Enabling HR people to work for you
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF HR PEOPLE
Your job search will likely include working with HR screeners, so you should know a few things about their care and feeding. If you keep their agenda in mind, play it straight, and make it easy for them to do their jobs, you will be able to advance your application to the hiring authority. The questions in this chapter are designed to give the HR screener maximum confidence that he or she will not regret endorsing your application.
The central truism about HR people is that, as a profession, they are highly risk-averse. A nightmare for HR people is that the candidate they endorsed will melt down in the next interview or, worse, be hired and then turn out to be a lemon. When that happens, guess who gets clobbered? Right. The poor HR screener who missed the candidate’s signs of pathology that, in retrospect, were as glaring as a Times Square billboard. The result? If an HR screener has the slightest hesitation about you or your interview, she (HR screeners are overwhelmingly women) will simply go on to the next candidate. Given the economy and the large number of qualified candidates competing for each position these days, HR people won’t hesitate to move on if you give them any reason to question your desirability as a candidate.
So your first strategy is to not give them any doubt about your application. To do that you must be immediately interested, positive, and likable. Confidence is important, but avoid cockiness. Remember, your starting salary will always be higher-sometimes dramatically higher-than the salary of the interviewer. Don’t give the interviewer another excuse to dislike you.