A client of mine recently asked me to intervene and help him select a suitable receptionist/admin position for his Company.

Little to my knowledge was the outbreak of response that followed.

Unfortunately, the client put my Company as the contact as well as included our email address on Seek.com.au. 110 applicants applied within 5 days. 90 of these applicants within 1 day!

… So many people unemployed and desperately following each ad to come closer to being employed!

The hunt began.

I rivaled through all 110 applicants and wanted to share my observations with you all:

• 51 applicants applied from the Hospitality industry (waitressing/bartendering etc) • 90 applicants were aged from 16 to 23 • 80 applicants lived outside Sydney Metro area (despite being a stated condition to apply) • 10 applicants couldn’t (for reasons unknown) hold down a job longer than 3 months (1x was 2 weeks). • 50 applicants supplied a general cover letter and in some instances applying for different jobs! • 5 applicants had more degrees than 3 individual people put together. (Bachelor of Business/Commerce/Accounting/Art and combination of these were listed as Education Achievements). • 10 applicants were in Australia on temporary or work visas

Needless to say, the list was culled very quickly.

A shortlist was derived down to 14. My client personally called each applicant and got down to a further cut of 10. (4x couldn’t speak English – an attribute highly required of a receptionist!)

10 were invited for an interview.

Stay tuned for Part 2 – The Interview Process