Skills Can Be Taught, Hunger Can’t

Recruiting and hiring can seem straightforward enough. Write up a job description, list the required skills, and outline the necessary experience—then hire the candidate who matches all (or most) of the above. 

Aligning skills and qualifications is important for the success of any new hire, and the stakes are especially high when you are hiring a new CEO, but only hiring based on those lists of specifications overlooks a critical set of qualities that may be difficult for organizations to ascertain just by looking at a candidate’s resume. Those qualities are things like passion, ambition, and a drive to succeed. 

If boards and hiring managers are intent on only seeking candidates who match an exact list of functional skills, they risk losing out on people who can bring something extraordinary to their organizations. In this way, sometimes the best candidate is not the “perfect” one. 

Organizations should give more consideration to candidates who might not check every single box, but whose ambition, hunger, and drive can potentially carry themselves and their coworkers to new realms of success. 

Experience level, technical skills, required credentials - these are all clear, trackable elements for applicants to an open job position. So, it’s no surprise they tend to take on more importance in the hiring process than less definitive elements such as passion. 

Functional expertise is important and ‘table stakes’ for entry into a role. But it does not guarantee long-term success. For that, you must look deeper. 

First, it’s important to realize that hiring someone who perfectly matches all the job qualifications might also mean they have a level of rigidity towards their work habits or a sense of how things should be done. By contrast, a less experienced candidate could be more adaptable and eager to learn new things. Hiring managers need to weigh these options: do they want a team that’s consistent but possibly less agile, or one that’s dynamic and open to change? 

This tradeoff is especially important to weigh when hiring for leadership positions, which demand more than just technical proficiency. Leaders must inspire and innovate—abilities that require the passion and care for organizational goals that are otherwise difficult to measure on paper. 

It can be difficult to quantify traits such as hunger, ambition and determination in a way that signals to hiring managers that a candidate has the ability to adapt to and succeed in a fluid environment. What follows are a few “green flags” that may distinguish these types of candidates in the application process. 

• A growth mindset: Ambitious candidates often have a mindset that isn’t content to just “get by” in a job. They want to grow, learn, and go beyond the status quo—all clear positives for a company on the upswing. These candidates see setbacks and challenges not as roadblocks to progress, but as opportunities to higher achievement. And importantly, a growth mindset means that even if the candidate doesn’t have every single job requirement or skill at their start, they will be laser-focused on gaining it. 
• Adaptability and resilience: Experience matters in a candidate, but not at the expense of adaptability. Candidates who have spent a long career working in a specific way may be reluctant to change those methods, even when faced with evolving market conditions and unexpected challenges. On the other hand, candidates with more fluid experience are more likely to be able to “pivot” when the situation calls for it and remain resilient in times of adversity. 
• Innovation and new perspectives: The most transformative qualities a candidate brings—such as fresh ideas and inventive approaches—often can’t be fully captured by the bullet points on a resume or measurable credentials. Resumes may outline what a candidate has done, but rarely do they reveal how someone might approach a challenge from an unexpected angle or reimagine solutions in ways that defy convention. These intangible strengths can make a lasting impact on a team or organization, even if they aren’t immediately apparent during the application process. 
• Passion and commitment: The “X-factor” that turns a good but not exact match candidate into an extra-ordinary choice is passion. This is the drive to do better, for both themselves and their organizations. True hunger and ambition often stem from a place of scarcity rather than abundance. When resources are limited, individuals are compelled to push beyond their limits, innovate, and persevere in ways that technical skills alone cannot inspire. It is this deep-seated drive, born from necessity, that fuels resilient leaders who can navigate challenges and inspire others, proving that passion and determination often outweigh mere technical proficiency.  

Hiring managers can use a few strategies to help find the types of candidates who will thrive, despite not checking every box. This requires a more holistic evaluation approach, detailed below: 

• Ask candidates about their journey. Past roles listed on a candidate’s resume give a straightforward sense of their previous job experience, but hiring managers should also try to hear the story of the candidate’s growth. This includes the challenges they’ve had to surmount, the skills they’ve learned, and the purpose that’s driven their career trajectory. A consistent pattern of improvement will be apparent in high-potential candidates who might otherwise not have every single relevant skill. 
• Evaluate candidates’ emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence will almost always be more important than technical skills. Leaders need to be able to empathize and communicate with their team, ultimately inspiring them to achieve more. Such traits are difficult to discern just by reading a resume but are vital for leaders to motivate those looking up to them. 
• Does the candidate have passion for activities outside of their job? To find candidates who have an exceptional drive to perform, it can sometimes be insightful to look outside of their professional lives. Do they have extracurricular projects or causes they devote time and energy toward? A candidate who expresses passion for projects outside of the office will often express a similar passion inside. 
• Assess potential, not just experience. Returning to the concept of a “growth mindset,” this point emphasizes a holistic view of a candidate beyond just past jobs and qualifications. Do they have a desire to improve and grow, and a willingness to listen to feedback that pushes them further? If the answer is “yes,” it might not matter whether they have all the skills on Day 1—they will be able to learn them as they grow. 

In many cases, a candidate who checks all the boxes of a job description will be able to hit the ground running once they start, as they’ll have a firm grasp of the position’s tasks and responsibilities. This is helpful to organizations, and the benefits of a strong start shouldn’t be underestimated. That being said, these short-term advantages may be outweighed by the long-term potential of a candidate with more drive and passion. 

These types of candidates—especially if they are in a leadership role—may be able to go beyond a job’s rote tasks and instead foster a culture of innovation and resilience in their teams. As their role in the company grows, these leaders hold a long-term promise for not only motivating their current team but also building the organization’s next generation of leaders. 

It can seem like the traditional way of hiring prioritizes technical proficiency above all else: if a candidate’s resume checks all the boxes, then they’re at the top of the list. But such a mechanical way of hiring will inevitably overlook candidates that can bring diverse perspectives, motivational passion, and inspiring leadership—even if they don’t match every requirement in a job description. 

This passion is what can put a team or organization over the top, and it rarely can be found on a resume. Hiring managers and boards need to take a holistic look at their shortlist and decide if a candidate’s potential for growth outweighs their lack of a specific skill. Because skills can be taught, but true determination, hunger, and drive to succeed can’t.