He was sitting across from me. His name was Mirza. Nervous, he was fidgeting with the hem of a suit jacket that was clearly a size too big. Borrowed, probably, I thought to myself.
And on paper? A disaster. A two-year gap in his career. A degree completely unrelated to our industry. His last job? A waiter at a neighborhood café. HR had left a note on his file: “Just a formality, don’t waste your time.”
He watched me as I threw that piece of paper away. I could see that quiet resignation in his eyes, the look of a man who has heard “NO” far too many times.
That’s when I told him: “Mirza, this paper is a lie. It doesn’t tell me who you are. Forget the interview. You have 5 minutes. Here is my current problem with Client X. How would you solve it? I don’t need fancy-schmancy terminology; I need a solution.”
Mirza changed in an instant. He grabbed a napkin — literally, a napkin — and a pen. He drew out a process that was simple, logical, and brutally effective. He explained customer psychology in a way only someone who has spent years serving people and learning to read faces from behind a bar can.
He got the job that same day.
And today, three years later? Mirza is a department head. He leads the very team he wasn’t even qualified to join.
So, why am I writing this?
I see countless situations where so-called decision-makers have become obsessed with perfect biographies but remain blind to potential. LinkedIn is full of “polished” profiles of people who know the theory but fold at the first real-world obstacle. I’ve seen the same case many times, especially among politicians during election campaigns.
Sometimes, the best candidate is the one who had to fight for every inch of progress. The one with hunger in their eyes. The one who solves problems because they have to, not because they read about it in a book or heard it in a lecture hall.
Stop hiring keywords. Start hiring people.
