This paper regards the transformations in the substance of merit from the perspective of companies that use classified ads seeking managers and executives. The database was built with 400 announcements collected in national circulation newspapers and in job boards in the Internet in the years of 1990 and 2005. In contexts in which the increasing numbers and diversification of graduate professionals generate uncertainties pertaining the `quality' of the desired professional, other signalling parameters are needed, and the result is that framing candidates' profiles becomes more and more complex and detailed, not only regarding his or her educational formation, but also concerning the type and nature of the professional path, to the amount of specific knowledge and certain capacities and competences.
meritocracy; merit; managers; recruitment; work sociology
