Look at candidates' peripheral experience, instead, to see who has great tenacity, ingenuity, creativity, etc. that has been expressed outside the workplace so far -- but could be harnessed on the job. When I was at Google last year, they were intrigued by a resume from someone who had run the 1,000-mile Iditarod dogsled race in Alaska four times. That's a very hard race. Very few people do it once. Someone who did it four times has a stubbornness and a focus that is quite remarkable. You wouldn't hire such a person if they didn't have the right technical degrees, credentials, etc. But someone who was 94th percentile in work, with that extra background, might be a more promising candidate than someone with a 96th percentile ranking on mainstream measures and no other signs of standout dedication.