[blackdog]

Another trend to the direction of ugly, is the outsourcing of recruiting and hiring to outside agencies. Most companies now do this. They contract with an agency, staffed by persons who have scant knowledge of organizational needs, skill-sets needed, or what considerations need to be explored beyond a "list". They use filtering software of resumes to keyword identify potential candidates from pools of resumes. They don't even read them. All they do is keyword filter them.

The days of showing your face and selling yourself are gone. The days of networking with peers and associates to get the first interview are gone. I worked at a company that issued an email telling current employees that any referals had to be direct between the potential candidate and the agency 600 miles away. Failure to do so would result in disciplinary action.

[khnyny]

My company does not use outside recruiting agencies. In fact, managers are expressly forbidden from using outside sources. I’m torn in my reaction to this policy as I think both can be of value depending upon the situation. I do respect the company’s intent and the fact that they network within the organization for new hires and try to promote from within.

I routinely review resumes in my position and my Manager asks me if they are worthwhile to schedule an interview. Unfortunately, most of the resumes I see are complete crap. It’s not necessarily the job experience, but the quality of the writing itself - bad grammar, spelling errors, etc. I’ve even scheduled interviews with candidates who obviously needed a job and they just didn’t show up or called with ridiculous excuses.

So yes, I have to agree that laziness is a real problem in certain segments of our work force in our society. Laziness and surprisingly little mastery of basic English and math.