Job Candidates from Elite Ivy Schools

Should you care if your job candidate went to Harvard?

A little, if you are hiring for some fields -- dare I say “soft fields”? -- such as management consulting. The top firms there are sometimes accused of “outsourcing” their hiring decisions to prestigious university admissions offices.  Such hiring decisions are arguably safe because employers can always boast to their clients that their employees went to the Ivies.

And anyone who attended an Ivy League School must be smart and hard-working, right?

The answer is wrong, of course.

Elite schools may not be your best choice, especially if you are hiring for hi-tech, accounting, and other areas where there are more quantifiable and objective indicators of ability than the name of the school. Or if you are recruiting for companies where employees traditionally are expected work up the ladder from the bottom (How many Harvard grads are willing to start in the mailroom?).

Just consider the vast number of CEO’s who attended so-called “normal” schools, where they had the drive to seek out the best teachers, follow their passion, and excel in an environment where their success was not made easier by the school’s famous name. For instance, Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (OK, he did choose to go to Columbia for a Masters, but that was reportedly not for the Columbia name but because of two professors there whom he idolized.)

Wherever job candidates study, after a few years their job performance is a much better indicator of success than their school name or grade point average. (Note to college students: take a risk and enroll in that Medieval English literature class, even if you aren’t guaranteed an easy “A.”)

The lesson for recruiters, then, is that even if interviewing from only select schools seems safer, casting a wider net is worthwhile -- as long as your recruiting methods are efficient (and this is where recorded video interviews such as with Ziggeo come in handy). You are not only more likely to identify the best person for the job, you might also find someone who will stick around longer than the average Ivy Leaguer who views the position as a stepping stone.

If, despite the foregoing, you still just can’t shake that Ivy itch, here’s one more piece of advice: take a trip up to Cambridge and buy a Harvard t-shirt.

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Ziggeo lets you quickly and easily pre-screen candidates by watching their videos. Candidates simply record short videos of themselves for your own private viewing.