You know I’ve startled more than a few potential employers by saying, “can I describe to you how I would do this job?” which is preceded by the question, “what’s your measure for success for the person you hire for this job six months and a year from now?”

If I can’t get an answer to the first question that makes sense, the interview is doomed.

Beats decorating the manager’s office with TP.

I agree, Nick. I think the job boards are doomed. Well, not the job board itself because there might be too much inertia behind them. I guess that is what Monster et al are dependent upon. Years back, I was about to kill one of our company’s best products which was being replaced by a newer model. The issue was how do we maintain service, support, supplies. One of our board members told me, that no matter what you do, someone will continue buying the outdated and inefficient product. I am told, by friends who are still at THAT company, that customers are STILL asking for this old product. So job boards most likely will not die. Their outdated business model…pay to post WILL. Slowly and now more quickly than ever, companies are finding our pay per click model at our job search engine LINKUP.com vastly more efficient. It is free to the job seeker and we present ONLY jobs from company websites. The job seeker is sent DIRECTLY there, there is No FREE ever for the job seeker. http://www.linkup.com.

Volume is vanity, profit is sanity. Thers’e an old joke about a bible salesman: he says ‘I lose 25 cents on every one I sell, but I make it up on volume.’

If you’re looking for employees who are considerate of others and hygienic, I’d suggest that the buried pearl in the ad be ‘don’t forget to wipe’.

This bit from the article really jumped out at me:

“Most important, business owners want employees who will do as they’re told.”

Um, yeah, right, ok. Good luck with that. Those types of employees are the ones who will drive the company right off a cliff because a blind owner told them to do so.

I would have thought that owners would want employees who would make money for them. I know, it’s a crazy idea………

@Chris:
Or they are so used to be micromanaged that they won’t even think of taking independent action when it is necessary, such as when something urgent and important comes up, and Mr/Ms Micromanager is absent.

I saw that happen once at a place where I worked, many years ago. I seem to recall that there were a few unhappy customers as a result, which is not usually regarded as a good outcome.

The problem isn’t merely the attitude. The problem is that these employers buy into the “job board mechanism.” They lock themselves into that broken-down car that doesn’t go — then they pride themselves on “optimizing” the experience of sitting in one spot “reviewing who comes along.”

Wnat to really recruit? Get off your duff, out from behind the pc screen, and go FIND the people you want in person. That’s what your best competitors are doing. That’s where the best hires are.

I just can’t get over it. The first “cut” of applicants is those who make sure to include a nonsense sentence in their application.

Clever.

“Most important, business owners want employees who will do as they’re told.”

Evil translation: “I want employees who never object, never complain, never suggest how to do anything better.”

Well, I don’t want a stupid, narcissistic manager.