variety of profiles into the team that the organization’s culture is enriched. That’s also what diversity, equity and inclusion in recruitment are all about.
Engafés : In closing, any advice?
Maud: It’s up to both candidates and employers to bring out atypical profiles. Focus on transferable skills, , and keep in mind that technical skills are much better taught than interpersonal skills! So, first and foremost, look for a good understanding in terms of work ethic and values.
From the first time they worked together, Pascal and William immediately understood that they had to work together again and again, despite William’s atypical profile in the marketing communications sector. See how right they were (video in French only)!