People Underestimate the Value of a Good Ramble

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Just How Professional Are You?

I was talking to a friend the other day.  She's trying to find a new assistant and she's been drowning in resumes from an ad on Craigslist. I know the feeling. When I was recruiting full-time, it was insane. So many people looking for jobs and not taking into consideration whether or not they are actually capable of performing the jobs they apply for.

Trust me, people, this is important.  If you can't do the job or if you are just incredibly overqualified, you are wasting someone's time. And they won't like you better for it.

Anyway, she was telling me about one particular person who she interviewed and I could feel her pain. Once my friend - changing her name to protect the innocent, she can be....Sally - had called and screened a few people and determined who she wanted to personally interview, she decided to put the ball in the applicants' court by sending out an email and asking them to call her back. In her email, she gave some times to call her, including a specific time frame of about an hour when she could not be called.  This particular applicant, we'll call her Jane, chose to call in that exact time period and then said, "oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see that." Already, she's proven that she has no attention to detail.

The next nail in her coffin was when she went to the interview. She was given an address, 100 This Street, and also given directions; if you miss the turn onto This Street, you can also turn onto That Way, which loops back around.  So at about the time of the interview, Sally gets a call from Jane, "There is no 100 That Way. Are you trying to scam me?"

Um...no, you're just stupid.  I don't think Sally said that, but I probably would have.

Once she got to the interview - late when she was told beforehand that punctuality was a key component for the position - she handed over her resume. With a typo. She listed herself as a "professional administrative assistant" and left the second O out of professional. So she was a "professinal administrative assistant."

I'd like to say I'm surprised, but honestly I'm not. I've seen too many people just like that.

I'm guessing that, like so many I've seen, she's happy on her extended unemployment.  She has to keep interviewing, but she doesn't really want a job.

Or maybe she's just really, really stupid.

2 comments:

Julienne said...

I vote for really, really stupid.

Toni said...

Yep. Me, too.