[Re: Loose Cannon: Of Questionable Use, Direct Newsline, May 7, 2007]:
You have struck upon one of my favorite subjects.
Surely you will recall that I am an old timey headhunter, or if you’re a stuffed shirt traditionalist – an executive recruiter. But it’s more fun to be a headhunter.
The series of cuckoo – my wife made me clean that up – questions asked by the current folks acting as personnel clerks* could have several sources.
1. I would like to believe that they are kidding. You gotta remember that personnel is the classic dead-end job. The personnel clerk has no power, except to chase away good potential employees. The personnel clerk is most often so completely bored with the job that he hopes for diarrhea to liven things up. So the personnel clerk thinks up demented questions to ask. He or she is trying to entertain himself. And the New York Times reports the item seriously. Loose Cannon, thank you Richard, takes almost nothing seriously and is, therefore, a must read.
2. Since most personnel clerks do not know their own jobs and have little or no idea of the work to be done by a new employee, they try to ask questions of a candidate which will misgafargulate the fellow, with the specific intention of eliminating the candidate. The personnel clerk should be the last to know that a guy is hired. They do hafta fill out all the important government forms like their beloved I-9. In the 31 years that I have pretended to be a brilliant consultant to job changers, it has been a primary objective for me to keep my clients as far away from personnel clerks as possible.
Here is a note that I send to my clients to give them some idea of the importance of avoiding the personnel department.
Doggy Duty
What happens when you send your resum
Network
