Using Essays Instead of Resumes
September 21st, 2006
Last week at SD, I met up with Brian Robertson of Ternary Software, a small consulting company in the Philadelphia area. They have a different approach for their first contact with a candidate: they ask candidates to fill out essays (scroll down to see the essay questions).These essay questions reflect the culture of the company. So the people who are likely to write the answers are already self-selecting the company’s culture.Not every organization can use essay questions such as these, or any essays at all. And if you do, talk to your lawyers to make sure the questions don’t discriminate against people. But I do like the idea of looking at people first, not resumes.
Entry Filed under: candidate, reviewing resume
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2 Comments Add your own
1. Kevin | September 29th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Hi,
Though the reasoning for the essay approach seems logical, however, I would disagree on that it seems more like giving a school or university entrance test (GRE, GMAT etc.) and could put off good candidates.
Thanks for listening.
2. Nick | October 2nd, 2006 at 4:08 pm
These questions are the same type that you would be asked in a face-to-face interview. It sounds like the company is hooked on some fad of trying to replace the face-to-face interview with an online version. It also sounds kind of lazy to me.
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