“We thought she was absolutely fantastic Simon, but we can’t hire her, she’s got blue hair”
A good few years ago I profiled a grad level candidate over the phone, before the days of Zoom/Teams/Linked profiles.
We got on instantly, her communication skills and energy were 10/10. Just an awesome candidate.
I phoned the client…
“Seriously, you’ve got to talk to her, she’s absolutely perfect”
I booked her in for a face to face interview the following week.
Then I got the feedback….
“We just can’t put her in front our customers with blue hair Simon, it would set the wrong impression”
Then they had a go at me and told me I should have screened her better! ?
Yesterday I talked about this experience to Caroline Bucknell she’s delivering a project where very few candidates have LinkedIn profiles. "Feels odd not to see the candidates," she said…..
This got me thinking, so I decided to look the blue haired candidate up on LinkedIn.
And guess what. She is now the Chief Commercial Officer / CoFounder of a Media and Broadcast tech business and employer of over 150 people!
Super frickin successful!!!!
Wow did my client miss out there!
I then went to have a look at my old client (don’t work with them these days)
And they’re just as stale, male and pale as ever, doing the same old shit! Of course they are!
Boring………?
What’s the point?
Blue hair rocks ??
Having the strength of character to be different is a superpower ???
And if the candidate with the blue hair reads this…..good on you, so pleased this experience didn’t hold you back, why would it…with this amount of awesomeness ?
Big respect ?
