Find the best candidate with an effective job description
For any business to fill a position quickly with the most qualified candidate possible, it is very important to have an effective and efficient job description. This is the key to saving the most time and money. So many business owners and managers are becoming increasingly exhausted with the chore of fumbling through application after application just to see that the individual does not meet the basic criteria that the position calls for. This is very frustrating and everyone is quick to put the blame on the applicant, but it could just be that the ad is missing necessary elements or is not clearly written.
Write explicitly what you are looking for
Do not try to jazz up the description as if you are trying to win the Pulitzer, please. It is understandable that, as a manager or business owner, writing a job description is tedious and takes time away from running the business. It will pay off in the long run, however, because reading countless unqualified resumes will waste far more time. Write as if the person only knows basic English. Ensure that nothing in the description can be interpreted differently between people -- everyone should be able to look at it and come back with the same information.
Where are you posting these job descriptions?
No matter how good an opportunity a company can offer, no one can take advantage if they cannot find and read the ad. If you can avoid it, do not put a job ad in the newspaper. Newspapers, in physical form, are becoming less and less common with people in general. Online newspapers, however, can be an effective place to put your ad since most everyone uses the Internet on a daily basis. College job fairs can be an excellent place to meet potential employees. These types of fairs give recruiters the opportunity to really talk to and get to know someone far beyond just looking at their resume. Sometimes the personality can outweigh a blemish or two on someone's record. A lot of industries, especially programming and computer engineering, hold contests and the winner gets a contract to work for the company. This is an excellent way to gauge an individual's level of experience and expertise. Other online sources to post these job descriptions are websites such as Craigslist, Handshake, etc.
It seems ironic that as the number of people on Earth grows larger, employers are still having a hard time finding qualified applicants. I feel this has to do with the fact that sometimes a really qualified candidate does not have a great academic record. Although a job description may call for certain qualifications, such as a certain college GPA, sometimes the best candidates are not the best students. This has to do with the whole debate over score inflation and the effectiveness of our educational system. Experience carries a lot more weight than merely a perfect academic record. So carefully consider these applicants with a lot of experience; they are diamonds in the rough.
