Look Around HR

I have recently talked to a couple people who applied for a position, interviewed, but ultimately did not get the job. One person said they received a polite letter saying something to the tune of we were impressed with your qualifications, blah, blah, blah, but we have selected a different person- best of luck. I consider that pretty standard.

For certain positions, a phone call letting the candidate know they didn’t get the job is appropriate. I would recommend the call for managerial and higher up positions. The letter is fine for positions lower than managerial level (or something equivalent).

However, I strongly believe you have to let any candidate who interviewed know in some way. I mentioned how one person received a letter; well the other person heard nothing- and was just left wondering what was going on. The candidate called the employer once or twice and was told they are still deciding. A few weeks later, the candidate had all but given up since they hadn’t heard anything.

In my opinion, that is one of the most disrespectful moves a hiring manager can make. You don’t need to respond to every resume you get for an opening, but if someone takes the time out of their day to interview for a position you owe it to that candidate to let them know where they stand. You may think it doesn’t matter since you don’t want that candidate anyway, but people have a way of talking and may mention the way your company treated them. Just something worth thinking about…

Despite consecutive months of job losses nationwide, despite hearing about massive layoffs at a number of large companies, and despite some economists floating out the R (recession) word, the outlook for this years graduating class appears to be good.
 
According to a survey sponsored by CareerBuilder, 58 percent of employers plan to hire recent grads. The new grads will also be receiving higher salaries than last year’s class- as 39 percent of employers plan to increase the starting salary, with only 6 percent planning on dropping it.
 
Here is the starting salary breakdown:
 

Thirty-two percent of employers will offer new grads between $30,000 and $40,000 and 15 percent of hiring managers will offer between $40,000 and $50,000. Eleven percent will offer new graduates a starting salary higher than $50,000 and 42 percent will offer less than $20,000.

And here are some tips from the job board site:

- Stress your experience- this doesn’t include internships alone, but also volunteer activities, clubs, Greek organizations, and sports.

- Watch you attitude- a lot of managers have a view this view of generation Y that we all have a sense of entitlement. Even if you went to prep school, belong to a country club, and have a degree from the Ivy League, don’t act like you are better than anyone else. Mistakes mentioned by employers include acting cocky and arrogant, dressing inappropriately, and not knowing anything about the company.

- Be yourself- it doesn’t make sense to work for a company you will not be a good fit for, so start with being yourself, and take it from there…