Looking for a job? Don’t tell them you’ve been unemployed!

From  News.Gather.com |  June 17, 2010

That’s the latest from the jobs market, and from Yahoo Finance, as many companies are fessing up to some questionable employment practices.  With reports of ad-stated restrictions like, "unemployed candidates will not be considered" or "must be currently employed," some of the more blatant practices are being denied by guilty employers.   

"I think it is more prevalent than it used to be," said Rich Thompson, vice president of learning and performance for Adecco Group North America, the world's largest staffing firm. "I don't have hard numbers, but three out of the last four conversations I've had about openings, this requirement was brought up."

Even without blatant admissions and practices, experts say that unemployed applicants are typically ruled out right off the bat, their unemployed state automatically being attributed to performance issues.  It is not against the law for companies to exclude the unemployed when trying to fill positions.  With millions unemployed due strictly to the state of the economy, however, is this a fair assessment? 

Not only are these employers potentially missing out on some of the best qualified and job-motivated people out there, companies that hire unemployed job seekers could also benefit from a recently-passed tax break that essentially exempts them from paying the 6.2% of the new hire's wages in Social Security taxes for the rest of this year.

At all times, an employer’s biggest complaint is having to wade through and spend resources on applicants who are really not prepared to interview.  They spend their interview time “qualifying” applicants instead of discussing more important “what can we do for each other” topics.  The results are reflected in expensive training, HR and retention costs. With a huge pool of applicants available right now, as employers try to conserve and cut recruitment costs you can expect them to be very choosey.  For instance, some employers now report using techniques that involve writing 20 minute essays on the company and the job, or asking an applicant to explain how they would change a product, and walk it through all the different departments and approvals to get it to market.

On the flip side, in the present employment (or unemployment), market, a lot of job seekers don’t think they have the luxury of being picky about employers, so they don’t expend a lot of research effort until after they’ve been called for an interview.  At that point, they usually have less than a week to prepare.  They may hit the company website for some basic info, but it’s surprising how often “company research” consists of checking on directions for the interview, a rescan on the job description and a check on what benefits are offered.

The average applicant, still below the manager level, should know at minimum what the company strategy for the future is about. Picture an interview starter, like; “How are you today?” and imagine the difference between someone who hasn’t really prepared and someone who answers; “I know you’re investing in the future through your recent merger - I’m excited to share my change management experience with you today!”  Picture where the interview will likely go from there.  The time to start making that interview happen is at step one, not step five in the candidate recruitment process. 

Obviously, accounting for your activities and professional growth while waiting for your next employment opportunity is a step that has to be taken, for more and more reasons, at step one.  Addressing the changing landscape, some new “jobs” sites, like soon to launch Preptel,  (http://www.preptel.com/) are reconstructing the modern job search game by providing something different - a sort of “seal of approval” that tells hiring companies an applicant has given this job move some thought, and that they’re prescreened for skills and other areas of professional fit.  Preptel is working to launch new streaming and other technology-based practice interview products, and the company provides detailed, multi-source research reports with overviews, summaries and even interview Q&A, that let job seekers know ahead of time what they can and should expect from the hiring company.  The approach is being well received and proving highly successful in several industries for both employers and job applicants.

On their own, job seekers are not going to find out about a lot of the industry perspective they’re looking for simply by checking the company website.  The key, according to seasoned HR expert and Preptel’s President, Jonathan Ciampi, will be for applicants to do their research, and be well prepared and well versed in company lore before an interview.  The information that would make the difference is out there.  Finding it across several different industrial, market and financial sources presents problems.  Most job seekers don’t know to dig deep in the financial pages to find out about the opportunities that new directions bring.  They may not even know what it means if they see it.   They need to assess their activities and present themselves, unemployment history and all, in the best and most appropriate way.  The simple fact is that more and more potential employees need some sort of direction and assistance to help them make the cut.  Those that have been doing their homework and doing their professional networking all along will have the advantage out there in the job seeking world.