/begin rant/

We’ve been lied to. About all these things:

Bigfoot was made up for a couple of reasons: (1) to create a missing link between gorillas and humans… for the evolutionists amongst us and (2) to get us to behave in the woods. Nothing terrifies little kids like the stories of some giant ape creature thingy. Behave, or Bigfoot will get you.

The Easter Bunny was created to sell candy. Period. The bunny serves no other objective other than to rot my kids’ perfect mouths. I want to personally thank Glenn Close for boiling that little sucker in that movie about the thingy.

And the Tooth Fairly was created mostly because we, as parents, struggle to tell our kids the truth about pain. Life is filled with inequities and pain. Period. Can you imagine telling your 6-year-old, “Your baby teeth fall out to make way for your adult teeth.” That’s it. No money… no mythical creature. Just pain and suffering and the harsh reality that you lose teeth and move the hell on.

Which brings me to passive candidates. Talk about a lie. No such thing as passive candidates. Everyone is a candidate until they tell you no. Treat every single candidate respectfully. Give a $h!t about them and/or the fit to your firm. That’s it. The rules of the movie Roadhouse apply here—be nice, until it’s time to NOT be nice.

Passive candidates are AWESOME…

The freaking lies that permeate our industry—holy hell. Active versus Passive. And our morose love affair with ONLY passive candidates. As if a person actually evaluating options is somewhat bad. Let me translate: Most people in HR AND RECRUITING believe active candidates are lepers. Yep, lepers. They won’t even talk with them. It could be worse… the active candidate could be a woman veteran who’s been out of work for a few months. That’s like five strikes against the candidate. That resume never sees the light of day. Circular file, shredder, or just tossed in the trash. And here’s the thing: people will tell you differently—they’ll lie right to your face. “We love active candidates… .” BS. Ask that a$$hat how many they've hired, by percentage. They’ll change the subject.

You know, I don’t know what is worse… the fact that we demonize active candidates OR that we glorify the dude who’s working a gig and we pry that moron out of a job he loves just because we’re in love with his passiveness. He’s not looking for a job. He must be great at his gig. Surely he’s competent… surely he’s not a sexual predator or has some other character flaw. Passive candidates can do no wrong. #lies

Truth is, all candidates have flaws as no one is perfect. Me, you, the dude serving my coffee right not. No one. The only question is, is that candidate perfect for you?

Please get over the lame-as$$ pseudo distinction between active and passive candidates.

Today… let’s kill this stupid myth. Cool?

/end rant/

[Originally published on 10/20/2014 via Fistful of Talent]