Another tip from a seasoned professional: Tom Acuff, managing director for Europe, Africa, Middle East for search firm DHR International notes that where you are hiring freshly-minted MBAs, ˜it's often impossible to slide a sheet of paper between them, they are so similar in their qualifications - in fact you can have a whole group that are essentially clones of each other.' Acuff's solution to this dilemma of who to hire is, ˜Forget the academic record, and see what they did in their downtime. If they did nothing, well, that lets them out, if they climbed Mount Everest that's pretty enterprising, but if they interned every summer at Goldman Sachs, you just might want to hire the guy.' This is one of the few chances you get these days to get candidate selection back under your control, rather than theirs. Just one point on this: if you happen to be running an outdoor clothing company or you are L.L. Bean, pick the guy who climbed Everest, won't you! I really cannot emphasise this enough, the candidate is bringing himself or herself with them - if an Everest climber fits your culture, take them.