April 30, 2002

College recruiting practices

I was recently forwarded an electronic mail generated by the College Recruiting[Office] in Human Resources (HR) informing us about the candidates from a specific community college in Iowa. The candidates are to be flown in here to have interviews with potential hiring groups in one afternoon in early May at Fuller Lodge.

I commend those who are actively recruiting qualified people for the Lab. On the other hand, I also feel that the methods applied to get the people may need improvements.

Making absolutely clear that I have nothing for or against this community college, I am puzzled and somewhat disturbed why a community college in Iowa gets preferential treatment over many others from both within and outside New Mexico. Are the skill sets they provide superior to others? Hardly, judging from their curricula.

I believe graded-series employees are paid according to pay scales based on local labor markets with the rationale that people with such skill sets are available without reaching out to the rest of the country. If this logic is applicable, why do we fly in a group of people from Iowa to fill such jobs? It would be difficult to justify the action, even for TSM positions, to bring in a group of students from only one university, however prestigious and relevant it might be, just to be available for interviews.

On a minor point, did we have to rent Fuller Lodge to interview those students?

--Sangkoo Hahn