Job Seekers Face New Hurdles -- and That's Before the Interview

Dec. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- Hannah Reed, 22, applied for a part-time administrative position with The New Teacher Project in Oakland, Calif., over the summer. Within a day, she heard back. They thought she was qualified, so they were putting her to work.

"They gave me a project and 48 hours to complete it," she said. "If I completed it successfully, they'd bring me in for an interview."

Reed answered mock e-mails from potential clients, which required research into the organization. Then she had to create a plan for an educational event. She outlined a five-week strategy for pulling it off; it took her half a day.

"I talked it over with my roommate," said Reed, now living in San Diego after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley. "How much time do I spend on this, rather than writing new cover letters for other jobs?"

Before long, she had her answer: The effort she'd devoted to the assignments had definitely been too much. The following Monday, The New Teacher Project informed her that it had eliminated the position because of budget cuts.

Reed's experience highlights a new fact of life for those on the losing end of a labor market where every "help wanted" ad can draw a flood of interest, and fewer people wait on the other end to read all the resumes. More and more, recruiters and hiring managers are asking prospective employees to complete lengthy assignments before they will even be considered for an interview. While blue-chip companies such as Google and Perot Systems have long asked applicants for executive positions to write essays and take personality tests, now the assignments are coming from smaller employers and are required for even entry-level positions. They're also coming earlier in the process, adding new hoops to jump through where a cover letter and resume once sufficed.

One industry watcher adds that one particular tactic, known in the human resources business as "soft questionnaires" -- as opposed to the more rigid tests companies give for high-level positions -- have become standard for the most junior jobs.

"A year ago, it didn't happen," said Jo Prabhu, CEO of a job placement firm in Long Beach, Calif. But personality tests, background checks, writing projects -- even credit checks -- "are all common now," she said. Prabhu points to the example of a 17-point questionnaire she encountered, which asked applicants about their passions and weaknesses as well as to "describe for me your role model. How are you like him and how are you different?"

The addition of these new steps is designed to weed out all but the top applicants before interviews are scheduled. While job seekers say they can be a good opportunity to showcase skills beyond what a cover letter can communicate, they also grumble that it takes valuable time away from the hunt. Not that they have much choice.

"If an applicant wants a salary position," Prabhu said, "they have to have the patience to do this. Because there's no one on the other side to go through all the applications."

Nicole Weissman, 22, said she has not applied for several jobs she is interested in and qualified for because of lengthy requirements. "Whenever I see, 'Write us an essay,' my assumption is it won't be worth my time," she said. "When I see that, it's a sign that hundreds of people are applying for the same job."

Weissman graduated in May from Washington University in St. Louis with a dual major in environmental studies and political science. She estimates she has applied for about 250 jobs in the past year. But she stopped applying for federal government jobs altogether because of its arduous application process, which requires in-depth statements on an applicant's "KSA": knowledge, skills and abilities.

"The word on the street is that all you need to do is include the buzzwords that they're looking for," she said. "It's sort of a game." A maddening one, from where she sits: Weissman said she has never gotten a call for a government job, even administrative positions. "For me, it often feels like fighting a losing battle."

When that impression is sent, intentionally or not, the goal of employers is met. Screening exercises not only winnow out hopefuls with poor writing and critical thinking skills; they also cut down the pile of resumes, as those who might not wholeheartedly want the job take themselves out of consideration after deciding the initial application is too demanding.

Claire Kittle, a headhunter based in Washington, D.C., said she noticed applicant homework becoming more popular as the recession hit the job market and candidates started sending out their resumes to a wider range of employers. Such steps let companies "separate the weak from the strong, and gauge how seriously people are considering the job," said Kittle, executive director of Talent Market, a recruiting company focused on nonprofits.

But while she defends the new practice, she also feels there are limits to what employers can glean from it, since some questions don't lend themselves to the essay or questionnaire format. "I don't know how you ask somebody, 'How do you manage people?'" she said.

Suzanne Kurtz, who is looking for a communications job in Washington, D.C., recently was given the password for a prospective employer's Web site and asked to critique its content and design. They wanted a proposal on how it could be improved, in writing. And, she was told, other candidates were getting the same assignment.

"Part of me was thinking it was great for them to get a sense of how I think," Kurtz said. "But I also thought they were getting an awful lot of free advice." Kurtz said other companies have asked her to draft a marketing plan or, in one case, a personal statement on whether her beliefs were in line with the advocacy organization to which she was applying. (Like most applicants interviewed for this piece, Kurtz declined to mention the names of the organizations she applied to, for fear of burning bridges.)

While it takes time away from freelance work and other job applications, Kurtz isn't complaining. "I think it's a good thing," she said of the writing. "It allows you as a job seeker to have more control over the interview process. It's not just arbitrary questions."

It all would have been time well spent, she added, if she had gotten the job.

From http://www.onThesource.com

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