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Subject:RE: Is TW still hospitable to novices? From:Brent -dot- Jones -at- Level3 -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 29 Jan 2001 12:08:20 -0700
Hart, Geoff wrote on Monday, January 29, 2001 8:02 AM:
[deletia]
> The moral of this story? HR departments have a terrible reputation for
> understanding who managers really need to hire, often because
> the managers
> themselves don't understand the name of the game. That being
> the case, you
> need to work with the managers themselves, not the HR people;
> if you can't
> get access to the managers, try networking with the writers
> they supervise,
> and getting the writers to put you in touch with the manager.
> Once a manager
> knows you can do the job, they can often (but by no means
> "always") work
> with or around HR to get you hired;
[deletia]
In my experience, hiring managers are constantly at war w/ HR. Last summer I
documented an upgrade to a suite of tools and policies for the HR department
of a large Calfornia-based technology company. One of the explicitly stated
primary goals of the process was to prevent direct uncontrolled contact or
communication of any sort between candidates and hiring managers. If and
when contact was permitted, they wanted it under the control of HR and its
tools and policies, period. The specs identified "loopholes" in the current
process (ways hiring managers had found to actually find/talk to candidates
they were interested in) and provided policies to prevent it.
While I understand the need for the HR department of corporations to control
the process in order to limit legal exposure, prevent fraud, etc. it
constantly amazes me how they are usually a significant impediment to a
company's ability to get and keep quality employees.
cheers,
brent
--
Brent Jones
brent -dot- jones -at- level3 -dot- com
"In the Kingdom of Boredom, I wear the royal sweatpants."
--Mark Leyner, _My Cousin My Gastroenterologist_
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