Shark Tank investor and entrepreneur Barbara Corcoran has hired thousands of people throughout her career, but her approach to evaluating candidates might surprise employers accustomed to starting with a stack of resumes. Corcoran has said, “I don’t look at the resume. It gets in the way of sizing up the person in front of me.”
Her philosophy feels particularly timely heading into fall 2026. AI can help job seekers rewrite resumes, strengthen descriptions of their experience, tailor applications to individual job descriptions and create polished cover letters in seconds. Employers may have more information about candidates than ever before, yet determining who is actually worth hiring can still require something remarkably traditional: meeting the person.
New research from ICIMS and Lighthouse Research & Advisory supports that concern. Only about one third of surveyed employers are confident that a resume accurately represents a candidate’s skills, while half are concerned about exaggerated or fabricated qualifications. Sixty two percent of high volume and frontline employers say finding the best candidate is now a greater priority than simply attracting more applicants. Skills based hiring also ranks as their top priority for the next 12 to 18 months.
Corcoran’s approach raises an important question for employers preparing to hire this September: Are you spending too much effort generating applications and not enough creating opportunities to meet the right people?
AI Can Make Almost Anyone Look Better on Paper
Corcoran’s skepticism about relying too heavily on resumes becomes especially interesting when considered alongside AI. Candidates can now ask an AI tool to analyze a job description and adjust their resume accordingly. It can identify important terminology, improve descriptions of previous responsibilities, strengthen a cover letter or help someone articulate why their experience makes them a good candidate.
Used appropriately, these tools can help talented candidates communicate their experience more effectively. But employers still have to determine how closely that polished application reflects the actual candidate. What happens when you talk to the applicant? Can they explain their experience in their own words? Can they demonstrate the skills presented on their resume? How do they communicate when the conversation moves somewhere they could not prepare for in advance?
That is where Corcoran’s emphasis on sizing up the person becomes particularly relevant. AI can help polish an application, but it cannot replace the value of getting to know the person who submitted it.
More Applicants Do Not Necessarily Mean Better Hiring
For years, one of recruiting’s biggest challenges was generating enough applicants. Today, some employers are encountering a different problem. They have applicants, sometimes hundreds of them, but they do not necessarily have an efficient way to determine which people they should actually meet.
If 300 people apply for a position but only a small percentage meet the employer’s requirements, another 100 applications may not improve the hiring outcome. They may simply create more work for the recruiting team. In fact, Catalyst Career Group specifically identifies employers who cannot devote time to combing through unqualified applications as candidates for its Private Recruiting Events.
“The goal isn’t necessarily to put more resumes in front of an employer,” says Jeff Straub, Co-Founder of Catalyst Career Group. “It’s to help them get in front of candidates who actually make sense for the position. When employers are spending too much time sorting through applicants who aren’t a fit, that’s a sign that the recruiting strategy itself may need to change.”
That perspective aligns closely with Corcoran’s philosophy. Instead of asking how many people you can get to apply, consider asking how quickly you can identify the people worth having a conversation with. Before spending more money generating applications this fall, employers should identify where their hiring process is actually breaking down.
What Happens When You Meet the Candidate?
Corcoran’s hiring philosophy puts considerable weight on qualities that can be difficult to capture on a resume, including attitude and willingness to learn. That thinking is increasingly consistent with where employers themselves say recruiting is headed. ICIMS and Lighthouse Research found that skills based hiring ranks as the top priority for high volume employers over the next 12 to 18 months, while only about one third expressed confidence that resumes accurately represent candidates’ skills.
A resume may tell you that someone has sales experience, but a conversation can help reveal whether that person can communicate effectively with a customer. An application may list years of management experience, while meeting the candidate gives a hiring manager an opportunity to evaluate how that person thinks, responds to questions and discusses previous challenges.
Catalyst cofounder Jeff Naugle has described successful hiring in similarly human terms: “The best hires happen when both sides walk away feeling like they found the right opportunity, not just filled an open spot.”
Corcoran’s philosophy does not mean experience and qualifications are irrelevant. Rather, it illustrates why the resume should be the beginning of evaluating a candidate rather than the end of it.
Create More Opportunities to Meet Qualified Candidates
If employers need better opportunities to evaluate people rather than simply accumulating applications, their recruiting strategy should reflect that goal. Catalyst Career Group’s Private Recruiting Events are built around an employer’s specific hiring needs. Catalyst recruiters source and prescreen candidates based on defined requirements, then provide employers with qualified candidates and scheduled interviews. Employers can meet those candidates at their office, at another location, by phone or by video.
That creates exactly the kind of interaction Corcoran’s philosophy emphasizes. Instead of asking hiring managers to spend their time sorting through a large applicant pool hoping to uncover the right people, the process moves qualified candidates toward actual conversations with the employer.
Catalyst says its Private Recruiting Events can be particularly useful for companies hiring multiple roles, filling high turnover positions, operating in markets underserved by traditional job fairs or working with limited internal recruiting resources.
The person who looks best on paper is not automatically the person who will communicate most effectively, demonstrate the right attitude or ultimately perform best in the role. Creating an opportunity to meet qualified candidates gives employers information that another stack of resumes simply cannot provide.
Match the Recruiting Strategy to the Hiring Problem
Of course, Corcoran’s approach does not mean employers should abandon the broader recruiting funnel. Sometimes an organization genuinely does need greater access to candidates. That is why employers should diagnose their recruiting problem before deciding where to invest.
If an organization needs greater exposure to active job seekers, Catalyst’s in person and virtual job fairs provide opportunities for recruiters to connect live with area talent across professions and industries. Catalyst operates job fairs nationwide, with its schedule organized across the East Coast, North Central, South Central, Mountain and West Coast regions.
This fall, that national footprint includes events in markets such as Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Fort Worth, Madison, Minneapolis, Tinley Park, Oak Brook, Milwaukee, Rockford and Arlington Heights. Employers can use these events to move beyond the application and begin interacting directly with potential candidates.
View Catalyst Career Group’s National Job Fair Schedule
For employers looking for something more targeted, Private Recruiting Events create an opportunity specifically around one company’s hiring needs. For a difficult individual position, Candidate Search and Placement offers another approach. Catalyst recruiters source and screen candidates and, in most cases, can begin presenting qualified candidates within a few days. The service frequently recruits for sales, management, customer service, administrative and technician positions, among others.
Organizations that want to manage their own virtual recruiting experience can also use RecruitVirtual to contact, interview and review candidates through employer hosted virtual job fairs.
Each option addresses a different recruiting challenge, but ultimately they share the same objective: connecting employers with people. That is also where Corcoran believes some of the most valuable information about a potential employee can be discovered.
Take the Barbara Corcoran Test on Your Current Hiring Process
September offers a natural opportunity for employers to evaluate what has happened with their recruiting efforts so far in 2026. Consider looking at your recent openings through the lens of Corcoran’s philosophy. Are you generating applicants but struggling to find people you actually want to interview? How much time is your team spending reviewing resumes compared with talking to qualified candidates? Are strong candidates reaching hiring managers quickly enough?
Consider whether certain positions repeatedly generate large applicant pools but few strong candidates. Look at whether credentials are dominating your screening process when demonstrated skills, communication or attitude could provide additional insight. If the answers reveal problems, the issue may not necessarily be the number of applicants. It may be the path between application and human interaction.
That is also where Naugle’s observation about both sides finding the right opportunity matters. “Recruiting is ultimately a matching process. Employers need enough information to determine whether a candidate fits the organization, while candidates need enough interaction to determine whether the organization and opportunity fit them.”
Make Human Connection Your Fall 2026 Hiring Advantage
AI will continue changing what employers see on resumes and applications. Candidates will have increasingly sophisticated tools available to help present their experience in the best possible way, which makes Barbara Corcoran’s hiring philosophy particularly relevant to recruiting in 2026. Employers still need opportunities to get to know the person behind the application.
The goal going into fall should not necessarily be to generate the largest applicant pool. It should be to create the shortest, clearest path between a qualified candidate and the employer who needs to meet them.
That philosophy is reflected in Catalyst Career Group’s recruiting model. Since 2008, the company has helped organizations connect with talent through national job fairs, Private Recruiting Events, Candidate Search and Placement and employer hosted virtual job fairs. Employers can select one or more recruiting options based on their hiring needs, candidate type and budget.
Corcoran’s approach offers a useful reminder as employers enter the final months of 2026. The resume may get someone into consideration, but the person behind it is who you ultimately have to hire.
And as Naugle puts it, “The best outcome is not simply filling an opening. It is reaching the point where both sides believe they have found the right opportunity.”
Not sure which recruiting strategy fits your current openings? Catalyst Career Group offers a free, no obligation 15 minute evaluation call to discuss your hiring needs and determine which recruiting option may be the best fit.
Explore Catalyst Career Group’s Employer Recruiting Options
Contact Catalyst Career Group at (815) 308-5426 or use the form at https://catalystcareergroup.com/contact/.