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After graduating in May of this year, the number of phone and in person interviews that I've gone to and received are uncountable; but to actually get the job seems imaginary. Why do employers bother to interview when they pretty much know who they gonna hire anyway. does HR have a certain amount of quota to reach on a monthly basis? From over the phone, to in person once and/or two times interviews,thereafter ,I feel like this job search process has been along drawn out chase. If truly meet the job requirements, you are not chosen. when you surpass the job requirements, your are over qualified. You ask for constructive criticism and the answer is "you interviewed great but we chose someone with a bit more experience"<<<<for an entry level job requirement???? Its quite funny because though I am searching for careers in Health IT, I've applied everywhere from insurance companies, to nursing homes, hospitals, corporate offices, software companies, schools, universities, big name brand stores, cable companies, anything that comes across my mind.
If someone cold just help me wrap my head around the realistic tactics and secrets HR uses to actually hire someone, I would truly appreciate it as Sallie Mae (now Navient) student loans could care less of my plight written above.
You are operating under a false premise that companies know who they are going to hire. While I am sure there are a few places like that, it is not the norm in my experience. I haven't gotten my jobs because I know somone, and we don't know who we are gong to hire when we interview. We get 60 applications, interview ten people, and hire one. And, at the places I have worked, HR doesn't hire anyone -- that is done by the hiring manager.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I don't know where this false assumption comes from, HR does not do the hiring, the manager does, and we do not know who we are going to hire until after the interviews. If I am going to promote someone I keep the job opening internal, no one from outside can apply. When it's opened up to the general public, we may get 30-100 applicants, and of those most will meet the requirements. We will only interview the 10-15 that look the most qualified based on the resume/application.
It's quite possible that 10 are very well qualified and could do fine on the job, but if we have only one opening, nine will be disappointed. The reason you have not been selected is not due to any "tactics and secrets", just that someone else did better than you. Most likely, as a recent graduate, there are people with experience competing with you. Whether or not experience is required, it will always be an advantage to have it.
It's frustrating, but I always try to look on the bright side. If I'm getting called in for interviews, that's a good sign.
Also, if you haven't done so, try obtaining a temporary part-time job in the meantime while you still look for full time employment. That was my last resort, but I've been surprised how much easier it is for me to interview (confidence wise) while I have a job, as opposed to the months when I was unemployed.
In addition to the posts above, you are also presuming you're the only one truly qualified candidate. You need to focus on proving your are the best one out of all truly qualified candidates. This has very little to do with HR.
Because sometimes the jobs ARE already taken but they have to conduct a search because HR requires it, or because the government requires it, or whatever.
I know, because I was once on an interview committee where it was understood that the job had been earmarked for somebody's relative. (Never said outright, but well understood.) Yet we had to go through the motions anyway of posting the job and interviewing people. The idea was that if somebody totally brilliant came in and blew everyone away, maybe just maybe Junior wouldn't get the job. But of course, that was never going to happen. (And no, though he went through the interview process like everyone else, Junior was NOT qualified for this job. He would have been the weakest applicant of the people we did interview.) And yes, I sat there feeling pretty disgusted about the whole thing, and my heart breaking for one of the interviewees who later reached out to me with a thank-you note and apologizing profusely for being one minute late (she wasn't, by the way).
One of the biggest employers in my city. Yes, that's what they can get away with doing. This example was particularly egregious, because the guy hired was not qualified. But this sort of thing happens every day everywhere, where internal candidates are preferred and sometimes the interview process is just a formality (for them... but it's a real interview for everyone else).
I'm no longer working there, by the way. (Hey, anyone know of a place that's hiring?) ;-)
HR communicates with candidates. Department managers, often referred to as Hiring Managers (HM) make the decisions. There may or may not be input from HR, that will vary from one company to another.
Speaking for myself, I don't know who I will hire for any given position. Sometimes I go with an internal candidate, other times an external applicant. I always hire the best available applicant.
Addressing your concerns about people with experience being hired for entry level positions, that is simply the reality. If you were hiring somebody for a position that required no experience, but one of your applicants had a little experience, wouldn't you hire that person? That is not an esoteric concept, it just means that somebody better qualified than you was hired.
When I hire or participate on hiring panels, I have no preconceived notions. That however does not mean that others and HR feel the same. First off, everything goes through HR so we only get those HR has screened. And I have in the past found HR doing the "screening" in such a way as to influence the results. And while HR does not tell us what questions we can ask, they do tell us which ones we can't. Which means we seldom do interviews anymore, because we can't ask a question that might actually separate employees out.
And I have been on hiring panels where the goal of final decision maker was to meet some quota, so only the best of the fill-in-the-blank applicants had a chance.
Addressing your concerns about people with experience being hired for entry level positions, that is simply the reality. If you were hiring somebody for a position that required no experience, but one of your applicants had a little experience, wouldn't you hire that person? That is not an esoteric concept, it just means that somebody better qualified than you was hired.
Well, let's put it this way: if you were hiring for a position that "required" some amount of experience, and you had a large pool of applicants none of which met that requirement, would you take the most qualified of the bunch?
To put it another way: why don't hiring managers know what they really want? I've seen articles on blog sites with hiring managers who seemingly complain about how they get so many under-qualified applicants. Then I see articles where they seem to have issues retaining people (even using the perceived threat of "job-hopping" as a justification to no longer train new hires).
Well, guess what - if you hire overqualified people for a position, they'll jump ship as soon as they can. (An extreme case would be a technically skilled person working at a retail position - first chance they get, they're moving on.) And if you feel besieged by underqualified people - well - I would genuinely hope there aren't any companies out there over-selling their value to the market, or - and I can't believe I'm typing this - trying to get away with paying less than market rates in an attempt to shave costs where it clearly matters least - personnel.
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