Natural Selection  ≠ Candidate Selection

Recent times and events made us all reflect and review.

I look back with only rose-tinted glasses, for my journey was one mired in good fortune and a little ignorance of the challenges I faced.

Fortune number one–tutored at a college which–in today's vernacular would be affectionately termed scrappy but back in the good old non politically correct days– was just plain old crappy.

Fortune number two–attending a polytechnic–I'm showing my age here–that was headed by a business-focused director from industry, who had ties to the big accountancy firms.

Fortune number three–being recruited by a trailblazing left-leaning old Etonian who wanted to counter-balance the old boy Deloitte network with a few cats from the streets [well, avenue, in my case, but you get the drift]–big shout out to my fellow cats 'Babita,' 'Raza,' and 'Femi!'

Fortune number four–initially turned down by a 'he's not from the right school' investment banking HR rep–but onboarded–back door by the future CFO

Fortune number five–supported by well-rounded, forward-thinking human capital executives who steadfastly backed my enforced 50:50 male: female recruitment policy despite overwhelming derision. 

So this got me thinking, 'why is it most companies confuse natural selection with candidate selection?'

If natural selection–is the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring–then it should not be the core candidate acquisition tenet.

But, by default, it often is.

It makes sense, right? You won't get fired for recruiting a software engineer from Cambridge or Stanford.

Eyebrows, however, may be raised if such candidate search focused on Cardiff or San Jose State!

Hiring outside the defined norms is risky. Not for the faint-hearted. Not for everyone!

But it is for someone—that someone who breaks with the narrow conventions and median practices. Someone who understands that cultural inclusion is a competitive edge.

That someone is you!

Hire the best–from wherever they may hail.