When is it Hiring Discrimination?

[WizKids1]

What is the name of your state?(New Hampshire...)

When an employer posts a job on an Employment site such as Monster.com and your background and resume *exactly* matches the posting, yet you get no interview, no response, and then you call and they give you the typical "we will contact you if interested" - you are left to presume that something on your resume, or maybe even someone at the place knew you, or knew of you - does this amount to discrimination?

Are there any recourses you can take either legally, or non-legally?

More simply put, with this new age of the internet, clearly employers can screen far beyond what used to be in days gone by - but if you suspect that you are being screened for some truly discriminating reason - how do you pursue this?

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[pattytx]

Not in the least. What makes you think there is legally prohibited discrimination occuring?

 

[cbg]

In the current job market, an employer could get as many as 50 or more applicants whose background exactly matches their requirements. They can't interview all of them. No, what you describe does not even remotely meet the definition of illlegal discrimination.

No employer I know of has either the time or the resources to do pre-screening before they decide whom to call in for interviews.

Unless you have a valid and supportable reason to believe that you have not been interviewed BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy or because you are over 40 you have no recourse, legal or otherwise.

 

[Beth3]

More simply put, with this new age of the internet, clearly employers can screen far beyond what used to be in days gone by Huh? I do a lot of recruiting via the internet these days but my screening processes are no different than they ever were. There's no secret internet site we can go to in order to find out a candidate's age, gender, race, religion, and so on.

What addition screening are you thinking the employer is doing and how?

 

[WizKids1]

Here is the situation...

Thanks for the reply Beth3 - here is some additional information...

There is a company that I have had interest in for quite a while (1 yr.+) and have sent resumes to on three occassions for three different postings. In two of those cases, were I to show you their posting, then my resume, you would see a 1 to 1 match of the skills they are seeking, versus my background. I have high interest in this company because its fairly close to where I live and would sacrifice me the long drive to Boston metro for work.

Each time I applied, to begin with, I would hear nothing - not even a 'contact if we are interested' card or email. I was baffled! So finally, on the third occassion I drove my resume over and delivered it by hand asking if I could speak to the HR person to 'sell' myself in there. The girl at the front desk contacted the HR person (whose name I had since it was listed in the posting) and as she contacted the person, her facial expression changed - as though my name raised some sort of 'flag'.

The girl then told me the HR person could not see me and that they did not appreciate me hand-delivering a resume. That very afternoon I got an email from the HR person stating 'thanks for your interest, we will contact you if we are interested in you'. I thought this rather odd because I had never had such an email to any other resume submission.

Let me side-step here a bit to say that I work in software development and have been a Director in that role for years. A number of years ago at another company, I had hired an individual who, once hired, did not show up for work until about 11AM the first couple weeks, and then later, we discovered this individual had added unlicensed software into our software build. This is illegal to do, and grounds for termination - so I terminated that person right away.

Now back to my current situation, 'smelling something odd' I started to do some checking, wondering what the problem was. I then got information from a former co-worker (that I could not verify as yet) that that particular person was (likely) working there.

I therefore, suspect that this person may indeed be working there and is, shall we say, trashing me and my reputation to this company. Hence, though my skills and background match the position, I am not even getting interviews.

It has been suggested to me (by an attorney) that I simply call the place and ask for that person directly, and if I learn that that person is there, well - that is where I am - what would the next step be?

Thanks for any advice you can offer...

 

[Beth3]

It has been suggested to me (by an attorney) that I simply call the place and ask for that person directly, and if I learn that that person is there, well - that is where I am - what would the next step be? Legally, nothing. If you find out this person is working there and you have reason to believe that he may be responsible for your not being hired, having spoken ill of you, you can send a letter to the HR Director to explain your concerns but that's it. I sure can't guarantee that will help even if your suspicions are true though. At a minimum, hiring you knowing there is "bad blood" between you and a current employee isn't a very attractive idea; in fact it pretty much ensures that there will be tension and personnel problems in the IT department.

If they don't want to hire you, they don't have to. I fully understand your frustration but that's just the way it is.

P.S. You might take a very close look at your resume and have someone knowledgeable do the same. I can't tell you how many horribly constructed resumes I see that often are full of typos - and these from "professionals" who have been in the workforce for a number of years. It's possible your resume is keeping you from getting your foot in the door.

 

[cbg]

Just because you are interested in working there does not mean that the company has any obligation to hire you. So let's say you find out that the person in question is working there and you suspect he's trashing you. You sue him for defamation. Even if you win (and you won't, since you will not be able to prove that but for him you would definitely have been hired and you don't really have any proof that he's ever mentioned your name), it doesn't mean the employer has to hire you. So you still won't have a job where you want to work. There is NOTHING you can do to make them hire you, or even interview you.

You made a BIG mistake in hand-delivering that resume and an even bigger one in, without an appointment, trying to "sell" yourself to HR. You're already pushing your luck by continuing to try to push yourself in when they have made it clear that they are not interested in you. It doesn't matter how close a match you are, in this part of the country it's a sure bet that they've got any number of resumes to choose from that are just as close a match. You are killing any chance you may ever have to work there by trying to force the issue. That is NOT winning you any friends at the employer where you are so desperate to work, I promise you.

 

[LSCAP]

You have to be crazy to try to work there. If the HR doesn't want you because of the other guy, and he is in the "right place", he might be able to really destroy your reputation by setting you up for a fall. Like maybe" We can't say why we let him go, but the police were here and he left." or some other carzy thing. Management wont believe you because you are an outsider.
Go look somewhere else.