HR

So today at a luncheon I went to the issue of what workers in a company's HR department take upon themselves to decide about an potential hire came up. The trouble with HR departments is that the areas of expertise for an HR person usually have nothing to do with what a company does. No librarian (for instance) says one day "oh, let me go back to school and start a new career in HR for libraries." Now, if a person works many years for an employer, of course that person (most likely) will acquire some expertise in what kind of work the jobs for that company require. You are basically in the hands of a person who knows nothing about what you do in your field and (more than likely) knows nothing about the job you are applying for.

All hope is not lost! In many situations HR are just a gateway through which your application comes. Your packet is then passed on to a search committee. For the most part these people are able to cast a subjective eye over your material and a pool of candidates begins to be created.

For myself I can only only wonder how frustrating it must be to work in an HR department? All the pressure to have to do things in an exact prescribed fashion, no matter what.