It is not all that easy to decide for the right candidate. Every now and then it is obvious and from a selection of various persons one stands out. Then it is unambiguous and clear. This is the right one!! Yes, I had such experiences a few times in the past. I have to do with people and the older I get, the more careful I am with my estimations. People, who may convince at first sight, later turn out to have serious quirks, with which it is not easy to deal with. When choosing new employees, not just scientific methods are required but the right portion of luck and a bit of not defined gut feeling. Years ago I read that one well written job advertisement does not attract hundreds of candidates but just one who then is the perfect candidate. I tried it several times but so far I did not succeed. Perhaps it works for certain types of jobs, for the job of a VAT consultant it does not work (at least not, when I do it myself). I could imagine this to work for an advertisement which goes as follows: “Candidate wanted with the following abilities: flying a helicopter, skydiving, trained in close combat for a very dangerous rescue and liberation mission. Salary in case of success $ 300’000 for about 3 weeks. No remuneration in case of failure. No social benefits, insurance, guarantees offered.” For such advertisement perhaps the one right one answers.

However when one writes an add, which sounds approximately like this “exiting challenge in the field of international VAT for a candidate with good analytic, language, mathematical and legal abilities” it may happen that no answer comes at all, or three, who do not really convince. However one can also be misled because one of the pale candidates might be a hidden future super star. That I know from my own experience.

At the age of 20 I took part in a summer camp for students. One of the disciplines was Sigi’s fight. Sigi’s fight is simple. One gets a glass of water, which is put on one’s head, stands on one leg, with the foot of the other leg against the thigh of the standing leg, forefinger in the ear. The winner is the one who manages to stands the longest, without touching the ground with the foot or let the glass drop. We began. From the beginning I had much trouble to remain standing. I moved the entire body to and fro searching for the balance. The others stood like chiselled in marble and I flapped like a leave in the wind. Bets were taken on the possible winner. Nobody but really nobody bet on me as possible winner. I did not care because I had all hands (respectively body) full in order to keep my position. Then the first glasses went down. I happily and very concentrated continued flapping. I was fighting with myself. 10 minutes past and more than half of the participants had already given up. After 15 minutes only a handful of people were left. After 20 minutes there were only three of us and after the next 10 minutes there were only two of us. Then also the other person started to flap like I did and it did not take long and I was the only one left. But I enjoyed fighting with myself and to show what I am able to. I stood there, moving to and fro searching for the balance, just like at the beginning and eventually, completely controlled, I stood still, took the glass from my head, put the numb foot on the ground and let the others celebrate me. I was the winner who nobody had expected.

Because one has to be very careful when judging whether a person is suitable for a task. Choosing the right one is one of the most difficult tasks in retrospect.