The Dominic Cummings job advert might be bizarre – but it will ensure he gets the brilliant minds he is after

As someone who is used to making radical changes to their workplace, I share the senior aide to the prime minister’s distrust of conventional recruitment

‘Super-talented weirdos’ apply within (AFP)

Dominic Cummings doesn’t give a fig for appearances and the latest example of his unconventional approach has left top bods in the civil service feeling extremely disconcerted. Rather than seeking new blood to carry out his shake-up of Whitehall through traditional recruitment channels, he’s published a wacky list of requirements on his personal blog, asking applicants to contact him through a private email account.

Cummings says he wants “people who are brighter than me” and not “public school bluffers” – which might seem a bit rich since some people reckon that’s a pretty good description of his boss. Even so, I think he’s onto something, no matter how bizarre his list of requirements initially sounds. Cummings wants to hire “super-talented weirdos … an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds” who will work as special advisers and civil servants in his Downing Street office, tasked with carrying out plans to radically reform how the government makes decisions and puts policies into action.

He’s also looking for a personal assistant, someone straight from university or who has recently graduated. The lucky recipient would be in post for a year, will need “extreme curiosity” and be prepared to give up weekends on a regular basis. Cummings says the job (described as a mix of interesting work and trivia) will be so demanding the lucky recipient will probably not have time for a social life or a partner.

Is this the most brutally honest job description ever? It’s certainly a first for a post in Whitehall. Applicants are asked to send a letter and one-page CV to the specific Gmail account, and advised that – even if successful – if they turn out not to fit in, they will be “binned”. Cummings has some very specific requirements for some posts, asking for data scientists, project managers and outstanding graduates from universities who are interested in “arguments on the edge of the field” but says that anyone who is found to be playing office politics will immediately sacked.

Of course, there is another (conventional) way of team building and staffing a new project. Cummings could have asked the head of the civil service to draft a series of job applications, waited several weeks while this went through all the politically correct processes and was approved by all the job-spec boffins in Whitehall, before he was sent drafts of the advertisements. Then, he would be asked to approve the wording, and do nothing until the ads were published in the press. After the closing date, weeks would pass with further inaction while senior civil servants painstakingly went through the applicants to create short lists.

This is exactly how the BBC (and other major media companies) still recruit, ensuring boxes are ticked and enough gender fluid and minority applicants are included. There have to be people with “hobbies”. People who have the “right” grades, people who help in the community etc etc. This mind-numbing process is a recipe for disaster, designed to screen out the brilliant, the troublesome and the innovators. It removes the challenging sods who will argue and come up with original ideas, and favours the conventional and the bland. It perpetuates the rise of mediocrity to preserve the status quo, the pyramid of power. No wonder the Whitehall establishment can’t stand Cummings, one of his senior advisors has said she thinks that civil servants should take regular exams to stay in their jobs.

I would never have passed an interview for a post at the BBC (or in Whitehall for that matter), I didn’t have a degree when I was appointed directly by the director general and was probably the only senior executive without one for almost a decade. I was stroppy, and overconfident that that the BBC was lucky to have me, rather than the other way around.

If he had followed conventional practice to staff his Big Project, Cummings would have been forced to sit in a room for hours on end with a committee of worthy souls from HR and union representatives who would know nothing about his plans, interviewing people who – after 2 minutes, he would realise – would not fit into his vision. Each one would have to be interviewed for the statutory 30 minutes for fear they would make an official complaint. Once, ITV were interviewing people to work as researchers on a prestigious Sunday lunchtime current affairs programme when a man entered the room dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. They asked him to take a seat and starting asking him about Nato and where he stood on the economy. He stumbled a bit but the team of worthy interlocutors persisted, putting his hesitation down to nerves. After five minutes, the bloke stood up, saying “I don’t know why you’re asking all these questions, I’m just here to clean the windows”. Sad, but true.

Cummings – whether you warm to him or not – is a true visionary, and knows exactly who is required to bring his radical plans to fruition. I share his distrust of HR and conventional recruitment. I have built up big teams to launch new television departments, and create groundbreaking programmes, and staffed a new television channel from scratch. As an editor I made radical changes to The Independent on Sunday. New people were chosen for their ability to argue and challenge my way of thinking, to have confidence in their own intelligence. Of course, this method attracts annoying people, people who might not look right or have social graces, but if they are loyal and signed up to your project you could not wish for better workers. Cummings is acknowledging that work has to reward everyone, not just the boss.

Only an arrogant leader would think that their ideas are fully formed. They can only be refined by discussion. Plenty of the jobs in Whitehall could be outsourced and it’s clear the current method of recruiting is costly and not fit for purpose – a recent report by the Institute for Government highlighted the extremely high staff turnover.

You might not like his sloppy laundry-bag clothes, but under that creepy beanie hat lurks a smart brain. If Cummings’ search for “weirdos” sees more government promises turned into reality, then his wacky methods will have been worth it. Let’s judge the man by results in a year’s time.