It is a common practice to mention one’s talents and interests in a CV, however, is that making you unfit for the role you just applied? A recent post shared by a person who has served leadership roles in top companies like Google, Apple, and Twitter, revealed that he was forced to reject a candidate who mentioned him being a marathon runner and guitar player. He mentioned that his boss thought the job seeker would fail to manage time for work amidst his other interests.
Parminder (Parry) Singh, currently COO at Tatler Asia, posted on X that he received a job application from a candidate who wants to secure a marketing position at a company Singh was previously recruiting for. Singh mentioned that the candidate appeared a good match for the job, but the boss refused to consider him due to his extracurricular details.
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Singh noted that he was asked to not select a candidate despite he being apt for the marketing role. But why? The boss took note of the candidate being a marathon runner and guitarist, which made him wonder whether he would complete work assignments on time or not.
“Besides being a capable marketer, his CV mentioned that he runs marathons and plays guitar. My boss didn’t let me hire him”, Singh posted.
In his post, Singh quoted the words of his boss and wrote, “Yeh aadmi yeh sab kuchh karta hai to kaam kab karega? (This person does all these things. Then when will he do work?)”.
Singh recollected incident from years ago
The post surfaced reflecting on the job market and expectations of recruiters in India.
“I couldn’t hire him, and I regret it. This happened many years ago. I’ve been away from India and assumed things would have changed, but it looks like they haven’t. Compare this to my time at Google, which had an unwritten policy: if you excelled in the Olympics, you could walk into a Google office and get a job. Excellence is a transferable skill”, Singh added.
