A major Fortune 500 company has a world-renowned hiring trial for their new IT staff. There are all the usuals, the resumes, the interviews, but there is also a fully funded practical trial as part of the job application process. The job itself is cherry, practically autonomous, with real challenges and true financial backing so the winner can dig in and achieve serious results.
The trial is rather straightforward, given a property address, you must approach, perform an intake procedure to discover what is required and then plan and execute whatever is needed to solve the IT need.
The property has one person, a newly hired young woman who is sitting at a central desk on the ground floor. She has a folder, within it, a script that she reads to each candidate:
“Welcome to your trial, this building has everything required to run a branch of our company. Every computer, networking component, and server component is placed and wired properly. Your task is to configure all the equipment throughout the branch properly. You will find all the resources you need to complete this task within the building. You have one week to complete this task. Good Luck.”
The young woman then folds her hands together and waits.
Several candidates engage with the trial, hoping to get the cherry job and have learned about the young lady at the reception desk. They pass all the requirements, and they eagerly arrive to try their hand at the trial. They impatiently sit through her canned speech and quickly head off to the basement to start in the server room.
Candidates come and go, some pass and some fail. The trial is to get the branch fully operational and on the last day of the week the branch becomes staffed, and the candidate must ensure that all the preparations are in place and that everyone can work without a technological failure. The trial is winnable but very arduous.
The young lady sitting at the central desk on the ground floor has a secret. She has a shoebox locked in a drawer attached to her desk and around her neck is a key on a golden necklace. She has specific instructions, which if a candidate approaches her and engages pleasantly and shows sincere interest in her role in the branch without being the destination of a last-ditch effort, she is to pause the conversation, unlock the desk and produce the shoebox to the candidate. Within the shoebox is the answer to the trial, it is every specific requirement written in clear, actionable text with a memory stick containing every proper configuration and a full procedure list that will bring the branch to full operation without a single hiccup. Everything from networking configurations to the copier codes for the janitorial staff is covered and once executed virtually guarantees a win.
How many people would simply ignore the receptionist and get cracking on the trial and how many would take their time to get to know everyone and their roles in that particular branch? Either kind of candidate can win, either through a sheer act of will or simply being kind, careful, and honestly interested in the welfare of each of their coworkers. Nobody knows about the secret key, but sometimes the answer you need comes from a place you would never expect.