Question regarding Hiring Managers / Talent Aquisition people (Austin, Cisco: sales, high school)

[sxrckr]

Is it normal for Hiring Managers or recruiters for companies to not have a lot of prior experience and/or no significant educational qualifications? Not to sound snobbish, but it's a little concerning to me (and others have told me the same thing.)

With all of the talk here about the intense job competition in this town because of the abundance of college grads, Master-degree people working as bartenders, etc etc... I find it a little odd to see Hiring Managers with nothing (or maybe an English degree) and only a few years of experience, University Relations Managers who are drop-outs from UT, etc. And I'm not talking about little obscure companies, but places like Dell, Cisco, and Indeed for example.

Am I missing something or way off base here?

[kiacook]

Hiring Managers are different from recruiters. A Hiring Manager is generally hiring the person who will report to him or her. A HM should have the education required to manage that person. Recruiters are generally lower paid, entry level or a third party vendor on commission to "procure people". They are more like sales men and women who may just be good with people, have the thick skin to take rejection and are aggressive enough to make a living on commission. They are generally not educated in the field they're recruiting.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by kiacook

Recruiters are generally lower paid, entry level or a third party vendor on commission to "procure people".

I understand this is the case with recruiters from job placement agencies, but my question is more about internal recruiters and talent aquisition people working directly for the company in which they are hiring.

[MtnLion512]

What you are talking about is probably the exception, not the rule. There are a number of people without degrees who are very competent able to excel at jobs normally reserved for someone with a degree...or perhaps they networked and were able to receive a job by knowing someone. This is just conjecture, but perhaps the degreed applicants for those positions came off as entitled, lazy, unremarkable, or straight-up incompetent?

As far as the masses of degree holders working low-paying bartender jobs in Austin because there are "no jobs in Austin" (to quote a phrase I've heard often here)...this scenario exists in many places in the US right now, not just in Austin. Austin seems to think it's the only city that churns out lots of college graduates each year. Also, many degree holders have degrees that are tough to market in today's typical work environment-- like history, philosophy, etc.

A Bachelor's or Master's degree hardly guarantees a job these days...and many end up taking low-paying jobs, either because they have to earn a living, they're perfectly content doing the menial labor, or they thought that their degree was magical and would bring a job to them without them having to compete or put in effort. I bet there are all three types in Austin.

[sxrckr]

Originally Posted by wag more bark less

What you are talking about is probably the exception, not the rule. There are a number of people without degrees who are very competent able to excel at jobs normally reserved for someone with a degree...or perhaps they networked and were able to receive a job by knowing someone.

Sure.... but it's not the highly competent ones I have concern about.

Originally Posted by wag more bark less

This is just conjecture, but perhaps the degreed applicants for those positions came off as entitled, lazy, unremarkable, or straight-up incompetent?

My concern is with the lesser-experienced, non-degreed persons in this particular job function (hiring/talent aq) who have come off as unremarkable, flaky or incompetent. This has been more the experience.

[kiacook]

my question is more about internal recruiters and talent aquisition people working directly for the company in which they are hiring

It's the same group of people - they cycle through external agencies and working internally for clients but recruiters are recruiters wherever they are.

[FueledByBlueBell]

Originally Posted by kiacook

Hiring Managers are different from recruiters. A Hiring Manager is generally hiring the person who will report to him or her. A HM should have the education required to manage that person. Recruiters are generally lower paid, entry level or a third party vendor on commission to "procure people". They are more like sales men and women who may just be good with people, have the thick skin to take rejection and are aggressive enough to make a living on commission. They are generally not educated in the field they're recruiting.

Many recruiters have undergrad and graduate degrees depending on their focus. I know many a TA manager that would like to find more recruiters with advanced education and experience but the talent pool is pretty shallow. Dell likes to hire recruiters who have experience from comparable organizations in terms of size and complexity but again, they can be tough to find. Let me assure you that at most levels it is less about "procuring people" than finding the right experience per the hiring manager (the person in the business with the need- not related to recruiting) and company need. Large corporations do not pay on commission by the way.

Not a bad questions I guess, but what information are you driving at?

[Tycho Brahe]

Not sure how old you are, but if you are young, you will soon find out that the world is full of talent-less people in positions with various degrees of "power". It is a given. Embrace this fact and do not let it bother you. There is nothing much anyone can do about it, the practice is as old as time. Just do your best.

[gcrissman]

Originally Posted by Tycho Brahe

Not sure how old you are, but if you are young, you will soon find out that the world is full of talent-less people in positions with various degrees of "power". It is a given. Embrace this fact and do not let it bother you. There is nothing much anyone can do about it, the practice is as old as time. Just do your best.

X 2

Also realize that in a lot of places a degree just means they spent 5 years drinking and fitting in classes when they could.

I know a lot of sucessful smart people who do not have degrees who are more capable that someone with a Masters. In one case the person is a high school dropout but somehow is the lead Network Engineer for a very large Govt Agency.