Amid Tough Climate, a Thoughtful Recruitment Process

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BURNS HARBOR, Ind. — As soon as the job opening was posted on the afternoon of Friday, July 10, the deluge began.

Chris Kelsey, right, director of the C.R. England truck driving school in Burns Harbor, Ind., received several hundred applications for an administrative assistant position that was eventually filled by Tiffany Block, 28.

C.R. England, a nationwide trucking company, needed an administrative assistant for its bustling driver training school here. Responsibilities included data entry, assembling paperwork and making copies.

It was a bona-fide opening at a decent wage, making it the rarest of commodities here in northwest Indiana, where steel industry layoffs have helped drive unemployment to about 10 percent.

When Stacey Ross, C.R. England’s head of corporate recruiting, arrived at her desk at the company’s Salt Lake City headquarters the following Monday, she found about 300 applications in the company’s e-mail inbox. The fax machine had spit out an inch-and-a-half thick stack of résumés as well before running out of paper. By the time she pulled the posting off of Careerbuilder.com later in the day, she guessed nearly 500 people had applied for the $13-an-hour job.


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And if you're "overqualified" and especially over 50, forget ever working again in this climate, I am afraid.

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1. Kick for this important article