Posts Tagged ‘Job Postings’

Wow. I just came across a must read article called From HR: The Truth About Job Postings and the Hiring Process, and I’m completely shocked by what is posted in it, only because it is the complete truth.

When it comes to medium to large companies (ones with the capacity to have HR staff), it becomes difficult to pick the best candidates to interview solely on the basis of a resume and cover letter. This is mostly due to inaccurate job postings, inflated resumes, and a disconnect between HR and the functional managers requiring staff.

In this article, the author (Michael Wade) writes what seems like a confession from HR on the problems with the recruiting process. In it, you get some wonderful insight such as:

Our job requirements are rough and incomplete estimates of what might actually be needed to do the job. Most are obsolete. Many are ridiculously inflated and ones such as “five years of experience” were chosen because they sound good. Often, we don’t really know what we want.

I was once given great advice by David Edwards, the Director of the Business Career Center at the Queen’s School of Business (who also wrote the forward to my book). He said that if you feel that you meet 70% of the requirements of the job posting, then it is worth applying to. Having now read this confession, this advice seems even more true.

Finally, to ensure that you don’t get too discouraged, take solace in:

Despite all of our flaws, good people do get hired. Don’t take our requirements too seriously. Please realize that we routinely blunder and turn down a lot of great applicants. We aren’t proud of that, but it’s the truth. Submit those job applications. Be persistent. You’ll eventually prevail.

Amen to that.

Great news! The Gradversity.com Job Board is now online! The site is powered by Indeed, a popular and fast growing  job search engine. If you need work and have recently graduated, or are about to graduate, you have come to the right place. Click here to get closer to your rewarding career!

Also, if you are an employer, you can now post your job directly on Gradversity.com. Simply click the link at the top of the Gradversity Job Board, or follow this link to post your job!

So check it out. Your rewarding career is waiting for you!

I remember watching Dr. Strangelove when I was in school and loving it (I’m a huge Stanley Kubrick fan). There was a particular scene where everyone was in the war room planning out strategy and it occurred to me that this was a really great idea. They had a space where they thought only about the task at hand and eliminated other distractions. It was brilliant.

This principle can be applied directly to your job search. If you can dedicate a space that will be used only to look for jobs, it will help you be more successful. It could be in your own house or apartment, or it could be some place like a library or common area. Either way, it should be free from distractions. Somewhere that you can concentrate on the job search without having to be distracted by a television, telephone, or roommate.

For me, this place was my kitchen table. At the time, I needed to get away from the Internet. I was (and still am) addicted to my network connection and I can often kill a great deal of time sitting in front of my laptop (much to Mrs. Gradversity’s despair).

So, not having wireless at the time, I would print out all of the job postings I was looking at, or a list of companies I needed to contact, and I would move to the kitchen table and get to work. This gave me the best shot at getting all of my work done in the most efficient way possible.

So if you can, find yourself a space where you can focus on the task at hand and you will be more successful over the long haul.

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