When Qualifications Work Against You | High unemployment no help to some hiring managers
If the current recession is making life difficult for most businesses and most workers, you might guess that one silver lining would be found among hiring managers looking for good candidates.
Surely layoffs and hiring freezes in the business world at large would make things easier for those lucky few who are adding new staff.
But that’s not the story told by some who are actually hiring these days. According to several HR people at area companies, most of whom chose not to be identified for this column, application volume may be way up, but that doesn’t necessarily make hiring much easier.
Field Jumps
Janet Paskauskas, an HR representative at Worcester clinical laboratory SECON of New England, said she sees two common problems in the applications she’s been receiving: under-qualified candidates and over-qualified candidates.
For a lab supervisor job requiring a B.S., she said, “I’m seeing more people sending in resumes that don’t relate or don’t have the qualifications.”
Paskauskas said another job where she has openings is one few people would want to make a career of: “direct observation urine specimen monitor.”
“Who wakes up and says ‘I want to watch people pee in a cup?’” she said.
But Paskauskas said she has been getting a whole lot more applications for the $10-an-hour jobs, including one from a person with a bachelor’s degree and no work history in the field.
“She’d be way over-qualified, and if the economy turned around she wouldn’t stay,” she said.
Interest is up in other unglamorous fields, too. A representative of one Worcester company that’s hiring a warehouse worker said she’s getting “bombarded” with e-mails and faxes after placing just one ad.
“Even if it’s not in their field, people are applying for the job, which is kind of heartbreaking,” she said. “We’ve got a CNA that is looking, or somebody that’s been in the restaurant business for their entire career.”
At another area company that’s looking for a $10-an-hour driver, applications are 50 percent higher than normal, according to the person in charge of filling the slot.
“It’s sad that you get a lot of people that unfortunately have lost jobs,” he said. He acknowledged that others’ hardship makes his job a bit easier, but he said entry level jobs like this one tend to be easy to fill.
Even if candidate pools aren’t ultimately much better in the recessionary climate, there may be some advantages for those looking to hire. Paskauskas said the candidates she’s getting for her lab supervisor position are more likely than in the past to come in prepared and follow up with thank you notes.
And even for the lower-paying positions, she said, candidates seem to have gotten ready to apply by studying up on proper form. “The resumes have been great,” she said.
Got news for our Industrial Strength column? E-mail WBJ Staff Writer Livia Gershon at lgershon@wbjournal.com.
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