In every aspect of life he did better than he should. He was over promoted at work, his wife was out of his league and he managed to buy his grand house when prices were low and mortgages were readily available. What surprised him and irritated everyone else was how it all came so easily. His career had started off modestly enough but his rise had been steady and where other careers had stalled his had continued ever upward. Every job interview he had ever been too had resulted in a job offer. He was living proof that such people do exist. He had charm, he had confidence and he was a social chameleon able to fit in anywhere.
I don’t know if he had a happy marriage, unresolved issues with his dad or a teenage daughter going off the rails. You assume no one can have everything. All I knew was at work he was doing very well, tipped for the top and I didn’t know why.
How can someone be so successful when their ambition so clearly exceeds their talent? I decided to find the secret of his successes. I had already established he had charm, confidence, could fit in anywhere and was very ambitious which explained why he put himself forward for posts he had neither the experience, nor the required knowledge and why he came over so well in interviews. But surly a winning smile and confident easy manner can only take you so far? The selection process no matter how superficial must take account of achievements. The secret here was to make the most of modest achievements and shamelessly claim the credit for the work of others.
I am aware this could sound like envy, resentment and bitterness may be there is a touch of this but I prefer to think it’s more a sense of injustice. Despite the rhetoric of equal opportunities, the use of rigorous assessment centres and explicit person specifications interview panels seem so easily duped. I am not immune I have sat on many interview panels using a careful scoring system to rate the answers to each question and still been over influenced by presentation above content. I have review appointments made in this way and suspected that the scoring has been manipulated to ensure the candidate who made the best impression came out ahead. May be we should just accept that some people are good at interviews and whilst that continues to be the way most posts are filled then these candidates will continue to over achiever.
Blair McPherson author of UnLearning management published by Russell House www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
