Almost every company is fighting the war for talent. But talent is often still seen as a set of skills and knowledge

The attached example is a made up job vacancy.  Nevertheless, I must say, most real life examples look very close to the example above. Vacancies are often an exhaustive overview of the company’s technology stack including all related tools and frameworks. The candidate matching this technology stack is considered as being talented.

For temporary missions when working with externals, the situation is different. In this case, I completely understand companies need a perfect match between technical expertise and technology used. However, I’m talking about hiring internals for a (hopefully) long-term engagement.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. Our companies change continuously and the technology used changes even faster. Therefore, by the time, the first candidate appears for his/her first interview, the technology stack and corresponding minimal job requirements have already changed.

Start hiring for the future

The war for talent is raging and we are still hiring for the past. Time to start hiring for the future by putting more focus on long-term winning competences: willingness to learn, proven learning capacity and having the mindset to experiment.

These competences will compensate for some of the missing skills and knowledge of the candidates.  Moreover, here is the good news: they will keep paying off in the fast changing technological environment we are living in.