The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo May Be Worth Hiring

Once in a while an article appears online that is so captivating, that multiple people send it to me to post on the blog. I believe that this article from Inc. set a new record for the amount of times that I received the same article to post on the blog. So it's about time I posted it.

The article is talking about the movie/book "The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" and the lead character Lisbeth Salander who is a bright and creative girl but covered with tattoos and piercings. The point of the article is that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover--that we shouldn't dismiss someone from being qualified for a job just because of their body art. In fact, the author argues the opposite, that we should think of them for certain roles:

People with body art are generally not only creative, but also bold, and often decisive.  They are passionate, capable of thinking outside the box, and are often more open to the ideas of others than the general population. Those characteristics translate well to many professions—sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, and art direction, to name but a few.

This isn't to say that the only people you should hire are the ones with visible markings, but it is to say that sometimes you need to get past initial stereotypes and figure out if what you see in a person on the outside will make them a good employee for your organization. And in the race to get the best employees for your organization, maybe it's best that you don't dismiss an employee just because they may have a dragon tattoo on their body.