Anyone work in HR?

[adcooper]

And if so, can you explain the change in the way job seekers are treated?

A dear friend applied for a position heading up a local nonprofit. She had excellent qualifications and was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and inspiring. Her resume, letter and application materials shone. I know because I proofed them, and besides she's worked in communications and tech writing professionally for 20 years. She's good.

Though the job is modest and the pay in the low 30s, the expectations for candidates were huge. Following a phone interview, she and two others had personal interviews and then were asked to make presentations, in front of each other and the board, at a public (and highly publicized) meeting ...and get this, they were asked to bring their families! This was followed by two more group interviews with board members. Seem a little crazy for a small time job in a real small town?

Well, not only did they hire someone else, guess how they notified her. By email. Really? You put someone through this public ordeal in her own hometown and you can't pick up the phone and call her?

We're telling her she has dodged a bullet, which goes along with our other metaphor for this group--the gang that can't shoot straight.

[Goalie]

I think she did dodge a very big bullet. How sad that she found out by an email. Do you think this is a sign of the times for us now? I know in the food business that there are plenty of so called chefs that won't even let the boss know they are quitting. They just do not show up the next day at work. I've seen this happen more times than I care to count. then when the boss goes to hire new people he is a little harder on them as if they are to blame for the bad ones. not fair.

[ZenRider]

Are you kidding, that's how some places have fired people in recent years. For how connected we are supposed to be, we are getting increasingly less so it seems.

Have to agree that your friend dodged a bullet, but she shouldn't be surprised if gets a letter in the next couple of years asking if she would like a job. Nothing quite as demanding as that, but a very strange and long interview process. After which, wasn't really that sad I didn't get the job, but had a feeling people had been pre-picked (perhaps friends/relatives) and they were just going through a process. Two years later I get a letter (we still used real letters back then) asking if I want that job. By then I was heading in another direction and just tossed the letter. Very likely a good idea that I did.

[Smay]

Yes, I agree that is a pitiful excuse for a job search. I've NEVER heard of the public presentation angle either. Unless maybe for a very huge job as CEO or the top executive--it was something similar at our college when interviewing for the presidency. A mid six-figure job, though! And notifying a FINALIST by email is very cowardly treatment. Sounds like a horrible job.

[adcooper]

Suzy, that's what I thought. This was for a 30-hour position directing the senior citizens center. Can you believe it?

[Bara]

I can sympathise, but not help. Being in the service sector, we learn humiliation. The only thing, really, is that they don't mean it.

Sometimes they don't even know it.