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Application Blanks Screening Applicants Hiring

What do you think about an application blank that only goes as far back as the applicant’s three most recent jobs? This is what my manager designed for our company. He says that the most recent job experiences are the most telling, and there is no need to rely on jobs from years ago. Is this right?



If you manager’s objective is to make hiring decisions based on incomplete information, then he is right. His approach totally ignores the fact that the more you know about a person’s work history, the better you are able to predict his or her performance on future jobs.

From the practical standpoint, if an applicant has had three short jobs, your application blank might have information that only goes back a year or two, or even a month or two for that matter. There could be a world of great information to be drawn from his or her earlier jobs, and your current application blank totally cuts it out. Information about an applicant’s earlier career can provide you with real insights into an applicant’s energy, drive, motivation, objectives, and career path. Frankly, limiting an application blank to the past three jobs is not fair to the applicant or to your company.

As a side note, there are psychological, technical, and legal issues associated with designing application blanks, and your manager appears to be overlooking all of them. Before this application blank brings trouble to your company, your manager should be encouraged to bring it to an expert.



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