Sisyphus – Doomed for Eternity.
Endlessly pushing a rock uphill – no past, no future – just the relentless present.
Many companies echo this struggle by posting tactical job descriptions for strategic roles: presenting one-dimensional lists of responsibilities, tasks, and required experience, with no sense of purpose, progress, or potential accomplishments. These documents focus on the immediate ROI needs of the hiring company – what is required to solve today’s problem – the “now”.
This approach is compounded when talent teams create outreach messages that simply repackage these one-dimensional listings.
One dimensional job descriptions make speculators out of candidates who are really looking for investments – because the future is unclear.
High performing professionals at “mastery level”- who aren’t in distress, have their own ROI concerns; they think strategically – beyond the immediate “now.” focussing on the ROI of their own time. They need to understand the full context before engaging – the job value proposition – what the role offers in terms of scope, scale, and impact – in three dimensions: past, present, and future of the role – and whether it represents career advancement. Job descriptions that state just the present make this impossible.
Without this context, tactical descriptions inform but don’t inspire, they lack the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) that drives the interest of passive job seekers – who make up a much larger portion of the talent pool.
High performers don’t waste time on processes that lack clarity on long-term impact – the best people leave jobs for better jobs – and no high performer ever applied out of ‘curiosity’. Smart people don’t move sideways.
Instead, these job posts attract reactive job seekers — those looking for relief from their own “now,” by stepping away from jobs – not stepping towards them – often making deadline induced career decisions.
While hiring tactical candidates may work for high-volume, low-impact positions, the impact for high-stakes roles can be costly and long-lasting – mistakes that can take a year to surface and twice as long to resolve.
People looking to escape the “now” often make poor choices.
“Show me the incentive I’ll show you the outcome” Charlie Munger.
See how we address this critical problem in our case studies
