“Eventually, I learned that I was really looking for people who
were filled with passion and a desire to get things done. A resume
doesn’t tell me much about that inner hunger.”

– Jack Welch, Legendary ex-CEO of GE on hiring people

A lot of large companies organize campus recruitment drive each
year with the purpose of recruiting the cream of the crop from each
graduating batch.

You’ll realize that the companies choose only a handful of
universities to visit and not all of them. This means that they do
not think that the graduates from some universities are good enough
for them.

The issue at hand is that these companies believe in talent. Their
theory is that talents come from some universities and not others.
That’s the reason why “Talent Management” is such a buzz word
today. And these companies who value talent will go out of their
way to attract and keep “talented” employees.

I personally think that talent is over-rated.

The problem with talent is that it is something you can do nothing
with. It is supposedly something that you are born with. If you are
talented with music, obviously you were born with it. If you are
talented with language, you were born with it too. So, if you were
not born with that particular talent, you simply don’t have it.

Is this true?

Of course not! The talent that we are ALL born with is the great
ability to learn and grow. And this ability to learn is for
ANYTHING. Just think about it: You can learn anything you want to
learn and as such, you can do anything that you want to do.

Of course, as we experience, learn and grow, we develop preferences
and affinity towards a certain area or skill. And remember, it is
learning about these areas and skills that enables you to become
excellent, or “talented,” at them.

When you become excellent in a certain area or skill, people will
start to comment that, “Wow, you are so talented in this!” And for
many so-called talented people, that when the learning stops and
their “talent” comes to a stand-still.

Instead of continuing to learning, develop and grow, they turn to
defending their talent. All their decisions and actions are now
turned towards making sure that they continue to appear “talented”
in other people’s eyes.

I call such behaviour… Stupid.

According to the legendary ex-CEO of General Electric, it is
passion and inner hunger that matters. That’s why great companies
to work with are those that value passion and burning desire
instead of pedigree or talent.