Recruitment, shady practices and unsavoury hiring advice has a habit of getting on my goat as is clear in my rant in a previous article about recruitment.
Hiring employees for a given position with a salary that's fair. Of course the employer will be offering market value for the person with the right skills and experience? Or will they? Will they play fair or will they disguise their slimy tactics underneath a thin veil of lies?
Is it OK to ask for an applicants personal financial history as part of the selection criteria for the job? Is it OK to reject applicants for not revealing that history? Is this even legal? I'm not sure what the answer to the last question is in whatever country you're reading this article, but from an ethical point of view, asking applicants for personal financial details leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth.
If someone can’t or won’t follow instructions, they don’t belong at my company.
The quote above was pulled from an article on resumellow.com who claim to be the “Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches”. The title of the article is “7 Job Application Rules from a Guy that Hired 300+ People in the Last Year”.
Cool, some free career advice. Great! I love it when a kind hearted recruiter gives out free advice to those who need some help with writing job applications and resumes and are in need of general career advice. Let’s take a look:
“I place a simple instruction in the job listing and then see if applicants follow it. The instruction is usually very simple . . . here are some examples: Please include salary history…“ – Jeremiah (no surname).
If this is not a slimy, unethical and completely unfair position to be putting potential applicants in, then I’d like to hear reasoned argument as to why it is not. Jeremiah claims to have hired 300+ people in the last year so he obviously has a lot of power. Is this flexing of his salary negotiating muscle from his position of power over the much less powerful applicant even before they’re able to apply fair and just?
Let’s read some more words of wisdom from the guy that cheated 300+ people last year:
“If the applicant follows the instruction, I’ll consider their resume. If they don’t, I delete them. Harsh, I know, but think about it . . . do I want to hire someone that doesn’t read and follow instructions? No. Do I want to hire people that do the job right? Yes.”
Actually Jeremiah, I have thought about it and your consideration has nothing to do with following instructions and doing the job right and has everything to do with you scamming desperate people looking for work. The unwillingness of people to disclose their personal financial history to you, a stranger, in a cover letter has absolutely zero bearing on whether or not they can “do the job right”.
Let’s finish off with the rest of Jeremiah’s advice about “following instructions” just to make sure we haven’t missed anything, shall we?
“If someone can’t or won’t follow instructions, they don’t belong at my company. Even with executives . . . I still want to see if they can follow simple instructions. When an applicant follows instructions they’ve earned their way from a “glance” to a “skim.” “
I see, still insisting it’s all about “following instructions”. At least Jeremiah has moved from “glance” to a “skim”. After laying out your financial history? Such a nice gesture.
Just don’t apply then.
Sure, I hear what some of you are saying, and it goes something like this… “If you don’t like the instructions then don’t apply”. The thing is though, those who do apply are probably desperate for any position that comes along and unethical practices like these will ensure they earn less than they are worth. Recruiters who use this tactic for screening applicants are doing it for no other reason than to low-ball the applicant. Don’t be fooled.
So, is this a hiring practice that you agree with? Is it ethical? Does it provide a fair playing field? Have you been subject to this type of hiring practice?