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"...Inquire Within. Wording Of Inquiries Must Be Exact To Apply. Deviations From The Allowed Inquiry Format Are Forbidden In Order To Comply With Federal Regulations".

UPDATE: Looks like the Fortune writer got this all wrong. I should've realized that earlier.

Friends, be warned: If you're hoping to find a new job through a job board or other online channel -- or if you're an employer seeking candidates on the Web -- the world just got a little bit more difficult.

New federal guidelines meant to standardize how employers track data on the diversity of their job-applicant pool are taking effect starting today for jobs at federal contractors -- and similar rules will kick in later this year at U.S. companies with more than 50 employees. And resumes and search approaches that worked perfectly well before may no longer do the trick.

In the new system, federal regulators will be checking to see that companies are keeping diversity data on all applicants, according to a new, more uniform definition of "applicant."

According to this definition, an applicant must "express interest" in the job, whether by sending in a resume, applying on the company's site, or whatever other means the company requests, says Gerry Crispin, founder and principal of CareerXRoads and a long-time Internet job hunting expert.

That "expression of interest" must show that he or she has all the qualifications for the job listed in the company's job description (not just some or most of them) -- and those qualifications must be specific and measurable.

What this means:

For instance, if a job description includes the words "three years of credit accounting experience," put "three years of credit accounting experience" on your resume. "Don't just list a credit-accounting position with the dates you had it and assume someone will figure it out," Crispin advises. This may mean you have to rewrite your resume for each job opening you apply for.

Here comes the irony:

To comply with these new rules and get the most diversity, employers will have an incentive to keep the pool of applicants for each job relatively small and as random as possible.

(Emphasis added). Fewer Applicants = More Diversity!

(Ugh. I'm going to have to rent this movie again, because at some point in my life I think I'm going to have to hire a renegade air conditioning repairman, and I'd like to know how.)

CONTINUING THE UPDATE: The main thing the article gets wrong is the idea that companies will disregard resumes not written in a specific way. The DOL press release makes it look otherwise. It looks like it only deals with federal contractors who are subject to the provisions of the laws enforced by OFCCP. Basically it tells them which applicants they have to include for diversity data. Far from adding red tape, it reduces it: "The lack of guidance for federal contractors as to the department's interpretation of the recordkeeping rules for Internet applicants meant contractors could potentially have to ask everyone who has a resume on a commercial resume databank service for his or her race, ethnicity and gender whenever the contractor searched the databank to find candidates for a job. As a result, OFCCP's enforcement was hindered because it was often difficult to get the necessary data to effectively determine whether discrimination exists within a contractor's selection process."

Posted by Dorkafork at February 7, 2006 01:38 AM | TrackBack (0)

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Posted by: cars at July 15, 2006 05:51 AM

Posted by: little april at July 17, 2006 02:40 AM