"If the job could talk, what would it say?"

Have you ever asked yourself the question when trying to fill a job opening, "If the job could talk, what would it say?"? In other words, if the accumulated experience of all those who held the job or those that worked with those that did, could talk, what would they say? Matching the right person

Many of us have known for a long time that most job descriptions don't really explain what happens on a particular job. At best, they are only a starting point or something to be used at evaluation time, for trying to figure out how well the incumbent has performed. They are mostly general in nature, and unless someone has really taken the time to add some objective criteria that is measurable, they are nothing more than a starting point for an annual or semi-annual review.

If you have an incumbent in the job who has performed well but who you want to promote, or if that person is leaving for some other reason, this is when the job should start talking to you. If there is more than one person doing the job currently or who did it well in the past, that is even better. We have always needed a way to gather all that incumbent experience, and now we can.