It was time for us to get some much need help with our websites so we decided that its time we hired someone on a part time basis. Though we really couldnt afford it, we felt that the only way for us to concentrate on business building activities we had to get out of doing the everyday grind work. As my mentor always say.. its better to get someone to do things you not good at doing, so you can concentrate on the things youre good at. This person we wanted to hire would be able to work from their home on their own schedule, all we asked for is that they report to us daily or weekly about the assignments they completed. Pretty straight-forward work.. data entry, responding to the email concerns of visitors to our network of websites and some research.

Two weeks ago we posted the vacancy on the Internet with the intention to choose a candidate to fill the position within a three week period. We tried our best to be every specific in our description of the job, what it pays and how to apply. Three things we made very clear were. We will not accept any applications with attachments (any information must be contained within the body of the email), we simply didnt have the resources to respond to every application we receive and please dont contact us with questions about if the position was filled or more info. We went on to explain that this was a screening process to get the best applications we feel could fit the job and then we would be contacting those individuals further. We also mentioned that everyone that applied will hear from us in a general email to let them know when the position was filled, just so we didnt leave them wondering.

Are people in so much of a rush they dont fully read whats in front of them?

From the first wave of applications we received it was quite clear that in their haste to apply they completely missed the 3 points we mentioned above. Now, it does not end there, we sent out another email letting everyone know that if they applied for the position (a reminder) and sent in their resume as an attachment it was immediately deleted. We gave them the option to reapply. A little over 4 days ago we stop accepting applications, but what I can tell you is that from the 700+ applications we received about 22% of them did exactly what we asked not to do. Yep, there were attachments and tons of emails about the job even though we tried our best to explain everything.

Would you hire someone to work from you where paying attention to detail is a key component and in their application they failed to follow simple instructions?

After we sent out the reminder email to let those who did send in attachments to correct their applications, we still received more applications with attachments. A colleague who wrote back after she received our reminder email mentioned that she would not give individuals like this a second chance. Would you?

Tip: Always pay attention to all the details before you commit or respond to something. Sometimes its good to re-read the entire thing a couple times before taking action. This way you wont make silly mistakes that would hurt your chances at getting hired. Dont get caught-up in the excitement.

Chris De La Rosa
http://www.obzokee.com
http://www.genuinejobs.com