But no-one actually knows what 9 means

or at least that's what Young Man's teachers tell me. So it's really hard to predict someone's grade as the grade boundaries aren't clearly defined. Top 5% of cohort is great in theory but as someone who's hired literally hundreds of people in his time I'm really not interested in whether Candidate A is or is not in the top 5% (as opposed to, say, the top 6% or 4%) at Geography or Art History.

What I care about is: are they basically literate and numerate (to the extent they can write a reasonable communication and have other team members understand it); can they actually do the job I'm hiring for (which will depend on the job obviously); are they a good team fit for what we've already got (I like heterogeneous teams but the overriding thing is will they work together with other people and not play internal politics, will they be honest about failures - if they're not failing sometimes they're not being stretched; are they keen to learn - I'm not interested in someone who wants the same job for twenty years unless it's something like receptionist; are they basically decent human beings).

Posted By: Old Man, Mar 31, 18:25:31