Dina Fleet Berry

I read the book White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (amazon) which won the Man Booker Prize. I told my husband whichever book wins, buy it for me. He did. Good Husband.

I’m not going to give a review of the book, you can find many of those online. And regardless of what you think of Man Booker or the author, this book was life-changing for me. It wasn’t the writing, it was the idea that someone’s family is their voucher. This idea isn’t new but this book but it in such graphic detail and paramount importance that I had to examine how I find and hire people.

The book idea at its most basic is that since you can find (and harm) someone’s family, the employee from that family will behave responsibly. Please don’t tell me I missed the point of the book. I got the point but I liked this idea better.

I generalize the idea to a local person with history and family in the area will be a better employee because they have a different sense of the job then someone who has just arrived or is intending to eventually leave.

I have done loads of interviews both for Microsoft and XCache. Microsoft interviews were all technical, I didn’t care about team fit and I was no where near the as-appropriate interview. So if I had read the book back then, it wouldn’t have affected me the same way. At XCache, I hired in both a drought and a flood of available candidates. I always wanted a local candidate but not for the “White Tiger” reasons. Local was just easier.

The next time I hire any person for any job, I will use the “White Tiger” mentality. I don’t intend to harm anyone or there family, but I do have higher expectations of local, homegrown talent. I doubt I will be disappointed.