Hiring is an Art

In 2 years I still haven’t touched upon what I do for work. As a recruiter I get a great overview of almost every industry, job type and what ultimately makes companies successful or not.

I’ve worked for large companies, small, old, young, tech, non-tech. I’ve also spent 4 years working in the football department while in college and am an avid fan since.

As a Patriots fan, and with some inside info, I know Charlie Weis is not someone I would care to meet. That being said, as much as it will make me happy as graduate of BC to see a jerk ND coach fired, he has value. The problem is not that he is a bad coach, it is that he’s not a good head coach in college.

Hiring is incredibly subjective. Too many companies (and engineers I deal with) try and turn it into a science. In college too much value is put on success. Sounds counter intuitive I know. Weis was part of leading a 2 time Super Bowl champ and a football geniuses understudy, can’t miss, right? Wrong. In the NFL the focus is on week to week strategy, he had essentially no player evaluation responsibilities and drafting/contract negotiation was handles by the coach and GM.

College coaching is about 2 things. Recruiting and motivation. Urban Myer’s spread offense is great…it is also the same as every other team that runs it. You know the difference? Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin, Brandon Spykes and the rest of the studs he recruited to there. College is about exploiting match-ups and keeping 18-21 year olds focuses. Clearly Weis sucks at that…doesn’t make him a bad coach though.

As fast as he’s about to get canned from ND (and be given a $18 million dollar check), he will get a coordinator job in the NFL. I’ll never like him, but will use this as an example for future clients on how to hire. ND needs to focus on a college guy (not Cowher or Billeck). Meyer and Stoops are obvious names. How about Golden (bias noted), Mike Gundy, Kelly (Brian & Chip) or Gary Patterson? Find people who have done well with a difficult situation, run a modern offense and can be molded by ND rather than come in with an ego.

Companies need to do the same. Want that MBA, 20 years of experience doing the same job and managing 20+ people to take a manager title managing 6 people for less money? Get real.

What would ND, or any company, say if they were told some young gun was the next Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden or equivalent? Hopefully hire them in a second, but I don’t believe they would. Do the right thing ND….we’ve beaten you 7 of the last 8 years, this is getting boring!