Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with hiring

Prey seeks hunter

kenzi23 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:06:20 -0800

My head needs hunting...how do I find the hunters in my field? I want to make a move into software training in the legal field and am not finding a lot of jobs in the usual listings (monster, careerbuilders, hotjobs, nytimes). I'm just starting the search for real and calling all my contacts in the legal field, but I also want to put myself in the path of headhunters in this field. My googling looked like this "software trainer headhunter legal new york", and the results were not at all helpful.

Is there a reputable guide to headhunters, maybe with breakdown by field and rankings/ratings? Should I be looking at IT headhunters? or legal headhunters? How do I know I'm getting a good one? If you have actual headhunters or agencies to recommend, please post them.

BTW, I'm in New York City. Thanks!

Should I ask for more money after a raise?

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:19:01 -0800

After being promoted and receiving a decent raise I've been tasked with hiring my replacement. My new position is managerial so this new employee will report directly to me. While working with the recruiter I just found out that the position has a maximum salary that is larger than my current one. How do I talk to my boss about this without sounding ungrateful? First, a bit of background. I've been at the company for less than a year but made enough of an impression that they promoted me. I was making a competitive salary when I started and my raise was decent but not spectacular. I'm looking to hire someone to replace my old position. That new person along with some other people will report directly into me.

I found out today that the maximum salary available for my old position is actually more than I make now - with my new raise. Obviously, that salary is only a maximum amount alloted for the role and is by no means a guarantee. However, that makes me feel a bit odd that the person working directly under me could make more money than I do.

It seems like there are several options on the table:

1. Do nothing about it. Be grateful for my promotion and my salary.

2. Wait to see who gets hired and what their salary requirements are. It's possible that the new employee will demand less money thus nullifying my concern. If they do make more money then and only then do I talk to my boss.

3. Talk to my boss about it right now. I don't want to sound petty but I also feel the need to stand up for myself a bit. To be clear, my boss is very approachable.

So that's the situation. I am not looking to be greedy and don't want to appear ungrateful for the promotion and raise. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle this? All comments are much appreciated.

Where to find nurses and lifeguards to work at a short camp?

rmless — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:40:25 -0800

Where should I look to find lifeguards and nurses to staff the short non-profit camp in Maine that I help run? Each year we seem to run into some problems with finding lifeguards and nurses and I am wondering if there is a group of people I should tap or website that I should be posting on that I've missed.

The camp runs the last two weeks of August (19- Sept 1), which rules out a bunch of college and high school students who have to go back to school at that time.

We run on a pretty small budget so while we do offer stipends for working there, we can't cover more than $100 of transportation costs per person so we can't ship people in from Europe or something like that.

We've so far tried: posting on Idealist, Craigslist, and contacting other camps in Maine directly to see if their counselors want to stay after normal camp session to work at ours.

Any other ideas?

Why won't anyone hire me?

All.star — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:26:54 -0800

Why won't anyone hire me? I am well educated (master's degree), and have good experience for someone who is looking for an entry level position (with in the training sector or in nonprofit development). I think my resume looks awesome (I have had plenty of other people look over it), I always walk out of interviews thinking everything went really well, and I have great references. But I never get hired. I suspect I am usually over qualified (educationally) or under-qualified (with regards to work history).

What do I need to do to help myself land a job that I'm qualified for and like? Is there something that hiring managers are looking for that I am missing?

If you think it would be helpful to see my educational and work history in a nutshell, let me know in a reply and I'll post it here.

Why have I not been hired? Or at least told I wont be...

atlman — Mon, 19 May 2008 13:34:00 -0800

What is the best way to handle an internship or job situation where you have applied, interviewed 2 or more times for the position, then do not get a call back from the company? Catch, I have not been rejected, their HR staff is simply not on the ball, they have hired nobody for this position as of yet. I am a college student, looking for relevant job experience before I graduate. At a career fair a couple months ago, I ran across this company that is hiring for 2 separate positions.

The first was a competitive and more valuable experience-wise internship in my field of interest. The second was more a data entry, scanning, computer job where they were hiring multiple people and it was on the fringes of my field of interest.

I initiated the interview process with the clear intention of applying for the better internship, then dropping down to the data entry position if I did not make it. It was competitive after all.

I went through two rounds of interviews and ended up speaking with four different managers/employees after an entire afternoon spent at the company.

Fast forward over 2 weeks later (11 business days) and I have heard zero from the company since I sent a followup email thanking them for seeing me.

I heard through a friend that works there they hired someone for the competitive internship and did not let me know, but the data entry job is unfilled and I am an extremely qualified candidate. It seems the person in charge of hiring is notoriously lazy and has not gotten around to either letting me know I did not make the first internship OR hiring me or anyone else for the data entry job.

What I would like to know is what is the best way to email her and tell her to get off her ass. Ideally it would seem gently reminding but I would certainly like there to be some reproachful context.

If I had any other leads or opportunities for work this summer I would have written this whole deal off long ago, but unfortunately economic and other factors have lead to a dearth of available options.

What do you think mefi, how can I get through to her to both goad her into hiring someone, anyone, and also maybe make her feel like she should not be doing this to people in the future.

Thank you so much in advance!

Must I disclose my race?

notswedish — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:41:26 -0800

Is it legal for an employer to require that an employee indicate his or her race? I am in Chicago, Illinois. I'm being told that an employee MUST check one and only one of five boxes (white, black, Native American, Hispanic, or Asian) on his/her employment form in order for his/her work assignment to begin. This employee has already been hired, but cannot start work until he/she indicates which of those five above races he/she 'is.' In case it matters, the (future?) employee in question is a student at a university, and the employer is that same university. This is a part-time, college-type job, though not part of the federal work-study program.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

When do I start applying for jobs?

ictow — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:37:43 -0800

I'm moving to Chicago in the fall. I have no job prospects at the moment, but I'd like to before I get there. Ideally I would like to work for a non-profit theater in some capacity to build up my applicable skills for later on, but ultimately I'd be fine working for any kind of non-profit. I've found a few websites with job listings, and I know I should probably start sending out my resume to places I'd like to work that don't have current postings, but I'm not quite clear on the timing. It seems awkward to say, "Hello, I'd like this job... in 4 months." But I don't want to arrive with a lease, a rapidly diminishing bank account and nothing else. Advice? If nothing comes through, I will become a barista. Again. But I'd rather not.

Nobody comes between my and my job.

potch — Thu, 01 May 2008 06:52:29 -0800

A recruitment firm is between me and the job I want. Can I cut them out of the loop if no contract was made? Two weeks ago, I was cold-called by a recruitment firm, informing me they had seen my resume, and wanted to send me on an interview. I met with them once in person, and then went to the interview, which went wonderfully. I hadn't heard back from the recruitment firm for a few days, so I called them. They informed me that the company was still interviewing candidates for the position. Later that day, I received a voicemail from the company with whom I had interviewed telling me that they would love to hire me, but the finders fee was exorbitant.

In further correspondence with the company, I learned they too had been cold called, and told that the firm was sending candidates to interview (they only ever sent me). They had entered no legal agreement with the agency, and literally got a call one day, and I was there the next. I have since learned that this is the modus operandi of this recruiting agency- they are known for the blind call, then the hard sell.

Neither I nor the company ever entered into a written or verbal agreement with the agency regarding any exclusivity. The human resources director of the company with whom I interviewed is currently in correspondence with her attorney with regard to our position, so I'm not looking for legal advice.
My question is (I am not soliciting legal opinions here), can I simply tell the agency to shove it?

Can I ask how long a prospective employee can stand?

bdizzy — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:23:21 -0800

OK. Hiring questions. Is it legal to ask whether an employee can stand for long periods of time if the job demands it? I am hiring for a basic administrative position that requires a lot of collating papers (we're talking 1000s of booklets a week). Is it permitted to ask prospective applicants whether they can stand for long periods at a time, or if they have 'a physical condition' which would prevent them from completing this task (i.e. carpal tunnel)? I've seen ads that specify how much a person can lift, and I think this is along the same lines.

I really want to be fair in my hiring practices, not just for legal reasons but because I think it is one of the the great moral minefields. But I'm new to this. We're in Illinois.

Do I have to disclose that I received a warning at a former place of employment?

onepapertiger — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:09:04 -0800

I'm very close to getting hired by the firm I want. They just want me to fill out their employment application now. It says, "Did you receive any formal discipline (warnings, suspensions, resignation at request of employer, discharge) at your former or current place of employment? Do I have to answer "Yes"? My former employer issued a warning against me, out of spite, which I appealed and issued a formal complaint against my manager and HR. They ended up terminating my contract and buying me out with a generous severance in return for my resignation. In all the reference agencies I hired to see what they would say about me, they usually just confirm the dates I was hired and nothing more.

Is it likely that they would disclose that I received a warning? I'm pretty sure that it would be a dealbreaker for the job.

Help the average Jane with a statistics question?

cocoagirl — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:25:06 -0800

An acquaintance who's a university professor on the hiring committee for his department cried 'sexism!' when 50% of the candidates who were asked back for interviews were women, when only 18% of the initial applicants for the position were women. I rebutted. Who's right? There were 200 total applicants for this humanities department position. 18% were women. Twenty applicants were invited back for more interviews and half (10) were women. He said that since 50% of those who made it to the next level of the application were women, there must be something wrong with the criteria the department was using to narrow the field—statistically the number should reflect the number of total women applicants.

I made three points. One, the criteria for advancement in the hiring process are qualitative, and the only situation in which the percentages could be counted on to match would be if gender were a heavily weighted criteria. The goal of the hiring committee is to narrow down the best candidates for the position, not to maintain the gender ratio of applicants.

Two, the number of women advancing to the next level was 5% of the entire pool of applicants, a number far below the 18% he held out as a statistically acceptable benchmark.

Third, given a world population—or hell even a smaller field of, say, North American doctorates—of approximately 50% women, if he were going to cry sexism, it should have been when he saw that only 18% of the applicants were women.

The problem: I know nothing about statistics. Do my responses hold water and if not, can you give me some that would?

How can I fire my house keeper?

jeff_w_welch — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 11:39:06 -0800

So I've had this house keeper for a couple of years now. She's always done "good enough" work. I've had some complaints, but nothing serious. So last weekend, on a whim, I used another service and what a difference! They did a fantastic job all around. So how do I get rid of my current house keeper?

Asked for too much at job interview - help!

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:24:01 -0800

I just asked for too much at a job interview. Did I screw up? I just went through a day long set of job interviews meeting with 8 different people and having absolutely fantastic response from everybody. When the salary discussion came at the end of the day I overshot by a lot and am feeling awkward and unsure. I don't know. Some friends are saying that everybody overshoots and to not freak out about it - but my fiance went apeshit and thinks I've sabotaged things by asking for too much. Unfortunately I won't hear more back until Monday but I hate festering over the weekend and wasn't sure if there is some type of message I should sent to the main interviewee some sort of 'I realized I asked for too much.' verbiage. Thanks for your help!!

Where to advertise a media job in North America and Aus/NZ?

Sifter — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:44:45 -0800

I've recently been appointed editor of a UK-based computer/tech magazine and website, and need to hire someone to bring the team up to full strength. In the UK, the majority of media jobs are advertised in the Guardian's Media section on Mondays, and on its companion website. However, I'd like to advertise in in other English-speaking countries but don't know where to place the ad. If anyone could tell me the US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand equivalents of the Monday Media Guardian - i.e. the places anyone seriously looking for media work is looking - that would be much appreciated. Online sites would be great, too. My company has sponsored work visas before, and it's a relatively high level appointment so if the right person came along I think we could survive the work visa process.

Thanks.

It's hard out here for a temp.

Metroid Baby — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 11:22:07 -0800

I’ve been at my current job – as a temp – for over a year. I want and need a more permanent job, but I’m concerned that my temp status might look bad to prospective employers. It was supposed to be temp-to-perm, and after ninety days they would hire me. It’s been more like four hundred days. Since then, I’ve had a decent (though not stellar) annual review and several promises of “oh, we are definitely planning on hiring you, but it’ll be another month or two/we’re having a hiring freeze/we’re talking to so-and-so and we’ll let you know.” Nothing concrete. It doesn’t help that nearly half my department started here after I did, and nearly all are permanent employees (some started as temps from the same agency, in positions identical to mine). So I strongly suspect that they’re not really planning on bringing me on permanently. I’ve been periodically asking my supervisors for updates on hiring, but I’m worried that if I badger them too much they’ll let me go entirely.

Ideally I would like to stay at my current job and be a full-time employee, but I’m growing less and less confident that this is a possibility. So I’m thinking it’s time for me to search elsewhere. It shouldn’t be too hard for me to find a similar position with full benefits at another company, provided I invest a good amount of energy in my job hunt, but I’m worried that “I’m a temp” will give hiring managers pause. It came up during an interview I had last summer, and I didn’t handle it well. I know it will come up again.

Is it necessary to reveal temp status up front? Is it as much of a red flag as I fear it is? How can I talk about it during interviews and still make myself look good?

(And am I right in thinking that permanent employment at my current company is pretty much a lost cause?)

"I'm sorry to let you know we've selected another candidate."

Sweetie Darling — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 10:14:15 -0800

What's better/less worse: Telling someone now that they didn't get a job, or leaving him/her hanging until after the holidays? I want to do the humane thing here.

the billz to pay the billz

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:07:03 -0800

Too late for salary negotiations? So, I'm leaving a place I've been for 10 years for a new venture. It's in a comparable field, somewhat comparable environment.

Long story short, I made an assumption about my salary amount that fell short of its actual amount. In the negotiation process, I accepted their offer without putting up any fight b/c I thought it was a good amount over my current amount. Guess what? It isn't. The actual amount plus benefit differences = a deficit of $2,500/year and six vacation days.

Now, I've gone back and asked for benefits from my future employer to make this comparison, so I think a discussion that leads into salary would not be totally unexpected, but...

I have officially resigned from my current job, and I really do want to leave and go to this new place. In all honesty, I'm not basing my decision solely on money at this point, but if there's a way for me to get more, then I'd like to.

You might think me a greedy bastard for saying that, but trust me, we're talking a low salary by industry standards, and I'm probably at the bottom of middle class.

So, should I just suck this up as a life lesson and leave it be? Or is there wiggle-room without pissing off a future boss?

Thanks all - anyone wishing to reach me privately can do so here: salary.cluster@gmail.com.

Help me find a tutor/teacher/therapist for a high-functioning autistic child.

Mr. Justice — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:08:26 -0800

Help me find a tutor/teacher/therapist for a high-functioning autistic child. (This question posted for a friend.)

We are looking to hire someone who can provide tutoring and therapy for our high-functioning autistic son, who is nearly 5 years old and was recently diagnosed. Our son has many strengths, but his difficulty in relating to people and his failure in understanding the rules and conventions of social interaction is causing him significant anxiety. We are looking for someone with strong credentials and references who might want to move near Little Rock, Arkansas for a part or full-time job working one-on-one with a little boy from a very financially stable family. We are willing to make a good offer if we can find the right person. We and our friends find our son delightful, and there is research suggesting that early intervention of this kind is very effective.

Surely there is some kind of listserv or other electronic bulletin board that we could post this on? Craigslist just doesn’t seem to be the right way to go (perhaps I am wrong about this). We obviously are looking for someone with education, experience, and/or empathy for special needs kids.

Please note that I am not actually posting this in an attempt to hire you, the reader (although if you're interested, let me know). Rather, I am posting this in an attempt to figure out how I most efficiently publicize that I am hiring for a quite specialized job.

Flaky new employee- should I even bother?

parkerjackson — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:26:40 -0800

How can I fire a new employee before his first day even starts? I work in a research lab at a major university. We're hiring some undergrads to do some hourly work in graphic design and page layout work. I'm concerend about one of our potential employees. This particular person seemed great in his interview, so we offered him a job, but now I'm getting some bad signals. From the start, he was always really slow to reply to emails (at least a week went by after I replied to his initial contact). That's ok, prompt emailing is nice but not required for the job, as long as overall he's responsible and detail-oriented. Now, we're trying to get his paperwork filled out, but he keeps missing his scheduled time to come in (or comes in after the agreed upon range of time, during the lunch hour, when HR is closed for lunch). The first day, he actually didn't even call until well after the scheduled time and said he was really sick and had to sleep in (he did look very rough when I saw him later).
We can let this person go any time if it doesn't work out, but I don't think I want to even mess with actually hiring him in the first place. He seems like a guaranteed failure. Two questions:
1. Am I being judgmental? Should I give this person a shot?
2. How can I tell him nevermind on the job offer? Supposedly, he's coming in today, but we agreed on 9:30am and it's already after 11. Should I tell him when he arrives or shoot an email and hope he gets it before he comes in (not at all guaranteed)?

Expat skills wanted in the Netherlands?

AdamOddo — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:06:30 -0800

As a foreigner, I was wondering what skills or degrees are the key to getting hired to work in the Netherlands. I have a somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades work background, and would like some direction of what to pursue that would make me attractive to Dutch employers. I am aware of having to learn the language, which I'm moving along well with.

I've discussed it with several people who are well versed in Dutch employment and realize how much of a challenge it will be, but I'm still determined. From what I've seen browsing employment sites for expatriates it seems IT is the way to go.

Going back to school isn't out of the question for me. Any ideas?

Help me find a secretary!

unexpected — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:44:33 -0800

Help me interview a secretary. My company has tasked me with finding a secretary for our growing business. I've never done anything like this before. Usually when we interview people, it's for a highly technical position, and its easy to tell if someone has the chops or not.

For the secretary position, I put in ad on craigslist, and got like 200 resumes. I sorted it into piles, tried to keep as close to a bell curve as I could, and now I have about 35 good ones.

Now, I want to do a phone interview to narrow down the applicant pool. What can I ask besides the usual "what are some challenges you face", "how would you describe yourself", etc.?

Also, for the actual interview, is it just more of the same? When you hire a software engineer, for example, you can just ask them to code. There's really no equivalent for a secretary, right? How do you get them to demonstrate competence?

I'm basically trying to discover the secret to getting a good secretary. I've found in the past that the great secretaries separate themselves from the mediocre ones in times of crisis. A good one is worth their weigh in gold, and the bad ones are basically interchangeable. How do you get this to come out in an interview?

A few general questions on hiring a part-time employee

jpep — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 09:26:27 -0800

I'm a one-person website development company. Things have been getting busy lately so I'm thinking about hiring my first part-time employee. This is new to me, so I'm looking for some advice. The plan is to target the local university to find someone with about 10 to 15 hours available per week. I have two initial questions...

1. How complicated is the paperwork/accounting? I do my own accounting, so I'd have to figure out tax withholdings and related stuff. Do I have to somehow 'register' with a government agency regarding taxes, employment, etc?

2. Is it out of line to request that the employee have a laptop to use while doing my work? The alternative is to buy a computer for the part-timer, but that is a pretty big expense.

As an aside, I do work with contractors (1099s) for some projects, but I don't think I can call this part-timer a contractor because I am going to request that they work at my office during a set daily schedule. It won't be project-based work. Is this correct thinking?

Thanks.

Getting hired into academe?

LN — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:23:37 -0800

Looking for help breaking into academe - fellow academic Mefites, what am I doing wrong? I have a PhD in Ethnomusicology, specialization in Irish music/singing (now the MeFiMu posts make sense, don't they?). I want very much to get into the academic setting, as I *love* teaching and doing fieldwork. But getting a job in academe has been proving difficult.

I graduated 6 years ago, and wound up in the public sector because, well, student loan bills needed to be paid.

I give talks at conferences and publish papers to the extent that my schedule and vacation time permits. I'll admit, the publishing side needs some TLC, and I am currently taking steps to remedy that.

I did some teaching while doing my higher degrees, but I figure it's not enough, so I volunteer-guest-lecture for professors at my two local universities, just to keep my chops up.

I'm active in the music scene here in town, teaching at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, giving workshops, organizing sessions, running choirs, etc.

I network like a fiend when I go to conferences, hoping the next mat leave or term hire that comes up, they'll think of me.

I apply for jobs, too, but get bounced out for reasons that seem very strange to me, like having a B. A. hon Mus., as opposed to a B. Mus.

What more can I do to make myself attractive to a hiring university?

Hypothetical software developer hiring situation

saraswati — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 15:35:38 -0800

A software development specific question regarding the age old experience vs. education argument. Here's the hypothetical scenario:

An individual has 5 years of experience in software QA, and 5 years experience prior to that in systems administration. In the 5 years of software QA, this person worked intensely as a software developer in their spare time on various open source projects which produced tangible results. One of the most important things to know is that this person has no post-secondary degree.

Is it reasonable to think that this person could apply to an average North American tech-based company as a software developer and land the job? I know this is largely based on the company, so if it's not possible to imagine an "average company", put yourself into the shoes of the hiring manager. With all else equal, would you seriously consider hiring this person?

All answers are welcome and appreciated.

I want this awesome job... I think

Mozzie — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:46:09 -0800

I've heard about a job that sounds amazingly perfect. How can I go after it without being obnoxious? And how can I reconcile the two different descriptions of it? The other day I saw a job posting on LinkedIn for a position that overlaps, I think, with both my professional background and several of my personal passions to a degree I would have thought impossible. The position is in "my network" meaning that the hiring person and I know a few of the same people. But those people are pretty popular [famous in the field]... they have networks of hundreds of people. It's not like I know the hiring manager's college roommate.

The position is at a major university, and one can only apply via the university website. The detailed description I found there has a different angle on the position, talks more about research, and even indicates that an advanced degree is preferred. This is very different from the LinkedIn description, which has a more practical focus. I'm worried that the university screening process may screen me out [research is not in my professional background].

I'd like to campaign for this position. But beyond that, I'd like to figure out *if* I should even mount a campaign. The position as described on LinkedIn is one I would succeed in, the university description is somewhat scary. But every time I've seen a university job description in my field is reads scary... maybe that's just how they write?

Is the university description more likely to be correct? And does anyone know if the university hiring process is much different from the corporate one?

Is it obnoxious to e-mail the person who posted the position on LinkedIn to seek clarification about the position and express passion for the project?[their e-mail is public on the project website]

The industry heavy-hitters that we both know are name brand people, and they are familiar with me and my work. Should I ask them to put in a good word? If so, at what point in the process? Or should I figure that if the hiring individual wants their opinion he'll ask them?