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  #1  
Old August 9, 2000, 12:06 PM
Gordon
 
Posts: n/a
Default Honest, YOU are allowed to ask these questions on the forum, in fact I'd prefer it...

From an e-mail...

And I know it is hard to post the first time. Let me tell you something.

This is the safest board on the www to post in.

WE have respect for you and your opinions. We are heavily moderated.

WE don't allow abuse. NO name calling, NO personal attacks, NO in-your-face responses...

So go ahead and post here, Honestly and frankly, my e-mail is about at the limit, I'd prefer to answer these questions here, and WE don't think there are any stupid questions, and if we do, it gets quickly deleted...

But, from the ol mail bag comes this one:

It is about my Hiring Practices as I slightly mention in the FREE LESSON in REMOTE HYPNOSIS...

When I hire, I never ask for a resume or cover letter or even references...

I almost always ask for a phone call on a specific day...

Then I make myself available that day.

I answer the phone, get the name and tell them what I'm looking for, and then say, "Is that you?"

If they say YES, then I give them an assignment.

If they start asking a bunch of questions about the assignment, that tells me a lot.

I put NO time limit on it.

For example, in REMOTE HYPNOSIS I showed you the ad I used.

When they called, and I gave them the details about the job, and they asked their questions about the job, then I gave them this assignment:

Write a two minute radio ad for a NEW weight-loss product.

That was it.

Then, "get it to me as soon as you have it done"

Well, 9 out of 10 people who responded, asked a lot of questions...they wanted a "classroom" assignment...so they could try to figure out what I wanted...

I didn't waste my time with these people.

The ones who accepted the challenge did one of two things, either DID something and got it to me, or kept calling up asking for more detail,

I crossed them off the list...

I rec'd two things, either a cassette tape or a script...both completed the assignment...

Most were terrible. But a few had put a lot of creativity and had FUN doing it...

These were my finalists. They came in for a face-to-face...and from there it was whittled down to the six finalists...

The result of hiring this way is this....and for those of you new to the forum, I know of where I speak when it comes to getting jobs...

You get self-starters, people you don't have to baby sit, people who will take a risk, and these make the best employees for me.

Too many people use RESUMES and past history...

To me this is what they have DONE...and is not an indication of today...

So, I give assignments, in other words don't tell me what you can do, show me...

I'll make my decision based upon your actions, not upon your past.

So, if you are in a hiring position, consider the assignment approach, and it can be applied to almost every type of job...

One assignment I gave was to find out everything about Hot Dogs.

That was it.

Most went away. But a few deliverd state of the weenie reports, from where they are made to who eats them, to how many are sold...

And guess who got that job?

So that is why I use ASSIGNMENTS to hire. Same can be done on the Net...don't tell me what you can do, show me.

It is no different than people who say, "Give me the money and I'll show you what I can do"

It doesn't work that way in the real world.

Gordon (The Would be Missiourian) Alexander
  #2  
Old August 9, 2000, 01:47 PM
Steve MacLellan
 
Posts: n/a
Default Re: Honest, YOU are allowed to ask these questions on the forum, in fact I'd prefer it...

> So, I give assignments, in other words don't
> tell me what you can do, show me...

That goes with what I always say: "Say what you do; do what you say. Prove it!"

Yesterday I had an interesting email from a developer. I had an ad on the USENET that I was looking for help. This guy writes and says he doesn't have a resume BUT...

The LAST guy that I was going to hire DID have a resume. Man, I gotta' tell you. It was impressive. You would think there wasn't a thing this guy didn't know about computers, servers and the Internet. There were fancy terms and expressions in there, many of which, I didn't even know what they meant. I was kind of thinking to myself, that this university he attended was a lot more "cutting edge" technology than what I was led to believe about it. This guy knew Unix servers "inside-out" and several programming languages including Perl, C++ and Visual Basics, etc...

Although he wasn't asleep when he created his resume, he must have slept through most of his classes. He didn't know how to upload files other than using FrontPage, and had no idea how to install a simple Perl CGI script.

So to the guy yesterday -- I told him I don't care about resumes. Just prove to me you can do it. I will know by the end of today. I gave him a couple of assignments. Here's hoping I get a "state of the art" weenie report.

Best Regards, Steve MacLellan




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  #3  
Old August 9, 2000, 09:57 PM
Michael Ross
 
Posts: n/a
Default Training Monkeys

Can you do it? Show me.

If you can't do it (no previous experience), how fast can you learn. Show me.

Is that a resume in your hands?

I'm not interested in your resume. I don't care what courses you've done, or what grades you got in school.

All I'm interested in is... can you do it, and if not, how fast can you learn, are you willing to learn? SHOW ME.

Every time I see a Position Vacant ad that requires, for example, someone to have experience in Microsoft Excel, I laugh.

I laugh because while someone may know Excel, they don't know how YOU use Excel. They still have to be trained in that.

One company I did some work for needed a new person in their lab. They wanted the new person to have a Diploma in Applied Science as a minimum requirement.

The crazy thing was, this company had a lot of proprietary procedures and tests.

What happened, of course, is that the new person had no idea how to do anything and had to be trained in the company's methods... the piece of paper meant nothing and was useless... as are most pieces of paper.

In Australia, we have three general methods of gaining after-school education...


1. University.

2. T.A.F.E. Which used to stand for Technical And Further Education and was the place where all apprentices would go to do their theory.

3. Private Education. Private companies and people who offer tuition/training/education - private one on one or group.


It's interesting to note, that the T.A.F.E. colleges now have something they call A.C.E. (Adult Community Education). And these A.C.E. course are put on by normal everyday people... who aren't certified teaches. AND, the people who do an A.C.E. course do NOT get assessed... not tests. They do it because they want to know more. They do it because the A.C.E. course is something they're interested in, nothing more - crafts, hobbies, you name it.

And the reason these T.A.F.E. colleges started offering A.C.E. courses was because they could see there were/are a lot of people doing it privately and they wanted a slice of the action.

Obviously the market for education out of the school/university environment is a large one. Some companies get $10,000 a course, other get $1,900 and others go for the smaller potatoe markets and get $30, $40, $50 for a a few hours.

Some people charge hourly rates and teach one on one. Others don't.

The interesting thing is, ANYONE can get in on it.

I remember years and years ago when microwave ovens came out... some people who bought them, took the time to learn them and then offered their services as people who could teach you how to cook using your microswave oven, instead of using it just for hot chocolates.

These people didn't have pieces of paper. And neither did the people they employed as assistants to handle the overload they were experiencing.

Pieces of paper may have their place... such as the certificate produced by a chef that proves he's done his four years chef's apprenticeship. In that case I know he has done the practical and at least "should" know about waste/standards/etc. and has been supervised during the learning of his skills.

BUT I still wouldn't know whether he knows how to cook MY recipes or prepare the food in MY way. In "that" he may need training.

Show Me...

Michael Ross.
 


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