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Quote by Donna Karlin

“Now that we've opened our minds to breaking barriers in hiring, it's time to zero in on a pervasive myth that holds sway over most hiring departments: the 'Perfect Fit'. You've seen it—the job postings calling for someone who fits a particular mold, like a square peg for a square hole. The truth? This notion of a perfect fit is a mirage that can cost you dearly in the long run.”

Quote by Donna Karlin

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Donna Karlin

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“I asked her once what criteria she used when she hired people. "I choose those who are hurt, and exhausted," she answered right away. I couldn't help but smile. Since I thought wanting to help people who suffered in some way when dealing with books was a wonderful reason. When I heard what she said next, though, my smile retreated. "And people who have secrets. Put those to good use, use their weaknesses to make them at my beck and call." "Why would you do that?" "People change. You don't know what's going to happen next. If something does happen, I want to be able to deal with it. To protect you, and this place." My aunt was certainly not just some kind, charitable person. I knew this from a long time ago, but her words now only reinforced it.”

BenefitsFulfillmentCriteriaBittersweetRecruiting
Book:Dinner at the Night Library
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“His goal was to be vigilant against " the bozo explosion" that leads to a company's being larded with second rate talent: For most things in life, the range between best and average is 30% or so. The best airplane flight, the best meal, they may be 30% better than your average one. What I saw with Woz was somebody who was fifty times better than the average engineer. He could have meetings in his head. The Mac team was an attempt to build a whole team like that, A players. People said they wouldn't get along, they'd hate working with each other. But I realized that A players like to work with A players, they just didn't like working with C players. At Pixar, it was a whole company of A players. When I got back to Apple, that's what I decided to try to do. You need to have a collaborative hiring process. When we hire someone, even if they're going to be in marketing, I will have them talk to the design folks and the engineers. My role model was J. Robert Oppenheimer. I read about the type of people he sought for the atom bomb project. I wasn't nearly as good as he was, but that's what I aspired to do.”

CollaborationBusiness CultureRecruiting
Author:Walter Isaacson
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“The search for better, for more competent men, from the presidents of our great companies down to our household servants, was never more vigorous than it is now. And more than ever before is the demand for competent men in excess of the supply. What we are all looking for, however, is the readymade, competent man; the man whom some one else has trained. It is only when we fully realize that our duty, as well as our opportunity, lies in systematically cooperating to train and to make this competent man, instead of in hunting for a man whom some one else has trained, that we shall be on the road to national efficiency. In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in the saying that “Captains of industry are born, not made”; and the theory has been that if one could get the right man, methods could be safely left to him. In the future it will be appreciated that our leaders must be trained right as well as born right, and that no great man can (with the old system of personal management) hope to compete with a number of ordinary men who have been properly organized so as efficiently to cooperate. In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any good system must be that of developing first-class men; and under systematic management the best man rises to the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before.”

SocietyDevelopmentManagementExcellenceCooperationSystemsMeritocracyRecruitingCompetency
Book:The Principles of Scientific Management
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“Careless of her own life, the princess sought to protect the precious new life first. This is in contrast to her cousins, Princesses Akiko and Noriko, who shoved their imperial guards in front of them." Mariko stops and takes one overexcited breath. Her cheeks are flushed. She is dreamy-eyed. This is what gets her excited. Good to know. "They compare you to the empress after the 1923 earthquake!" The empress rolled up her sleeves and laid bricks for a new school. She refused to leave until the town was fed, the children safe. There is a famous picture of her hugging a mother who lost her son, both of their cheeks coated in dust. "They end with calling you our very own royal." Words fail me. Mariko seems to know I need a private moment. She places the article in my lap, then glides out the door. When she's gone, I pick it up. I rub my thumb over the last sentence of the article. It's not the royal part that warms me. No, it's the other two words. Very own, it says. Very own. Yes. That's me. A true daughter of Japan.”

JapanPrincessHeroineSense Of BelongingComparison To OthersTabloid
Book:Tokyo Ever After
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