This story gave me a lot of food for thought in sorting the wheat from the chaff.
A local business owner I am acquainted with was looking to increase her staff. They had specific skills that were required and made it clear that they would not take resumes in person. They asked that all resumes be sent by email. They wanted the prospective candidates to place their resumes in the body of the email, and not as an attachment. In the subject line, they asked that the words Resume and the closing date for applying. The date had been listed in their advertisement.
They were inundated with emails, and they expected that.
When asked how did they cut down to their long list and then their short list, the answer was simple.
They are a detail oriented business that requires their staff to read and follow instructions without a lot of supervision.
Anyone who sent a resume without the required information in the subject line were deleted.
All hand delivered and mail in applications were destroyed.
Anyone who sent a resume with an attachment (regardless if the resume was in the body of the email) were deleted.
They ended up with a handful of emails that had followed their application instructions to the letter. From these they created their short list and started interviews.
What if someone who had the best credentials, work ethics and experience was among those that were delete? How do you not look at every email, just in case? In this case, they would not be included in the process if they didn't follow the rules.
Harsh, you say? I commend this company for putting out the needs of their workplace to see who would read and follow the instructions. They had no interest in entertaining anyone’s job application that showed the person incapable of following simple directives.
Perhaps a lesson to all of us not to rush into anything without making sure we have all of the facts lined up before taking the plunge. Often, we only read what we think we need to see, and skip over the important parts.
What are your thoughts on this hiring process?
A local business owner I am acquainted with was looking to increase her staff. They had specific skills that were required and made it clear that they would not take resumes in person. They asked that all resumes be sent by email. They wanted the prospective candidates to place their resumes in the body of the email, and not as an attachment. In the subject line, they asked that the words Resume and the closing date for applying. The date had been listed in their advertisement.
They were inundated with emails, and they expected that.
When asked how did they cut down to their long list and then their short list, the answer was simple.
They are a detail oriented business that requires their staff to read and follow instructions without a lot of supervision.
Anyone who sent a resume without the required information in the subject line were deleted.
All hand delivered and mail in applications were destroyed.
Anyone who sent a resume with an attachment (regardless if the resume was in the body of the email) were deleted.
They ended up with a handful of emails that had followed their application instructions to the letter. From these they created their short list and started interviews.
What if someone who had the best credentials, work ethics and experience was among those that were delete? How do you not look at every email, just in case? In this case, they would not be included in the process if they didn't follow the rules.
Harsh, you say? I commend this company for putting out the needs of their workplace to see who would read and follow the instructions. They had no interest in entertaining anyone’s job application that showed the person incapable of following simple directives.
Perhaps a lesson to all of us not to rush into anything without making sure we have all of the facts lined up before taking the plunge. Often, we only read what we think we need to see, and skip over the important parts.
What are your thoughts on this hiring process?
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