Disqualifiers Rule
I have a client who works for two of the major fast food franchises. On his business card, below his name are these two words: “Qualifying Agent.” You would think by the term his role would be to help a person qualify for something, wouldn’t you? But, no, his job is the exact opposite. His job is to interview franchise applicants and to see to it that they don’t get the franchise. (See our article on Pre-Employment testing for a better understanding of the disqualification process.)
Why would you think they would pay him (and pay him very well) to keep people from becoming franchisees of a lucrative and successful franchise?
Franchisers know that a certain percentage, albeit a small percentage, of new franchisees become litigants against the franchise because the success system they have been sold doesn’t work. And the purpose of having a “qualifying agent” is to reduce the potential number of lawsuits against the franchisers.
What does this have to do with you as a job seeker?
Everything!
Human nature is immutable, unchanging. And most people are utterly risk averse, especially in this litigious country of ours. Our human nature does not punish us if we make a safe purchase. (It used to be said in business circles that IBM doesn’t have the best hardware or the best software. But, they are the safest purchase as they will back it up forever.) It punishes us if we make a bad (or risky) purchase.
Why?
If we purchase something that is other than the best, but is supported (guaranteed) best, we may not get cutting edge innovation and absolute state of the art. But, at least we’ll get reliability, even if it does not quite do the job.
This mindset is prevalent among employers as well. It has everything to do with whether your resume will win you an interview or be completely disregarded by them. And the HR department in any firm is not there to be a qualifying agent, as much as it is there to disqualify you from getting a shot at an interview.
There are two factors behind this:
- Stated qualifications – the job description and the specifications. Each position (that is advertised or posted) states the type of individual and the classifications that will best suit the position…based on past history as can be answered by these questions: Who was doing this before? What did he/she do? How well did he/she do it? What were his/her educational, experiential, skill background?
- Projected beliefs – including but not limited to: educational prejudice, (what school, what courses, what GPA?) sexual/ethnic/moral/etc. beliefs about the type of person who would do the job even better than the person who was doing it before. (Joan was a _________ and her attitude was ________ so we’ll make sure that the next person [does/does not] have the same characteristic as Joan.) While these things are not stated in the job posting. They have been discussed beforehand by the decision-maker and the people in HR.
Both of these qualifying disqualifiers establish the ground rules about whether or not you will get a chance at an interview. While the ad and the job description are stated clearly in most cases. The projected beliefs are not. The resume, recognized as the standard job acquisition tool , does little to overcome these two factors. Most job-seekers don’t understand this and will continue to send out resume after resume and wonder why they don’t get any calls. Some do understand and engineer their resumes and cover letters to overcome these obstacles, only to get interviews and no offers.
A select few individuals recognize that getting past these two obstacles requires a different set of tools and a true marketing strategy . These people are creating the future of work. For them the saying, “Only you qualify to qualify you.”
Otherwise, Disqualifiers Rule about your career potential.
