Let’s say you’re hiring for a job. Who would you pick?

• Person A is from an Ivy League school with a 4.0 grade average, flawless resume, and great recommendations.
  
  
• Person B is from a state school, has been through a fair amount of job hopping, and has taken odd jobs like cashier and singing waitress.

But remember: both are qualified.

Regina Hartley, an HR executive at UPS, shared at her TED Talk that she created “very official terms” with her colleagues to describe two distinct category of candidates:

• They call A “the Silver Spoon“, the one who clearly had advantages and was destined for success.
  
  
• They call B “the Scrapper“, the one who had to fight against tremendous odds to get to the same point.

These classifications may seem judgmental but consider this – a resume tells a story about its owner. Over the years, Regina learned something about people whose experiences read like a patchwork quilt, which makes her stop and fully them before tossing their resumes away.

In defence of the Scrapper

A series of odd jobs may indicate inconsistency, lack of focus and unpredictability. It can also signal a committed struggle against obstacles. So at the very least, the Scrapper deserves an interview.

But don’t hold this against the Silver Spoon. Getting into and graduating from an elite university takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice. That said, if your whole life has been engineered towards success, how will you handle the tough times?

On the flip side, what happens when your whole life is destined for failure and you actually succeed? It’s a compelling case as to why you should interview a Scrapper.

In her career, Regina met successful business people and read profiles of high-powered leaders and noticed some commonality: many of them have experienced early hardships (e.g. poverty, abandonment, learning disabilities, alcoholism).

Post-traumatic growth

The traditional view, according to Regina, has been that trauma leads to distress and there’s been a lot of focus on the resulting dysfunction. But during studies of dysfunction, data revealed that even the worst circumstances can result in growth and transformation.

Scientists call it “post-traumatic growth”.

In a study designed to measure the effects of adversity on children at risk among a subset of 698 kids who experienced severe conditions, fully 1/3 grew to lead healthy, successful and productive lives. In spite of everything and against tremendous odds, they succeeded.

Here’s a thought exercise: would you hire a person with this resume?

• His parents gave him up for adoption.
• He never finished college.
• He hopped between jobs for quite a bit.
• Stayed in India for a year.
• He has dyslexia.

The mystery person is Steve Jobs.

Adversity provides an edge

Regina cited another study which analysed the world’s most successful entrepreneurs. In the US, 35% of those studied had dyslexia. Remarkably, among those entrepreneurs who experience post-traumatic growth, they now view their learning disability as a desirable difficulty which gave them an advantage because they became better listeners and paid greater attention to detail.

They know they are who they are because of adversity. Without those experiences, they might not have developed the grit needed to be successful.

When things don’t turn out well, Scrappers ask, “What can I do differently to create a better result?” If they’ve survived extreme circumstances (like parental issues, poverty or learning disabilities), business challenges should be a piece of cake.

Here is Regina Hartley’s complete TED Talk video:

Make the recruitment process easier

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You can actually choose from our pool of top candidates right away. Simply visit our Hotlist at:
https://remoteworkmate.com/hotlist

You can browse a wide range of profiles on our Hotlist page. Once you find a qualified VA, simply fill out the form at the bottom and we’ll get in touch with you at the first opportunity.