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Plenum 2013 – Financial Services Executive Search

Seeing beyond the first class degree……

An interesting article in Sunday's FT (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/acf542c2-b8b1-11e2-

a6ae-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2TGYRGrtJ - warning: paywall) discusses how a first class

degree doesn't necessarily increase your chances of being hired for the job you seek.

Instead, according to Robert Winston, broader skills and experience are valued in today's

talent market. This is another reminder of the sometimes surprising and counterintuitive

rules of developing a career, and for those who work in recruitment, making good hires.

This topic arises whenever we meet leaders of companies who are looking to make their

most critical hires. Here the presence of a first class degree has never been a

consideration. Instead, the most important factors have been track record (of course),

but also their ability to draw from a wide range of experiences in and outside of work.

Sometimes those with the most diverse and illogical-seeming career paths are the ideal

candidates.

So what of recruitment? Part of the reason recruiters rely on the degree obtained at

university is because it’s easily quantifiable. It helps with the sift, for one. Efforts have

been made to quantify other, non-academic ability, (Klout is an interesting example) but

they all fall short. Ultimately, then, it’s always going to take a well-rounded recruiter to

spot the well-rounded candidate. At Plenum, we firmly believe that the qualities sought

by our clients elude any automated screening process. This is why, despite all the

technology at our fingertips, we are still to find anything that trumps a good old

fashioned face to face discussion.

Roly Walter rwalter@theplenumgroup.com

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