And Bring a Pen

One of my favorite HR bloggers is Suzanne Lucas, aka "Evil HR Lady". Her columns are usually right on, and often quite hilarious too. This article outlines some of the "secrets" of the hiring process. Don't miss the comments section at the end. There's some great stuff there, especially the one about phone message taking.

As usual, her advice is dead on. Two additional thoughts:

1.  The receptionist is often asked for her opinion. In my office, it's almost always someone from the HR team who IS the person at the front window. In fact sometimes the person who greets you is my boss, the head of HR. It's even possible that one of our VPs may open the door to let you in our prox-card-guarded building.

    

Morale of the story: In case you forgot, always treat everyone you meet with respect.

2. Bring a pen! Seriously, I am continually amazed at the number of candidates who come knowing they will be completing an application and/or a test and do not have a pen. Really? Be prepared! Bring your resume for the data you'll need for the application (last week a candidate asked my coworker to get his resume from our files so he could complete the application! She was incredulous but did so), reference information, A PEN, and anything else you can logically foresee needing. I was really impressed with a maintenance candidate last week who in addition to having a pen told me he had a change of clothes in his car in case he had to do a hands on test. THAT's my kind of candidate.