[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

HR asking about job qualifications



Hello folks---

I wouldn't expect an HR office to be able to ask for/
evaluate my qualifications in a meaningful way.  I
don't know about other people's situations, but the HR
staff where I work (in a university library) are NOT
librarians.  HR offices at universities often have to
coordinate the hiring of hospital workers, faculty,
janitors, administrators, etc as well as librarians.
Furthermore, the HR staff here doesn't "interview"
people--- the specific department with the vacancy
does.  HR pushes the paperwork.  I'd never expect HR
to understand what "processed 600 cubic feet", or
"repaired 300 documents with Japanese paper and
methyl-cellulose glue" means, and whether this was a
lot of work, or a little work.

Should employers do more research regarding job
qualifications, salaries, etc.?  Absolutely.  But I'm
not sure that this is the HR office's responsibility.


Just my 2 cents,

Bernadette  :)


--- "HEGEL, GERRY" <GHEGEL@DANCONA.COM> wrote:
> Here is my experience on this subject.
>
> Salaries.  Many times prospective employers have no
> clue what a job is
> worth.  Instead of doing their own research, they
> want to find what the
> "market" is, then decide what they want to pay.  If
> you see many listings
> that list salary as DOE, that is a tipoff that they
> don't know, and don't
> want to pay more than they have to.  This is also
> consistent with the
> requirement that all resumes must contain salary
> history to even be read.
> And, of course, they want to filter out those that
> are obviously not
> qualified at an early stage.  I do like the idea of
> including a salary
> range, that leaves wiggle room for both sides, and
> it lets me know which
> ones I'm not interested in.  It is truly a waste to
> read a glowing job
> description only to find out later that they only
> want to pay $8 per hour
> with no benefits.
>
> This, at least in my experience couples with HR not
> asking about
> qualifications.  If you told them, they wouldn't
> know.  Instead, they
> concentrate on somewhat frivolous things, or they
> wade through a lengthy
> benefits explanation and you don't even know what
> the job is yet.  If the
> idea of the HR portion of the interview is for
> screening, they should
> concentrate on screening applicants based on
> qualifications, not on what
> they currently make.  Of course, on balance, the HR
> person doesn't want to
> ask the same questions the hiring supervisor is
> going to ask.
>
> FWIW
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gerry
>
> Gerald L. Hegel
> Records Manager
> D'Ancona & Pflaum
>
> Voice  312-602-2197
> Direct Fax  312-602-3197
> E-mail  GHegel@dancona.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jackson, Bill
> [mailto:Bill.Jackson@HARLEY-DAVIDSON.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 8:37 AM
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject: Re: Jobs
>
>
> Norma is correct.
>
> I have dealt with more than one HR person who
> instead of talking to me about
> qualifications, kept asking "How much would you take
> to work here?"  Also,
> there seems to be a rising tide of HR folks who
> insist on knowing the
> candidate's current salary.  Why do they even care?
> Do they not already have
> a budget in place to pay the person?  In my opinion,
> it is an inappropriate
> question to ask, and to those just entering the
> profession, I say, be wary
> of prospective employers who are not interested in
> your background, and
> ESPECIALLY wary of ones who insist on knowing your
> current pay rate.
>
> Bill Jackson
> Senior Archivist
> Harley-Davidson Motor Company
> Milwaukee, WI
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Norma Myers [mailto:myersn@ACCESS.ETSU.EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2000 11:11 AM
> To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
> Subject: Jobs
>
>
> I want to address this question from two
> perspectives.  First, from
> the perspective of an archivist searching for a new
> position, it is
> incredibly frustrating to read job ad after job ad
> that has no salary
> information included.  I think that the reason is
> not embarrassment
> over low salaries.  Those of us who are in the
> profession are
> incredibly embarrassed and angry over the low
> salaries.
>
> From the perspective of the Human Resources people
> and
> administrators in bureaucratic institutions who make
> the final
> decisions about salaries, I think the issue is not
> embarrassment at
> all but rather trying to pay less money than is
> allotted in the
> position line.  From my experience, it seems to be a
> similar mind
> set to "shopping for bargains."
>
> I just fought this fight with our human resource
> people.  They
> wanted us to put something vague in the job ad about
> salary.  We
> argued that it would waste our time reviewing
> applications and the
> time of people applying for the position.  At one
> point in frustration,
> we suggested the phrase "salary - not nearly
> enough."
>
> Sometimes, the institution will have a website that
> includes salary
> ranges for different classifications and levels of
> employees that
> includes the minimum and maximum salaries that are
> allowable.  If
> the job ad includes the position classification, the
> salary
> information may be readily available even if it is
> not in the ad.
>
>
>
***************************************************************
> .. . . life is just a leap of faith, so spread your
> arms and
> hold your breath and always trust your cape. (Guy
> Clark, 1997)
>
***************************************************************
> Norma Myers, Curator
> Archives of Appalachia
> East Tennessee State University
> Box 70295
> Johnson City, TN 37614-0295
> Phone:  (423) 439-6991
> Fax:  (423) 439-6340
> E-mail: myersn@etsu.edu
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV
> List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to
> listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname
> lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to
> archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the
> web interface at
>
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt
> <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
> Confidential e-mail for addressee only
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV
> List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to
> listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname
> lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to
> archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the
> web interface at
>
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt
> <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV
> List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to
> listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname
> lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to
> archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the
> web interface at
>
> http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt
<rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>


=====
Bernadette A. Boucher, MLS (Rutgers, May 1999)
"It's alright to 'like books' but a librarian should like people."

balibra76@yahoo.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com/

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>