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that overlooked little document: the reference list
You ready for this?So again, Arlene the non-statistician really may not be providing good stats here. But the first question I asked was: Should reference lists contain only three names, no more, no...
View ArticleBTP: the candidates speak out!
Okay, so last week some time I promised my rant on the current ratio of jobs to job seekers. Well, I just can't do it. I just can't subject you to it. I don't think I'm wrong about a lot of it, but I...
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what do they do with those references anyhow?
I decided to ask if recruiters followed up on references you don't provide. Or more precisely, what I asked was: might you check references other than those provided by the candidate? One quarter of...
View ArticleBTP: Education and secrecy
Okay. I've had a couple of things percolating around in my head this week and one of them I've already promised to write about. So here goes. You all should have figured out by now that I'm doing my...
View ArticleBTP: Your chance to edit
**Update: Weds 3/24/10. Here's Amber's cover letter too. Start in with the comments please!** Just as I requested, Amber sent me her resume. Below is the job ad. Probably not redacted enough since I...
View ArticleIntermission
Okay, I'm hoping at this point we're over half-way through. Okay, more precisely, I hope I'm over halfway through because you would not believe how much time I've spent writing these entries. I...
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Interview part 1: the basics
Okay! You've done everything right with your cover letter and resume and you've won that coveted spot on the next level up: an interview. Judging by the survey results, that's probably going to be a...
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Interview part 2: what to expect
What to expect. This was really more of a meta question. Maybe not so advice-oriented, but I was curious. If people conducted in-person interviews, were they willing to bring people in from a distance?...
View ArticleInterview part 3: what to wear, what to wear
I threw this in as a gimme. I really had no idea what to expect. And since I didn't have any idea of what to expect, I just did a fill-in-the-blank question. And let respondents have at it. The...
View ArticleBTP: phone interview tips
I'd originally had this buried in another posting but one of our faithful readers (mid-career: bless you, good to know this all is applicable on up the line!) emailed me and asked for something...
View ArticleInterview part 4: So why do I matter anyway?
The personality questions. I threw a few queries about this in on the survey because I'd recently been chastised by somebody (not one of my candidates) who thought they shouldn't matter. All that...
View ArticleInterview part 5: oh, that old question
Now that we're through the personality-specific stuff, let me back out a little and take a look at the typical questions you might be asked and how many people were asking them. I came up with a base...
View ArticleInterview part 6: some more old questions
As promised, the last two typicals.#2 at 91% of institutions asking it: Why do you feel you are qualified for this position? Are these questions all sounding rather familiar? Do they all sound like...
View ArticleInterview part 7: canned answers, not so canned questions
The follow-up to the previous set of seven questions was this: "If you use any of those questions, do you expect the candidate will have prepared or semi-prepared answers for them?"31% said "Yes, all."...
View ArticleInterview part 8: turnabout is fair play
And now, the classic question. Do you have any questions for us?First piece of advice? There's a wrong answer to this one and that's No. You need to come up with something. At the heart of it, it shows...
View ArticleInterview part 9: Good or bad, what makes it so
I think on this one, I'm going to mostly let our survey respondents talk for themselves with some minor editing. I'll put any editorial comments in brackets. And I've color-coded somewhat. Green for...
View ArticleInterview part 10: the public speaking thing
So you're headed off to an interview and when provided with the schedule for the day you're zooming down the list and you spot it. The Presentation. Usually scheduled for anywhere between a half-hour...
View ArticleMeta part 1: Could anything possibly take longer than this blog?
And the answer would be a resounding yes and the answer to "what" would be: a recruitment.Ranges on how long a recruitment takes were from one week to better than six months. The majority of...
View ArticleBTP: when I don't follow through
I owe some of you an apology. About 97 of you, it appears. That's how many respondents the survey for jobseekers had before I shut it down about a week ago. And here's why I owe you that apology....
View ArticleMeta part 2: Follow-up, anyone?
Okay. The next question I asked was: Do you want candidates to follow up with you regarding the status of their application.Guess what? Bad question--or at least I structured it badly. The short of...
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