Talent: If you want to fill your company with smart ideas fill it with great people. by Chuck Sather, Fast Company, December 1999, p.205-212.

Submitted by: Paul Brownlow

I read Chuck Sathers article about placing the right people into the right jobs, and agree too many people are hired just by a resume and short interview. How can anyone know if that person is going to work well for their company or school with such little information? This is a problem with the teaching profession. Too many teachers are hired into jobs that are not the right fit which causes them to leave the profession prematurely, while on the other side school districts are hiring teachers who are not qualified or have histories of problems that lead to unprofessional conduct.

Jeff Daniels CollegeHire.com is a great idea for any profession. Helping employers and potential employees find a good match in a short amount of time is tough for most people to accomplish. Employers are busy remaining competitive in the marketplace and do not have time to search for the right person, while students are busy in school and are traveling great distances to find a job so they can make that first paycheck to start their own living.

According to Daniel, many hiring proceedings do not go past the resume and GPA score printed on it. He believes there are many great people out there right for the perfect job who have a GPA of 2.0 or less. He says if employers hire people based only on their GPA, they are cheating themselves out of a vast number or credible applicants. He feels if a person is allowed to channel their energies into something that excites them, they will do more for an employer than someone who looks great on paper. He sees himself as a gardener planting the right seeds in fertile ground (p. 212).

Collegehire.com is a one stop shopping center for both employers and employees. They serve 37 colleges and two dozen companies. That means both sides have a greater opportunity to find a job or employee that will work out successfully. The teaching profession could use this same approach to help more teachers and school districts find the jobs and personnel they need.

With a teacher shortage eminent, I believe school districts and universities should work collectively to come up with a system like Collegehire.com. Too many teachers enter the field without knowing what to expect. They are too concerned about getting a job rather than finding a rewarding job. My first job was very enjoyable, but when I look back I only remember being worried about getting that first job so I could get that first paycheck. I was just married and was concerned about our financial situation. For me, money took priority over job satisfaction.

Teaching has a large burnout and turnover rate because teachers walk into situations they are not prepared for. As a new teacher in the district, you do not know all the specifics why your predecessor is leaving, unless of course they are retiring. If the hiring committee is not up front about the entire situation, the new teacher could be set up to fail. Sometimes teachers are kept from the truth because the school district wants to get the best candidate possible, and they feel their chances would be reduced if they shared their scarred image.

Schools are not always given the best candidate for the job either. Because candidates are desperate for a job, they are telling the hiring committee what they want to hear not what they believe in. I read through several resumes last year, which had some candidates sounding to good to be true. I realized then that a resume is like an advertisement trying to sell you something rather than an informative description of what the person will do for your program.

A company or program like Jeff Daniels CollegeHire.com would help prospective teachers and school districts find careers and career teachers. If both sides were told exactly what to expect from each other right at the beginning, I believe you would see a reduction in teacher turnover, burnout, and unprofessional conduct. In the next few years this will be vital because of the great teacher shortage happening all over the nation. Therefore, we need to plant the right teachers into fertile school districts just like Jeff Daniel does with technology graduates at CollegeHire.com.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2000