Purple squirrel (animal)

Purple squirrel is a term used by employment recruiters to describe a job candidate with precisely the right education, set of experience, and range of qualifications that perfectly fits a job's requirements. The implication is that over-specification of the requirements makes a perfect candidate as hard to find as a purple squirrel.

While in theory, this prized "purple squirrel" could immediately handle all the expansive variety of responsibilities of a job description with no training, and would allow businesses to function with fewer workers, it is commonly asserted that the effort seeking them is often wasted.
In addition, being open to candidates that don't have ''all'' the skills or retraining existing employees are each sensible alternatives to an over-long search.

Origin and history

While it is unclear when exactly the term was coined, it was in use by 2000, and in 2010 CBS published material using the term, writing that "businesses are looking to do more with fewer workers, so they want urple squirrelswho are able to take on a wide range of duties." In 2012, Google recruiter Michael B. Junge published a popular job search and career book ''Purple Squirrel: Stand Out, Land Interviews, and Master the Modern Job Market'', which helped popularize the term. Elon Musk tweeted in 2012, "Do not search for purple squirrels! Giving them attention only makes them want to be more purple." which is likely also a reference to this term.

See also

* Sourcing (personnel)
* Employee referral
* Perfect is the enemy of good
* Reserve army of labour

References

{{Reflist, 2, refs=

{{cite news
, title =Need to fill jobs? Don't hunt the 'purple squirrel'
, first =Mary
, last =Kramer
, url =http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20130407/NEWS/304079992/publishers-notebook-need-to-fill-jobs-dont-hunt-the-purple
, newspaper = Crain's Detroit Business
, publisher =
, date =April 7, 2013
, accessdate = 2016-06-10

{{cite news
, title =Purple Squirrels and the Reserve Army of the Unemployed
, first =Paul
, last =Solman
, url =https://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/purple-squirrels-and-the-reser/
, newspaper =
, publisher = PBS
, date =August 15, 2012
, accessdate = 2016-06-10

{{cite news
, title =Don't Hire the Perfect Candidate
, first =Lance
, last =Haun
, url =https://hbr.org/2013/01/dont-hire-the-perfect-candidat/
, newspaper = Harvard Business Review
, publisher =
, date =January 14, 2013
, accessdate = 2016-06-10

{{cite news
, title = Sendouts.com Ad Capitalizes on Absentee President; Rodgers Townsend Has A Projected Winner with Its Topical Ad Campaign
, url = http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sendouts.com+Ad+Capitalizes+on+Absentee+President.-a066896003
, newspaper =
, publisher = PR Newswire
, date = November 13, 2000
, accessdate = 2016-06-10
, archive-date = 2016-08-08
, archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160808221526/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sendouts.com+Ad+Capitalizes+on+Absentee+President.-a066896003
, url-status = dead

Richard Perrin, ''Real world project management: beyond conventional wisdom, best practices, and project methodologies'', John Wiley and Sons, 2008 {{ISBN, 0-470-17079-4 page 215

{{cite web
, url=http://bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-27/finding-retail-talent-in-twitter-era-adds-to-challenges.html
, title=Finding Retail Talent in Twitter Era Adds to Challenges
, publisher= Bloomberg
, date=2012-04-27
, accessdate=2013-11-17

{{cite web
, last1=Junge
, first1=Michael B
, title=Purple Squirrel
, url=http://www.michaelbjunge.com/purple-squirrel/
, website=michaelbjunge.com
, accessdate=29 November 2014

{{cite news
, title ='Purple Squirrels' Now In Demand
, first =
, last =
, url =http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/10/11/purple-squirrels-now-in-demand/
, newspaper =
, publisher = CBS
, date =October 11, 2010
, accessdate = 2016-06-10

{{cite news
, title =Hiring the purple squirrel - Portland Unemployment
, first =
, last =
, url =
, newspaper =Examiner
, publisher =
, date =July 23, 2009
, accessdate =

Neologisms
Recruitment
Metaphors referring to animals