The original is from Gertrude Stein in a quote about her birthplace, Oakland CA.
It's not natural but it works. It is not a pun or a play on words, but is just clever by using 'there' in three slightly different senses.
There is no there there
The first instance is simply the existential nonreferential 'there is'.
The second is making a noun out of 'there' by having an adjective modify it 'no there', which is a figurative use of 'there' meaning place, no sense of location.
The third is just the usual adverbial answer to 'where?', at -that- location, referring specifically to Oakland in the quote.
The meaning of the entire sentence is that she didn't find a sense of place, a center, or really anything substantial or important enough to be warranted calling the town of Oakland some place by even a name. She's just belittling her home town.
Now as to the use of the quote in the passage, it is trying to say that the person has no other qualities to recommend him without the business experience.
According to Wiktionary, the "figurative" usage of hot mess is...
(slang, idiomatic, chiefly southern US) A person, thing, or situation in a state of pitiful disarray.
Which I think is fairly transparently derived from the literal sense...
(military) A warm meal, usually cooked in a large pot, often similar to a stew or porridge; or, service of such a heated meal to soldiers.
It may not be too fanciful to suppose it also has overtones of...
mess of pottage - something valueless or trivial or of inferior value
used esp. of something accepted instead of a rightful thing of far greater value
Best Answer
Of the three, "over past years" sounds the most odd, and least likely to be used. Google ngram bears this out:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Over+past+years%2Cover+the+past+years%2Cover+the+past+few+years&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1940&year_end=2010&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2COver%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bover%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOver%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cover%20the%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bover%20the%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOver%20the%20past%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cover%20the%20past%20few%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bover%20the%20past%20few%20years%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BOver%20the%20past%20few%20years%3B%2Cc0