Please, hire my precious Raymond. You'll love him because Everybody Loves Raymond.
Posted on 03/19/2006 9:23:08 PM PST by Graybeard58
In interviews with a job candidate last year, Deborah D'Attilio, a recruiting manager in San Francisco for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, was surprised when the young woman brought a companion: her dad.
Saying ''he was interested in learning about the work environment,'' the father sat in the lobby during the interview, D'Attilio says. She didn't hold it against the candidate and wound up hiring the young woman.
Hovering parents are going to work. From Vanguard Group and St. Paul Travelers to General Electric and Boeing, managers are getting phone calls from parents asking them to hire their 20-something kids. Candidates are stalling on job offers to consult with their parents.
''It's unbelievable to me that a parent of a 22-year-old is calling on their behalf,'' says Allison Keeton, director of college relations for St. Paul Travelers. Like most employers, Keeton handles such encounters diplomatically. Some employers, however, are also adapting by altering some parts of the hiring process, sending parents copies of offer letters or including them in recruiting sessions.
General Electric made an offer to one recruit last fall, only to get a call the next day from the recruit's mother trying to negotiate an increase in pay, says Steve Canale, manager of recruiting and staffing services. GE didn't rescind the offer, but ''we didn't give in to Mom'' either, Mr. Canale says. Rich Hartnett, director of global staffing for Boeing, says one hiring manager was surprised when a recruit brought his mom right into the interview. Enterprise's D'Attilio says the mother of another recruit joined a phone call between her and a candidate and began grilling D'Attilio about benefits.
Some employers play along
Figuring they can't beat the trend, some employers are joining it. Ferguson Enterprises, a Newport News, Va., building-supplies distributor, last year started offering to send a copy of recruits' offer letters to their parents, says Denise Francum, director of recruiting; ''more than half of them say yes.''
Some young adults will resent parental hovering. An online poll of 400 students and young adults last year, by Experience Inc., a Boston career-services firm, found 25 percent said parents were ''overly involved to the point that their involvement was either annoying or embarrassing.''
Hmm. Showing up at interviews may be a new phenomenon, but parents making that one phone call that gets the kid hired is hardly a new phenomenon.
"but parents making that one phone call that gets the kid hired is hardly a new phenomenon."
That is a bit ridiculous, the applicant should be the one initiating a follow up call not the guardian or parent.
Of course. I'm just saying it's not a new phenomenon. It's more like 50,000 years old. "Hello, Og? Yeah, Grunk here. Hey, those were some wild times in the old frat, huh? Look, can you put in a good word for my kid, Gork, on that metallurgy internship? He's a bright kid, and the future is in bronze, you know."
I can't imagine hiring any young person who brought his/her parent to an interview. That would be the end of that application.
When I turned 16, my father told me that allowance time was over and that I needed to get a part time job. That was all he told me. A week later, I was delivering milk from 5-8 AM six days a week.
I needed my father to kick my butt, but that's all I needed him for when it came to getting a job.
bump for reference....
I have been explaining to my children ( girl and boy -ages 13 and almost 11) from the time they were in Kindergarten, that at age 18 they will be in college and not at home. Then they will get their own place after they graduate (I don't care if they have 50 room mates). Then they start careers, get married and have kids (in that order only. ) There is no coming home to roost again. Only to visit. The real measure of our success, is our children being self-sufficient.
ping
Please, hire my precious Raymond. You'll love him because Everybody Loves Raymond.
Reverse networking?
Remember the episode where Marie interfered with Robert's FBI interview? Of course it did come out in the end that she didn't want him to get the job.
Every position I have any part in hiring for requires the individual to be able to act independantly when I'm not watching. I couldn't hire someone who can't do an interview/hiring process on their own. Seeking advice from others is one thing, bringing them is another.
patent
>>>I'm gonna barf. The first time I got fired, my mother WAS the axeman! And I deserved it!
The only time I was fired it was by my mom. I deserved it too. She rehired me when I calmed down and got my head straight.
patent
The umbilical cord is certainly staying attached for a long time these days, isn't it?
I agree that anybody who brings daddy to the job interview is automatically disqualified.
From ruining his lucky coat to faxing a letter to the hiring manager to visiting the guy in person. That is exactly what I thought of when I read this article. If I were interviewing somebody and their parents showed up for the interview I would immediately file the application in the circular file by my desk. I would only want to hire grownups to work for me, not kids who bring mommy and daddy to their interviews.
When I first read this story in The Wall Street Journal last week, my mouth nearly hit the floor. If a candidate brought his or her parent to an interview with me, the meeting would be terminated even before it started.
The really fascinating thing was the number of employers who accommodate these parents and even have interactions with them regarding future employment of their sons and daughters. Sending multiple copies of offer letters? Someone has got to be pulling my leg! Couldn't the candidate just read the letter over the telephone to their parents if they wanted their insights?
The sissification of American youth can partially be attributed to the pesky cellular telephone. Every kid in the world has one of these devices and makes contact easy...too easy...between child and parent. My college dorm had a single hallway telephone, which certainly led to independence. I would speak with my folks every two weeks or so, but that's about it. I graduated and love my parents more than ever. This current employment story seems to go against the "fashionable" Hollywood thing about disliking or complaining about ones' parents.
~ Blue Jays ~
Thanks for posting -- interesting article. I have not heard any reports like this from the businesses I have as clients. My son reports having been contacted by one of his teen-age worker's parents concerning a work schedule that the teen had specifically requested.
On a personal note, I do remember sending lots of leads to my son from Monster, etc., when he was finishing college. The school's placement office was a great asset to him getting that first job. Still there after nearly 2 years and has had one promotion...
It all depends on whether the parents / siblings are giving advice or making the decision. The former is a good idea; the latter is a bad idea.
That sounds a lot more reasonable to me than these so-called "adult" applicants bringing mommy or daddy along for an interview. Parents do (and should) have some say in the actions of their teenagers. IMHO, the lack of communication on the schedule, though, needs to be sorted out by the teen and his parents, not by his employer.
I'm sure there are plenty of 20-somethings who say they have applied for jobs, gone to interviews, etc. when really they were out with their friends and there are no job offers on the horizon.
This is what parents have had to resort to, to ensure there is "end time" to when these free-loading kids will be leaving that they don't have to look for with binoculars!
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