Reason: We all know ‘don’t judge a book by its cover.’ How can you possibly tell the rich depth and compelling content (or lack thereof) by a couple of words? The same goes for candidates. Not only are titles just barely scratching the surface of candidates’ experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, they can be very misleading. For example, different industries use titles very differently. Consider that banks have many VPs but the federal government, which employees about 2 million, has only one. There are also large gaps between the promotion rates based on demographics (men vs. women, white vs. people of color) so someone could have been doing exactly what you need for years but never received the title you expect. Rather than requiring a title or setting filters to only look for those directors or VPs, consider why (experience running teams, setting strategic direction, carrying large quotas, etc.) and look for that.
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