Recently, a friend and I debated the merits of a hire and their resume. He had felt that the resume was too choppy and not relevant to the job the person was hired for. Neither one of us have met the person hired nor were we involved in the hiring process.
What was fascinating was that there ended up being three different views of who was this person hired. One view held that the person would not fit the position well, given their job experiences. A second view that held that the person’s job experiences would actually help them in their new position because of the soft skills that were assumed to be necessary in some of the jobs they held. And a third view of the person, from the one that hired them, that this person has skills that could be used beyond the position they were hired for.
Not mentioned in all of this, for no one really knows ahead of time, is how they will fit into the organization. Will they be accepted, competent, and impactful.
So a collection of words, assembled to describe a person in the form of a resume, is so imperfect. Each of us are more than the words we use to describe ourselves. Every person is more than their recent post on social media.
This is another reason why relationships matter in life. That short glimpses may lead us to biased, innacurate conclusions of another person. Where spending the time to get to know someone better, sets us up for greater success in the long run because these innacurate conclusions are destroyed or melted away leading us to more effective conversation and clarity of thought.
The hardest part in all of this is that this is true for ourselves, as well. We do this, at times, when we post something or write something or work on a project. They are never as complete a representation of who we are as we think.
Our challenge is to find the humility to not jump to conclusions based on a few short words, while engaging with a new person in a way that allows both of us to share who we are without fear, to make most of the valuable time we have to make a difference in our lives and the world both individually and together.