Hiring Wisdom: Insights Into Hiring First-Time Employees

Jul 30, 2012

Earlier this year, the Houston Chronicle ran an interview with a teen-ager on the subject of her first “real job.” Here are the highlights (a link to the full article can be found here):

Sometimes all it takes to get a job is to be on time (or early), look good, and have a nice smile. (These are all important, but are not the basis of a sound hiring decision.)
People who have not done a lot of interviewing will be nervous; don’t hold it against them. It is your job to help them relax.
Even though it is what she called her first “real job,” she has been babysitting for a long time and knew the value of hard work
Before the manager found out what the applicant was looking for in a job, she told the applicant what she was looking for. (This is a common mistake that causes hiring managers to hire the best applicant rather than the best employee.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.

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