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Subject:Re: thanks yous and interviews from hell From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 4 Jun 1999 13:19:24 -0700
At 12:30 PM 6/4/99 -0700, Sella Rush wrote:
>What's struck me about this entire thread--all the job/hiring threads--is
>the stories about people who base their decisions on a single factor. Like
>thank you notes, the way someone uses commas in their resume, their choice
>of shoes for the interview...
And sumbuddy else said:
>>> >I cannot believe that someone would go through an
>>> interview that costs
>>> BOTH of you several valuable hours of your day, you
>>> make a good impression,
>>> you have the skill set, the experience, and the
>>> approach methodology, and
>>> they are sitting there thinking to themselves...
>>><snip> we're just going to have to settle
>>> for the looser that was
>>> in after him who did send us that note."
>>>
And I say Yabbut...
Sometimes that's all there is!
When the opportunity to hire presents itself, you and HR work together
to craft the job announcement so that it says just exactly what you want
it to say. Of the 20 or 30 resumes that come in, you select two or three
to interview. The candidates march through and when the interviews are
over, you've identified two candidates as possible hires.
Both have equal amounts of writing experience. Both have equal amounts
of experience with the subject matter/technology. Both have excellent
writing samples. You even *like* both of them! But you can only hire
one. What's left to base a decision on?
At that point, you have to start looking at the little things that say
"attention to detail" and "willing to go the extra mile" -- things like
whether the applicant sent a thank-you and how well it was written and
whether they sent it to the right address or not... Things like STC
membership... All the things that applicants "can't believe" that
managers base their decisions on.
No, not always. Sometimes the decision is clear-cut and obvious. But
as often as not, there's more than one applicant that fits the big
picture; it's in the close-up where the decision gets made.
