DUNNING KRUGER EFFECT

I have been privileged to recruit for three tech startup companies. I discovered something while going through the interview stage. My discovery was a situation called the Dunning Kruger Effect. The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from people's inability to recognize their lack of ability.There was this time I was looking for an external liaison officer for a growing tech startup company, and the best attribute I was looking for was "team playing in a diverse group". The company is a cross-continental company with team members from 15 countries. One of the candidates I interviewed submitted a six-page CV with a long list of international fellowships and change-making features on different blogs. His CV was filled with links to various online platforms that have published his name as part of a program or just a feature.On the day of the interview, I asked him to tell me about his experience working in a diverse team and his teamwork perception. He started giving a load down of all the blogs that have published about him as a changemaker. Some published him as an environmental champion; some published him as an education changemaker and others as many other things. I was not okay with his response.I asked him again to share with me how he worked on projects in a team in those various fellowships I saw in his CV. He responded by telling me how international he is and how googling his name will bring out many hits. He went on to pitch to me how he is the best for the job because a lot of platforms have published about him. I was done with him. He did not answer any of my questions.Long story short, I eventually choose a young man who has worked in three teams in Ibadan Nigeria, and he was able to tell me the things he did when they had disagreements, how he acted as a devil-advocate on one occasion and how he helped his team avoid groupthink during an investment negotiation.The first guy thought because he has been featured on different blogs, he can clinch international jobs while the second guy, even though not chasing blogs to publish about him, was doing the work and learning practical ways a team should work.I have a few lessons to show here;1. Young people should know that many mushroom fellowships online do not teach you anything other than to publish and celebrate you for doing little or nothing for their gains.2. Choose continuous learning platforms over a platform that celebrates you too early.3. Do not build a giant digital footprint that does not work commensurate with who you are and what you really can do.4. Do the work, not the noise.He gives understanding to the simple.Oluwaseun David ADEPOJU