Comments on: Want More Job Interviews? Start Thinking Like a Recruiter

By: richard1941

richard1941 — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:23:00 +0000

Actually, a major impairment in my career, when I believed the lie that I had one, was my college degree. It was in Physics. So the HR people would say, “We can’t hire you, the requisition requires a BSEE degree and you don’t have one.” So I became a registered professional EE by passing the very difficult California exams, and then it was, “There is no requirement for PE registration on the requisition so we cannot recognize it.”
At one point in my industrial career, I needed help for a research project. I asked for HR to get me a research analyst. After several weeks with no results, I went to the UCLA placement center, and told them what I needed. They said they had lots of people like that… But they sent nobody! (Because they will not send anybody who is not a member of a sanctioned minority.) Finally, I was talking with a friend, and he recommended somebody. My boss and I interviewed him and thought he would be perfect, but when HR got his resume, they rejected him: his degree was in philosophy. I pointed out that we are doing logic research, and logic is a branch of philosophy. Eventually we hired him and he was a superstar. So there you have the other function of HR: prevent the manager from getting the skill set he needs to accomplish his mission.
And then there is the problem of required skills: required ten years experience in language x, system y, application z. If you don’t have the right (x,y,z) triplet, you don’t get an interview, as if you are incapable of acquiring any new skill. If I am presently doing that exact job at another company, why would I leave to do exactly the same work?
Now you get a feel why I ended my membership in SHRM. And when you first went to work in HR, your were obviously unqualified because you lacked experience. Did you use monetary bribes, sex, drugs, blackmail, or family connections? I never did.

By: Julio

Julio — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 00:42:00 +0000

“High-energy” means young.
“Highly motivated” means will accept a low salary.

No one cares about your trip to Brazil.

By: Peggy Carouthers

Peggy Carouthers — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 20:16:00 +0000

I can’t speak for aerospace/defense companies, as they are outside my experience, but as a former HR manager, I know that many companies do still read resumes, especially after the computer programs eliminate some of the applicants due to experience or other factors. And you’re right, I didn’t cover security clearance, since that is a specific requirement for individual fields. Many fields do have specific requirements that they want from employees; however, the concept still applies once HR has eliminated resumes that don’t fit those requirements and is left with a pile of applicants.

By: richard1941

richard1941 — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:58:00 +0000

Actually, much of what you suggest is nonsense. You assume that there is an intent to hire to fill a posted opening. But with many large aerospace/defense companies I see that the opening has been there more than a year. What? In a year they couldn’t fill those positions? Their HR manager needs to be fired! Also, you falsely suggest that a human actually reads and assesses applications. In many companies, the resumes are merely scanned, processed by an OCR program, and checked for certain key words. And… there is the problem of a security clearance. If you don’t have one, you can’t get hired. And if you have no job, you can’t get one. Catch 22.

By: BenTheir

BenTheir — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:31:00 +0000

Your deliberations are made much easier by such an offer. Just one question to answer: Do you want to work with insecure, maybe minimally qualified colleagues on whom you may need to depend for much of your job success?

By: Peggy Carouthers

Peggy Carouthers — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 04:09:00 +0000

I can see where you might get that impression, and it’s true that there are many companies that give a low offer and won’t budge. That said, in my own experience, the company I worked for and others I’ve encountered have been much more concerned with hiring talent that was a good fit and valuable to the company. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

By: itellu3times

itellu3times — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 21:00:00 +0000

The modern job search is actually much simpler: (1) Are you minimally qualified? (2) Will you accept our low offer? And actually, they care much more about #2 than #1.

By: Shahid Khan

Shahid Khan — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:59:00 +0000

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