The perfect resume came to me the other day. It was for an Advertising position. Client side. Career track. Great spot but very corporate.

I knew it would scare my client even before I sent it.

I have a huge reservoir of being scared.

I have worked with agencies in tall buildings, in big cities, with multiple floors of creative people.

That kind of talent delivered some great game and scared me a lot because I had to sell it.

My brain said the client will never buy it. My instinct said I want them to buy it.

I just learned how to turn my fear into selling the idea. My job was to find alignment. That’s the job of an AE. You have to get clients to buy into the future.

New ideas always scare people and so they should.

New ideas shift their comfort zone.

Resumes today have a uniform pattern. Contact information on the top. Work experience. Education and then maybe an inch about who you are and what makes you a person.

That’s the today’s world of hiring. People make companies successful but most hiring managers think that their credibility comes from where they worked before and where they went to school.

The resume I received had her life first. The things that made this young person want to get up in the morning and go to work. It was a third of the page.

Then came her work experience followed by and her education.

I sent it to my client and they were confused. This may be wrong they said. It was a mistake they said. They only felt comfortable with conformity.

I sent my person the email. They told me that it was a mistake and that their husband was just goofing around and promptly sent me a uniform and homogenous one.

I thought that her husband knows her best but he is not looking for that job and has nothing to lose.

The real irony of this story is that this person was recommended to me by the CMO of a National Brand.

I wonder if all the corporate mangers that I see in every nice hotel, and in every airport from Seattle to Chicago, that are wearing the same light blue shirt, grey pants, brown shoes and brown belt even know how to hire the future?

I doubt it. Everyone feels comfortable with conformity. Most likely their companies won’t hire the unique, the different, those that march to their own drum.

Uniformity doesn’t create companies that will grow.

In a few years the people with brown shoes may get fired because their companies aren’t growing.

So how are you hiring the future?

Connect with Hank on LinkedIn, Twitter, & Facebook:

Read: The Best Companies to Work For In the New Normal.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder in the New Normal.

Watch: Why Young People Shouldn’t Try to Get a Job.

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