Discrimination: what requirements and preferences cannot be written in vacancies

“I am looking for a secretary, pretty, competent and obedient. Age - the younger, the better. Married, divorced, and not to worry with children, ”was written in one sensational secretary's vacancy (not on hh.ru). As practice shows, there are conditions about which everyone understands that this is discrimination, and there are conditions in which many employers do not see "nothing of the sort", although they also fall under the prohibition of discrimination. We have compiled a memo from examples of what cannot be indicated in vacancies.

Which conditions are discriminatory, which are not
Discriminatory conditions - this is a direct or indirect restriction of rights or, conversely, the provision of benefits depending on any circumstances not related to the business qualities of the employee.

In case of doubt whether this or that condition is discriminatory, ask yourself whether it is a business quality and whether it is directly related to the job function. Personal preferences and stereotypes of the leader, the particulars of the team and any wishes beyond purely business qualities (“we are so comfortable”, “we are so used to it,” “it is so customary with us”) - all this can be recognized as discrimination.

Administrative and even criminal liability has been established for the distribution of vacancies that contain discriminatory restrictions.

Gender, race, color, nationality, origin, property, family, social and official status, age, place of residence, religion, beliefs, belonging or not belonging to public associations or any social groups - all these are not business qualities.

For example, in terms of the employee’s appearance, the employer can only demand compliance with the dress code, and then if it is prescribed in the internal labor regulations. Explanation of other requirements, for example, the high prestige of the company, the dependence of sales success on the attractiveness of the seller’s appearance, the special corporate values ​​of “sports, healthy nutrition”, does not save from allegations of discrimination.

How to ask and talk about money at an interview

Not everyone indicates the desired salary in the resume. But at an interview or even earlier - during the first telephone conversation with a recruiter - you will certainly be asked about salary expectations. How to answer this question and not scare away the employer with a high "price tag", we understand together with experts.
The most common reason for employers to refuse potential candidates for vacancies is the mismatch of salary offers and expectations (63% of respondents mentioned this reason). How to write in a resume cover letter and talk at an interview about salary, so as not to scare away a potential employer?

What recruiters think about a resume where salary is not indicated
There is no consensus. Some HR managers, in any case, consider the amount indicated in the resume only as a start for dialogue and are ready to find out the wishes of the applicant if he did not indicate them in the resume. Other recruiters prefer to send offers only to those who have indicated their salary expectations.

“In our experience of dealing with recruiters, it is not critical to indicate the level of wages in a resume, this item remains at the discretion of the applicant. The recruiter, as a rule, will specify the desired salary “plug” during the initial screening interview. Our recommendation to applicants who decide to indicate their salary in a resume: first adequately assess your market value based on current skills, achievements and correlate with the capabilities of the market and a specific company, ”says Ekaterina Alexandrova, senior HR consultant at ManpowerGroup HR company.

Some positions initially did not suggest that the candidate would advertise his salary expectations. For example, the resume of a top manager or an expert leader in a specific industry is unlikely to indicate the desired salary. Also, the expected salary is not inclined to indicate specialists who are very in demand on the labor market. With such candidates, a discussion of the conditions takes place according to an individual scenario.

You cannot know in advance which recruiter your resume will fall into your hands with. Therefore, if you do not have special reasons why you would not want to disclose your salary expectations, it is better to indicate them.

“By indicating the desired salary, the applicant saves his time and time for recruiters at the stage of collecting information about expectations. The specific amount will immediately attract the attention of companies that are ready to provide this level of remuneration, ”explains Maria Khaustova-Negoda, coach, expert on the assessment and development of business competencies.

Does the principle “the more the better” work
To overestimate a salary in a resume in order to leave room for maneuver is a common tactic among job seekers. But in this case, there is a danger of not reaching the “bidding” stage due to standard filters by salary level: “Many applicants have a fear of“ cheapening ”, so some indicate an overestimated desired income, depriving themselves of the opportunity to become one of the attractive candidates,” says Alexandra Dutchak.

Sometimes the high salary indicated in the resume helps to weed out uninteresting job offers. This will work if you are a professional and do not want to get vacancies designed for a novice specialist with low salary expectations. “I myself called applicants who indicated a significantly higher salary than the market average. And the candidates openly said that they specifically set such a bar. If a candidate indicates a salary slightly lower than the average in his industry, he will be able to expand the flow of offers, ”explains Sergey Afanasyev, head of the recruitment department at RETAIL SERVICE COMPANY.

It is difficult for a specialist who has been working in the same company for several years in a row and does not monitor the market to adequately assess himself. After examining the proposals in their field and interviewing colleagues from other companies, you can roughly determine your own value in the labor market.

When to ask for money
Employers also do not always indicate salaries in vacancies. If you have not written the level of the desired salary, you get a game of cat and mouse. Should I ask about salary “on the forehead” at the first meeting or at the very first telephone conversation? Whether this will show the employer that money is the main or the only criterion in finding a job for you.

All the secrets of writing a good resume

A good resume is simply necessary when looking for a job, especially when many candidates apply for the same position. What should be written in it?

There is no ideal sample resume, and in different situations it may be necessary to emphasize various aspects of it, whether it is education or work experience. If you are writing a resume for a specific vacancy, it should be written specifically for this position.

Read five to six similar ads and compare the requirements indicated in them. Do some research to understand what employers need.

If you are just looking for a job and sending out a resume to employment agencies, then it should be as detailed and detailed as possible.

One way or another, there are several general rules and principles for how a resume should be written and what information should be included in it.

First of all, it should be short - no more than two A4 pages, better numbered.

It should clearly and objectively describe your achievements and strengths and create a positive impression of you.

Effective Job Search Methods

The question of finding a new job worries many. But as my many conversations with job seekers show, only a few have a good arsenal of appropriate methods and tools. Especially among those who have problems in this matter and complain about the unfavorable situation on the labor market, trying to explain their failures.

In fact, in most cases, failures in finding a job are caused by the fact that people know how to look for it. Schools and universities do not teach this. Books on this subject, which have appeared on the shelves in recent years, have been read by few. As a rule, people learn from their own experience and from their own mistakes, without receiving qualified answers and advice. Moreover, sometimes using unskilled advice.

For example, one has to meet with a categorical reluctance to read job advertisements (“Ah, all this is useless, sheer“ network marketing ”!”). Or with the fact that people did not even consider publishing their mini-resume in a newspaper. Or with the fact that, after sending out five to ten resumes, they consider themselves to have done a solid job. Errors and errors all the time!

Today we will very briefly consider the main ways of finding a job. All of them are effective in modern conditions, and everyone needs to know them. But for a specific person in a specific situation, something may be more effective.

So, the main ways:

1. Search through friends and relatives. In Ukraine, about one third of specialists find a job in this way. The method is especially good for those who have a wide network of professional contacts. It is very important to provide those who, in principle, agreed to help, with their resume. Having it, your friend will have specific information to advance your candidacy to a potential employer. Experience shows that one needs to “graze” one's “employment agents”. Otherwise, they will always have more important things to do than help you.

2. Job search through job postings in newspapers. In Kiev newspapers weekly published about 2000 of a variety of vacancies. If you really need to find a new job, buy newspapers, carefully choose all the more or less suitable vacancies, call and send your resumes.

3. Publication of your job search advertisement (mini-resume) in a newspaper. If you doubt that this method works, call those who already published their proposal a week or two ago and take an interest in the results. If a person has reasonable claims, then there are always responses.

4. Appeal to a recruitment agency (employment agency). This method is especially good for highly qualified professionals with experience. It is also a passive option for those who are currently working, but are not averse to changing jobs to higher paying, promising, closer to home, etc. The agency offers vacancies - you choose, what if you're lucky? There are dozens of recruitment agencies in Kiev, but only a few of them are stably working and trusted by customers. And in each of them there may be a chance for you (we will discuss this method in more detail in another article).

5. Search through the Internet. More and more specialists are finding work through the Internet, but so far, unfortunately, only in larger cities. Two methods should be used here simultaneously: “passive” (posting your resume on Job sites) and “active” (mailing resumes for vacancies found on the Internet. You should be aware that enterprise vacancies post not only (and not so much) on Job- sites, and not your corporate and industry sites, so the search here must be really active!

6. Direct initiative appeal to a potential employer. You have not seen the announcement of such a company about a suitable vacancy for you, but you assume that it may be there. Moreover, you want to work in this kind of company. When using this method, you need to send out a lot of resumes, preferably with cover letters. Here the score goes to many dozens.

7. Search through government employment centers and their job fairs. There are always a lot of vacancies. But for the most part, these are either job vacancies or job vacancies for specialists with not-so-attractive pay.

Carelessness

Unlike job seekers, recruiters are almost never late for a meeting. But in some recruiting agencies, the situation is quite typical when a candidate who comes for an interview is forced to wait fifteen, twenty, or even more minutes for his recruiter. If you have to wait in the corridor, this is slightly humiliating, and if in the meeting room it is doubly humiliating, because it means that the recruiter is not just not busy with another job seeker, but solves some extraneous issues, making the busy person wait. A professional recruiter understands the importance of not only his time, but also the time of his applicants.

Invalid job information

Everyone lies, and some recruiters, too. Sometimes unscrupulous employees of recruiting agencies slightly embellish the conditions offered by the company in order to simply lure a potential candidate for an interview. It is possible that such tactics work, but such an attitude towards applicants leaves an imprint on the business reputation of not only the recruiter, but also the company that he represents. Another option for cheating is that the applicant is offered the wrong position for which he spent time arriving for an interview. Or, having already started duties, a person realizes that he was thoroughly misinformed regarding the specifics of his work. A professional recruiter values ​​his reputation and builds relationships with candidates on trust, and this eliminates the use of deceitful maneuvers.

Irrationality

Often, having come for an interview, the candidate is forced to do a lot of paper work: fill out questionnaires, answer the questions of multi-page tests - do everything that he could do before arriving at the agency’s office without leaving his home and sending the results by e-mail or fax . Most often, in such a primitive way, a very busy recruiter simply develops a client base for himself, filling in the necessary papers in the literal sense with the hands of customers. This approach to business, to put it mildly, does not suit applicants. A professional recruiter uses all the power of modern communication technologies, and does not spend tons of paper and non-free time of his candidates.

Arrogance, coupled with amateurism

One of the intermediate tasks of any recruiter is to arrange for an interlocutor to analyze his personal and professional qualities as efficiently as possible. Goodwill allows you to establish initial contact with the interlocutor. If the recruiter takes the position of a benefactor in relation to his candidates - this is not good, but if such condescending patronage is also aggravated by elements of banal rudeness - it’s completely out of the blue. Stupid questions that clearly demonstrate the incompetence of the recruiter in the specifics of the offered vacancy can serve a poor job even for an employee with many years of experience in searching for specialists, making the applicant doubt the professionalism of the recruiter and the interest of the company. A professional recruiter is not only extremely friendly and considerate, but is also as knowledgeable as possible about the features of the company being represented and the specifics of the job offered to the candidate.

Optional

“I'll call you back” - this wording is perceived in 90% of cases as a veiled refusal and in 95% of cases it is. Very often, this phrase ends with absolutely any, even successful interview: the recruiter thus promises to personally call back and report the results. As practice shows, in the event of a real refusal, they do not always call back: a not too conscientious recruiter simply does not spend his time on this, not particularly considering the feelings and plans of the applicant. A professional recruiter cherishes all the candidates who have worked out, and therefore honestly reports preliminary results of the interview. And always fulfills these promises.

Mutual claims between professional job seekers and job seekers can be counted a great many. But they are all leveled, if you remember that the basis of mutual understanding between recruiters and candidates is strict observance of uncomplicated business etiquette. Just like all ingenious.