| CAREERS NOW 10-14-09 |
| Recommending a Pal For Hire Can Bite You |
DEAR JOYCE: I have a terrific job in the accounting department of a good company.
The company has just posted an opening in our department. A good friend, an out-of-work project manager, is leaning
on me to hand-deliver his resume to my manager and recommend him for the job.
My friend says a survey claims that getting in the door on an employee's coattails is the very best way to land
a job. While I'd really like to help him out, I don't think his temperament would work out well in the open position.
Oil and water. And I really don't know the depth of his skills. If they hire him and he flops like a fish, I worry
that my credibility would be damaged because I recommended him. How can I squirm out from between this rock and
a hard place? -- T.R.
When you're not sold on a friend's odds for success at your workplace, change the action verb - refer but don't
recommend. Here's a low-risk frame for the scene:
As you hand your pal's resume to your manager, say very little. Comment that you're happy to offer the resume of
a good friend whom you know in a social context. You think he's a great guy who's shown positive attitude and a
wonderful drive on the golf course. Pause. Then add that you really have no basis to comment on his professional
ability or fit for the open position. Your business there is done. Mumble something about urgent matters to take
care of and hotfoot it to your desk.
You are being a true friend by running a free and neutral courier service, but the last thing you want to do is
dent your reputation by recommending someone who gets fired after a month.
DEAR JOYCE: I have been applying for federal jobs listed in the Washington, D.C., area. If I should be considered
for one of these jobs, is there any set amount of time that I am allowed to relocate to the area - four, six, eight
weeks? I need time. - J.S.
I asked a man who's been there, done it and has the answers. For this question that would be Dennis V. Damp, a
35-year federal employee and author of the classic "The Book of U.S. Government Jobs, 10th Edition (Bookhaven
Press; bookhavenpress.com). Damp says:
"I had your problem when I was selected for a federal job in Pittsburgh, which was 150 miles from my then
home. Family reasons made the start date impossible but they were only able to extend it for an additional month
and I had to refuse the offer. But the managers decided not to fill the job just then and advertised it again several
months later. I reapplied and was selected. If they want you, they can work out a way to make things happen."
DEAR JOYCE: You and others keep warning of an ongoing gloomy job market. I just read an article claiming
that good jobs paying up to $60,000 plus benefits are going unfilled in nursing, engineering and energy research.
What am I missing? - B.N.E.
The main article I assume you mean ("As Layoffs Persist, Good Jobs Go Unfilled" by Associated Press reporter
Christopher Leonard, appearing on the Huffington Post) describes the gap as chiefly one of structural unemployment
- an economics term for joblessness that comes from a lack of demand for the workers who are available. The unfilled
jobs in the article require years of education and, in many cases, specific experience that most job seekers lack
and can't quickly acquire.
As one executive quoted in the article explained: "A 50-year-old guy who has been screwing bolts into the
side of a car panel is not going to be able to become a health care administrator overnight."
In addition to structural unemployment, there are a number of reasons that some of the cited jobs lay unclaimed.
They range from under-market pay offers to unrealistic qualifying requirements. Although Leonard's article doesn't
scuba dive to surface the other reasons, 30 pages of readers' comments have plenty to say that may illuminate what
you're missing in this story.
Email Joyce
Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.