Interacting with job seekers

Interacting with job seekers can be an interesting experience. One learns a lot pertaining to the social, technical, commercial and emotional aspects of individuals and the industry. Recently an advertisement was released in all major south Indian newspapers for posts in various departments of Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. at various levels. In fact the response was so good that the HR department struggled to put the 3000 biodata received in 10 working days in order. The following ar the observations and experience.

• Though we had called for graduates and postgraduates, 80% of the applications were from postgraduates, the breakup being 50% Biotechnology, 30% Biochemistry and 20% Microbiology.
• Expectedly 70% of the applications were from female candidates.
• 60% of the applicants used courier as principle mode while 30% used e-mails and 10% used both.
• In the e-mail based applications, 328 of them added only a biodata, an MS word file as annexure without even mentioning a single word to whom the application was addressed, based on which advertisement they applied and what post they were applying, emphasising how casual they were.
• Interestingly 28 applicants (postgraduates) sent a similar annexure, with a CC to HRD departments of Deccan Airways, Biocon Limited, Blue Dart and also Reliance Infocomm which communicates either their laziness or their desperation.
• Some even had copied the same biodata annexed mails to all competitors of Thyrocare in the same mail.
• Funnily the data also showed that in a dozen situations, the candidates had sent at least four applications for their colleagues using their individual mail ids.
• 10% if the applications were patiently compiled stating what they wished to do with the company and given a chance what all they can do and a majority in this class also sent the same thing as hardcopy through courier.
• Whether it can be stated as typing problems or language problems but more than 50 e-mail applications had 20 errors in a mail of merely 50 words.
• More than a dozen candidates sent at least four mails thinking that more the number of applications, more will be chances of selection!
• In the courier mode, 80% of the candidates did not sign the applications.
• Some enclosed a standard cyclostyled paper in the envelope with neither a ‘to address’ nor ‘a single word’ written on it.
• Most surprisingly, ten applications had no ‘from address’, either on the envelope or inside it.
• Out of the 2000 applications by courier, around 500 had a decent, error free covering letter for their curriculum vitae which communicated that they were not only serious but they had patience too.
• Out of these 500 good applications around 200 had all annexure, proof of age, proof of qualifications, proof of residence, a photograph, and more than anything else an impressive letter which communicated what they were keen to achieve making them worthy to be called for an interview.
• Among the 200 good applications, 50% of them were graduates though in the total applicants there were 80& postgraduates.
• Twenty-three candidates just walked in without a call letter, majority of them were post-graduates and 50% of them came with father, mother or both.

Not being in a hurry to rush into appointments, it was worth studying the spectrum of applicants and analyzing them deeply. Finally call letters for a written examination and interview were sent to the 200 (less than 10%) candidates who had taken up the job of applying for a post bit seriously. Of course we have completed four batches of such written tests cum interview and the experience is really worth sharing because 99% of the readers of Health Screen may fall into one of the following categories:

• Looking for employees
• Looking for employers
• Looking for jobs for their family members

It has really been a good experience to sit at HRD and interact with the young and ignorant.