My executive search firm recently interviewed Linda, a talented, articulate, very well qualified candidate with an excellent track record of career advancement. Her skills were an excellent match to our client’s needs. She kept up to date on the latest industry trends, attended training sessions, and updated her department processes to meet changing customer needs. She worked hard to stay at the forefront of her field.
And she didn’t get the job.
She was too risky. Not because she had changed jobs too often, but because she had not changed work environments enough.
Her last 15 years of experience were all with the same executive leadership team. It wasn’t her long tenure that removed her from consideration. It was her lack of experience navigating organizational change and her limited exposure to other ways of thinking and different ways of organizing the work. She had simply spent too much time working with people who shared her worldview.