--- title: What is Voodoo Hiring? description: Voodoo hiring, gut hiring, no data --- [Skip to content](https://go.whoai.com/what-is-voodoo-hiring#main-content) English Show submenu for translations ![WhoAi Logo](https://go.whoai.com/hs-fs/hubfs/WhoAi%20Logo.png?width=338&height=100&name=WhoAi%20Logo.png) Open main navigation Close main navigation - English Show submenu for translations - Contact us Contact us How can we help you? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Knowledge Base Core](https://go.whoai.com/?hsLang=en) 2. [The Who Method](https://go.whoai.com/the-who-method?hsLang=en) October 28, 2025 # What is Voodoo Hiring? ## Voodoo hiring is subjective, driven by gut, which usually means it also lacks data ### **The Illusion of the "Black Art"** Why do smart leaders struggle to hire well? According to legendary management expert Steve Kerr, it's because people unfamiliar with great hiring methods treat the process as a "mysterious black art". They rely on subjective judgment and pet techniques rather than a scalable, predictable system. This faith in unstructured processes is what we call **Voodoo Hiring**. The ultimate goal of Voodoo is a quick decision based on a gimmick, a personality check, or a gut feeling. But in reality, Voodoo Hiring is the reason "the hiring success rate of managers is a dismal 50 percent". The core issue is that it's "hard to see people for who they really are" in a brief, staged interview. Your process must penetrate the polished facade and surface-level performance. ### **The Top Voodoo Mistakes That Kill Predictability** If you recognize these methods in your organization, you know why your process is unreliable: - **The Art Critic:** Decisions based purely on **gut instinct** or chemistry. This is "terribly inaccurate" and easily fooled by candidates who simply interview well. - **The Prosecutor:** Using aggressive, irrelevant **trick questions** or logic puzzles (like "Why are manhole covers round?") designed to trip candidates up. Knowledge and job ability are not the same thing. - **The Fortune-Teller:** Relying on **hypothetical questions** like, "What would you do if...". Candidates respond with the ideal, textbook answer , but "it's the walk that counts, not the talk". - **The Sponge/Chatterbox:** Letting many people interview without coordination, asking the same superficial questions , or engaging in casual chat that does nothing to help you make a good decision. - **The Suitor:** Focusing all the interview energy on **selling the opportunity** and not assessing the candidate's capabilities. - **The Tester (Psychological/Personality):** Using generic, easily faked tests. These are "utterly useless as predictors of on-the-job performance" for executive selection. All Voodoo methods share one fundamental flaw: they are based on how a person acts *during the interview* rather than their verifiable *track record* over years. ### **The Trap of the "All-Around Athlete"** The Voodoo process often leads you down another costly path: chasing the **"all-around athlete"**. This is the talented generalist with a prestigious resume and broad skills. However, "hiring all-around athletes rarely works" because job requirements demand **narrow but deep competence**—a specialist. As Nick Chabraja, CEO of General Dynamics, illustrated, hiring a creative business developer (a generalist) when the business desperately needed an operations expert (a specialist) led to falling operating margins. **You must find the specialist to solve the specific business problem that exists**. ### **Moving Beyond the Mystery** If your current process contains one or more of these Voodoo elements, you are operating with an unreliable, random predictor of job performance. The solution is a **clear and tested path** that replaces opinion with data, replaces guessing with structure, and replaces wishful thinking with a repeatable process. Your success as a manager is "simply the result of how good you are at hiring the people around you". It’s time to move beyond mysterious black arts and adopt a methodical approach that delivers the predictability and certainty needed for a 90% hiring success rate. --- **Key Takeaways** - **Voodoo is the Problem:** Unstructured hiring (The Art Critic, Prosecutor, Fortune-Teller) is subjective and leads to the average **50% hiring failure rate**. - **Past Behavior Predicts Future Performance:** Effective selection must pivot from assessing how someone *acts* in an interview to gathering data on their **track record** over time. - **Stop Chasing Generalists:** An A Player is a specialist whose deep, narrow skills align perfectly with the job's unique needs, not an "all-around athlete". - **Structure Provides Truth:** The solution is a methodology based on repeatable, rigorous structure that compels honesty and delivers data you can trust. - [The Who Method](https://go.whoai.com/the-who-method?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Focus on Scorecards](https://go.whoai.com/the-who-method?hsLang=en#focus-on-scorecards) - [Who Overview](https://go.whoai.com/the-who-method?hsLang=en#who-overview) - [Troubleshooting](https://go.whoai.com/troubleshooting?hsLang=en) - [Getting started](https://go.whoai.com/getting-started?hsLang=en) - [General](https://go.whoai.com/general?hsLang=en) - [Support](https://go.whoai.com/support?hsLang=en) [![Screenshot 2025-05-24 at 1.01.02 PM](https://go.whoai.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Screenshot%202025-05-24%20at%201.01.02%20PM.png?width=338&height=100&name=Screenshot%202025-05-24%20at%201.01.02%20PM.png "Screenshot 2025-05-24 at 1.01.02 PM")](http://whoai.com?hsLang=en) Copyright © 2025, WhoAi Solutions LLC