Tales from HR

[Jennasis]

In these trying economic times, when joblessness soars to crazy highs, I am amazed at the stories DH brings home from work. He works for the HR department of his company, and the stuff he sees, just curls my hair. It's like people don't actually WANT to get hired.

Example A: The other day, he received an e-mail from a job applicant. The e-mail was very succinct and said simply "Thanks for not even bothering to read my resume." Apparently, when this applicant sent in their resume, they attached some sort of "read receipt" to it that is supposed to alert the sender when the e-mail is read. DH very calmly responds back that the office software does not support "read receipts" in all it's applications, and also she had sent her resume on a Thursday and the subsequent e-mail the following Wednesday...That Monday was a federal holiday and the office was closed, and the head of HR had taken an extended weekend off (Friday-Monday). He didn't owe her any explanation, and certainly she shot her chances of being hired, but he figured he was doing her a favor by explaining things so she wouldn't make that same snotty mistake again which will cost her another job.

Example B: Resumes riddled with ridiculous spelling errors such as "tuff" and "nite". As in "I was the nite shift manager" or "I had to make the tuff decisions" (both actually appeared on resumes)

Example C: Cover letters with regional colloquialisms such as "fixing to" or "might could". As in "I might could start working as soon as you'd be needing me to", or "I'm fixing to go back to school and need a job."

Example D: Guy with a GED and no previous experience (I believe he was a mechanic or had worked at Home Depot) applied for one of the VP positions. He can dream can't he?

There are more, and he comes home with new ones every day. Just remember folks who are on the job hunt...you are not alone. There are a ton of others out there vying for that same job, so go the extra mile, put in that extra effort, run spell check one last time, and give it everything you've got!

 

[RUDisney]

When I was responsible for hiring for my departments, I loved when applicants would come in and grunt answers at you and/or dress inappropriately for the job.

I had one person apply for an IT job who pontificated about how anyone who didn't use microsoft for their servers was an idiot. We used NetWare, so he obviously didn't get the job. He did, however, apply every so often. He never did get a second interview.

Another guy told me, when I asked him why he wanted to work for us, that his mother was making him get a job, so this was as good a place as any to work. He didn't get the job either.

 

[cteddiesgirl]

Some people are just idiots.

 

[barkley]

i just heard an item on the news this morning-lots of people with tremendous professional experience, great educations and tremendous track records as employees are being shut out of jobs because employers are fearful to hire them. the employers are concerned that because the candidates are overly qualified they will 'jump ship' the moment a better opportunity comes along. the news pc. was on weather it's advisable to omit/downplay your resume to appear less qualified and thereby "more employer friendly".

i thought it was an interesting concept-dh just returned to college because he experienced this. his industry is not hiring and the similar jobs open are considered entry level-he would be interviewed and once the managers realized he had worked at their level or higher he was knocked out of consideration. these were the interviews he was called for-lots more never happened because the screening software so many companies use for on-line applications (they won't take them through any other sources) used key-word identifiers, and as soon as it saw his college degree and/or previous job titles it eliminated him from consideration.

i encountered some insane applicants when i was hiring staff as most people who do h/r have-but i think employers need to look at adjusting their mind set on who they will consider as a viable candidate. this economy is not going to jump back quickly so an employer could do well to hire an "over qualified" candiate who will be on the job, giving it their all for what could be much longer than the employer would think vs. only considering the less qualified candidate who demonstrates through actions like you've told of who will cost much more by virtue of training, and likely h/r issues-and may be much more inclined to 'jump ship' for another job (i overheard a manager at one of our local grocery stores responding to a complaint from a customer about the lack of service staff-manager said 'i can't keep them staffed-they flake out and leave constantly with no notice, i'm constantly looking for help ', i commented 'then why don't you hire some of the displaced professionals that i know have applied and would kill to have an opportunity to work for better than minimum wage and get benefits for their kids?', manager was like 'oh no-we never consider them to hire-they're overqualified and we'de lose them as soon as they got a better job'. both the other customer and i shook our heads and told him that there were few if none 'better jobs' out there and would'nt it still be better to hire a professional who would be reliable and stay on the job-and would never think to leave without notice vs. his 'flakes'. the manager just could'nt wrap his mind around that concept

 

[breezy1077]

When I was responsible for hiring for my departments, I loved when applicants would come in and grunt answers at you and/or dress inappropriately for the job.

I had one person apply for an IT job who pontificated about how anyone who didn't use microsoft for their servers was an idiot. We used NetWare, so he obviously didn't get the job. He did, however, apply every so often. He never did get a second interview.

Another guy told me, when I asked him why he wanted to work for us, that his mother was making him get a job, so this was as good a place as any to work. He didn't get the job either.

I loved the ones that came in and acted like they already had the job and were doing you a favor - nevermind the little fact that they were totally unqualified for the position.

 

[RUDisney]

Barkley, I had to do just what you said with my resume. I was a VP in IT when I was let go for complaining about my boss' abuse to HR. He's still there, still abusing others. Anyway, I'm finally starting a new job on Monday (after 14 months of looking). I had to take out that I was a VP. I took out many of my qualifications, like working on strategic plans, etc., before I started to get call backs... even when I was applying for senior level jobs.

 

[barkley]

Barkley, I had to do just what you said with my resume. I was a VP in IT when I was let go for complaining about my boss' abuse to HR. He's still there, still abusing others. Anyway, I'm finally starting a new job on Monday (after 14 months of looking). I had to take out that I was a VP. I took out many of my qualifications, like working on strategic plans, etc., before I started to get call backs... even when I was applying for senior level jobs.

sounds like dh-he was in IT and left on his own in large part because his newest boss was insisting that certain federal and state laws did'nt apply to ther division. while some of the staff went along and broke the laws figuring if anything happened the boss because he 'ordered' them to do it would take the fall, dh would'nt because we knew that the way they were written the violation fell on the person who did it (aside from being horrendously abusive and dangerous to the people served by the programs he worked with) AND would result in never being able to work in that industry again.

he honestly did'nt want to go back to that level of work again but found it impossible to find any work in our area where an employer would consider taking someone in with his qualifications (and it's impossible to fudge on a previous job title-with government the minute h/r calls they are going to say what his former titles held were and what the job duties entailed).

glad to hear you've found a job dh is back in college and doing a combo masters/adult education/highschool teaching credential program. we figure with all the unemployed folks out there who will need job training and our state's big push to require more vocational education in highschool (and they consider some advanced i/t skills as basic, necesary voc. ed for students ) it's a field that's hopefully going to offer some greater opportunities by the time he graduates.

 

[babytrees]

I am finding that even for jobs I am seemingly just qualified for I am actually overqualified for. One interview I went on before Christmas kept saying...your overqualified.

In my field (administrative assistant/office manager) there are a ton of jobs that say they want my experience (5+ years) and more, but want to pay minimum wage. Of course same of those same jobs are now looking for somebody new after less than 2 months....why, oh why, don't they spend the little bit more to hire somebody that has a little more experience and won't take so long to train and more than likely (as shown by my work history) won't leave you high and dry?

I do feel bad for my friend who has even more experience than me and has been looking for longer and has had fewer interviews.

 

[joviroxx]

The last time we were looking for a receptionist/admin assistant, we received a resume where the previous employment history showed Pole Dancer at the "club" not to far from the office. While I'm sure it was a very honorable job, and I realize she wanted to improve herself, I just didn't think it belonged on the resume. Of course, every male wanted to interview her

 

[Hoodie]

At least your husband's department screens them! He must see some doozies!

Our HR department is a disgrace. We recently hired for an admin/analyst position (we're a finance operation so we need people who can actually read financial statements, etc.). HR sent us the "screened" resumes - which included a dog walker and a spa attendant! Not even the appointment scheduler but the person who sweeps up the hair.

Currently they've been among the missing for the past two weeks. Multiple people in our department have tried to contact them to no avail. If you see an HR department running around, please let me know. There may be a reward.

 

[Sandy V.]

I agree that HR departments must be seeing a lot of applicants who obviously aren't meant for the jobs they apply for, but in these days of layoffs, there sure are some bad HR departments out there as well.

My industry has been downsizing U.S. employees and sending their jobs overseas (yeah, a whole 'nother thread there . . . ) Anyhow, they had a planned and previously announced layoff of 10 people. But no one knew which 10. To set the story up, you need to know that everyone works in a "cube farm" - you have your own cubicle on one large floor. HR is on the floor below them.

One the day of announcing the layoffs, instead of having the GUTS to actually meet with the 10 people face-to-face, to tell them that they were being laid off, HR made PHONE CALLS upstairs to the people at their desks to tell each person they'd been let go! Imagine a deathly-quiet floor because they know what's coming, and as soon as the phone rings, heads pop up all over the cube farm like prairie dogs looking out from the safety of their holes, peering out to see where the call went to. How insulting and humiliating.

There was a big ruckus over that boneheaded action, and needless to say, HR has been much more respectful since then. And they haven't pulled that stupid stunt again; the next round of layoffs was handled one-on-one in private meetings.

 

[barkley]

as managers we had to institute a pre-interview technique that involved having all the 'highly qualified applicants' that h/r was sending to us fill out something in their own handwriting. we would schedual the interview and have them do it (in the waiting area so we knew they did it themselves) to hand to the receptionist for our review prior to the face to face meeting.

we had to do this because not one but TWO functionaly illiterate candidates had managed to get hired. when we traced it down we learned that they had a friend/spouse who filled out the applications/created the resumes and if they HAD to do any writing it was always via a computer program like word that had a grammer/spell check. might have worked on their previous jobs but in our line of work all the case documentation which were considered "legal documents" had to be handwritten

in interviewing one who demonstrated his inability to write through our technique we asked 'if you are unable to handwrite/read how would you carry out your case documentation duties?'. his response? 'i'de ask a co-worker to do it and if they refused i'de demand ada accommodations to get my OWN PERSONAL assistant'

 

[Todd&Copper]

OP,

Do you really live in a town called "Mocksville"? If so, that makes your whole post even more funny.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

i just heard an item on the news this morning-lots of people with tremendous professional experience, great educations and tremendous track records as employees are being shut out of jobs because employers are fearful to hire them. the employers are concerned that because the candidates are overly qualified they will 'jump ship' the moment a better opportunity comes along. the news pc. was on weather it's advisable to omit/downplay your resume to appear less qualified and thereby "more employer friendly".

i thought it was an interesting concept-dh just returned to college because he experienced this. his industry is not hiring and the similar jobs open are considered entry level-he would be interviewed and once the managers realized he had worked at their level or higher he was knocked out of consideration. these were the interviews he was called for-lots more never happened because the screening software so many companies use for on-line applications (they won't take them through any other sources) used key-word identifiers, and as soon as it saw his college degree and/or previous job titles it eliminated him from consideration.

i encountered some insane applicants when i was hiring staff as most people who do h/r have-but i think employers need to look at adjusting their mind set on who they will consider as a viable candidate. this economy is not going to jump back quickly so an employer could do well to hire an "over qualified" candiate who will be on the job, giving it their all for what could be much longer than the employer would think vs. only considering the less qualified candidate who demonstrates through actions like you've told of who will cost much more by virtue of training, and likely h/r issues-and may be much more inclined to 'jump ship' for another job (i overheard a manager at one of our local grocery stores responding to a complaint from a customer about the lack of service staff-manager said 'i can't keep them staffed-they flake out and leave constantly with no notice, i'm constantly looking for help ', i commented 'then why don't you hire some of the displaced professionals that i know have applied and would kill to have an opportunity to work for better than minimum wage and get benefits for their kids?', manager was like 'oh no-we never consider them to hire-they're overqualified and we'de lose them as soon as they got a better job'. both the other customer and i shook our heads and told him that there were few if none 'better jobs' out there and would'nt it still be better to hire a professional who would be reliable and stay on the job-and would never think to leave without notice vs. his 'flakes'. the manager just could'nt wrap his mind around that concept

Can I give you a

This is my whole issue. I have been working in the travel field for 16 years. So there are many different positions that I can apply for HOWEVER 9 times out of 10 I don't get a response and its VERY FRUSTRATING or they say you are over qualified. I have to agree with you that in these times managers really need to look at hiring someone that is over qualified because it may help their company or store or what have you. Then when things do get better they can move up possibly. It doesn't mean they are going to jump ship right away, they want to be secure in their job and pay their bills.

 

[Jennasis]

OP,

Do you really live in a town called "Mocksville"? If so, that makes your whole post even more funny.

Yes...I do. Hi-larious ain't it? It's just a shade better than the town I used to work in...Hicksville, Long Island.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

A few points:

* Someone searching for a job in this economy needs to be ready and willing customize their resume to fit the job for which they are applying. Even in a great economy, I keep 2 "resumes" updated.

* Employers are willing to accept over-qualified applicants, but the interview will be key to consideration. You must really impress the hiring manager with a "happy to help in any way - will not continue looking" attitude. Of course, to get that interview, you should be sure to follow the advice above.

* Employers who only consider people with degrees, discarding those who have real life experience but lack the degree, are missing out on a huge number of well qualified applicants.

* Even in this economy, one of my key considerations in making a hire is their likelihood of sticking it ouy for at least 2 years. It costs me too much money to train an employee to even consider someone who might not stick that long.

 

[Jennasis]

A few points:

* Someone searching for a job in this economy needs to be ready and willing customize their resume to fit the job for which they are applying. Even in a great economy, I keep 2 "resumes" updated.

* Employers are willing to accept over-qualified applicants, but the interview will be key to consideration. You must really impress the hiring manager with a "happy to help in any way - will not continue looking" attitude. Of course, to get that interview, you should be sure to follow the advice above.

* Employers who only consider people with degrees, discarding those who have real life experience but lack the degree, are missing out on a huge number of well qualified applicants.

* Even in this economy, one of my key considerations in making a hire is their likelihood of sticking it ouy for at least 2 years. It costs me too much money to train an employee to even consider someone who might not stick that long.

I like the cut of your jib. Thanks for the tips!

 

[manning]

-Monday). .


Example D: Guy with a GED and no previous experience (I believe he was a mechanic or had worked at Home Depot) applied for one of the VP positions. He can dream can't he?

I think I can top that. We had a new hire who said he would be the CEO in five years. At the time I was working for one of the major oil companies.

 

[DISUNC]

Example A: The other day, he received an e-mail from a job applicant. The e-mail was very succinct and said simply "Thanks for not even bothering to read my resume." Apparently, when this applicant sent in their resume, they attached some sort of "read receipt" to it that is supposed to alert the sender when the e-mail is read. DH very calmly responds back that the office software does not support "read receipts" in all it's applications, and also she had sent her resume on a Thursday and the subsequent e-mail the following Wednesday...That Monday was a federal holiday and the office was closed, and the head of HR had taken an extended weekend off (Friday-Monday). He didn't owe her any explanation, and certainly she shot her chances of being hired, but he figured he was doing her a favor by explaining things so she wouldn't make that same snotty mistake again which will cost her another job.

Sadly I can understand this applicants fustration. However she should not have emailed what she did. Years ago I was laid off, and out of work for 7 months. I sent about 100 resumes out, and received maybe 3 responses. You actually start to think that the rez arent getting to the addresse or that there really isnt a job, but the company is 'fishing' for whatever reason. This does get one a bit looney.

More companies should send out Confirmation Letters that they did recieve the applicants resume. This will surely alleviate some of the Unemployeds angst!

The last time we were looking for a receptionist/admin assistant, we received a resume where the previous employment history showed Pole Dancer at the "club" not to far from the office. While I'm sure it was a very honorable job, and I realize she wanted to improve herself, I just didn't think it belonged on the resume. Of course, every male wanted to interview her

My past company, the one I was laid off from..The Ceo hired his Sales & Admin staff fro the Strip club he frequented. The Girls were fun, BUT GOT NOTHING DONE.

A few points:

* Someone searching for a job in this economy needs to be ready and willing customize their resume to fit the job for which they are applying. Even in a great economy, I keep 2 "resumes" updated.

* Employers are willing to accept over-qualified applicants, but the interview will be key to consideration. You must really impress the hiring manager with a "happy to help in any way - will not continue looking" attitude. Of course, to get that interview, you should be sure to follow the advice above.

* Employers who only consider people with degrees, discarding those who have real life experience but lack the degree, are missing out on a huge number of well qualified applicants.

* Even in this economy, one of my key considerations in making a hire is their likelihood of sticking it ouy for at least 2 years. It costs me too much money to train an employee to even consider someone who might not stick that long.

 

[mrsdon]

All this makes me happy that I am a lowly hourly employee