HR eliminates too many applicants

The selection criteria for positions in any area should include a MINIMUM level of expected qualifications/experience and what you see is a selection criteria that is probably defining a wish list for the postiion. This allows HR to interview only walk up starts and eliminates their needs to fully investigate candidate suitability. I is probably not hteir fault as they would not necessarily be the ones writing the selection criteria and are simply measuring candidates against it and eliminatingthose who do not come up to scratch. A good way of overcoming this problem would to have a three stage selection process. Stage one is a loose selection definition to atttract as many and varied applicants as possible. Stage two is to tighten the selection criteria and review the applicants resumees prior to interview. Stage three is to have a three part list for the interview. Part one is to ensure the minimum professional criterions are present, part two is to ensure minimum personal criterions are presemt and part three is a wish list of what the perfect candidate could porvide both professionally through experience and qualifications and personally to ensure they fit the culture of the organisation.

I had a very similar experience at a job fair here in Silicon Valley. A talked to a member of the IT dept and we seemed to really hit it off but I never got called and its basically cause I didnt have a certification.

I can understand why a company would want a certification but it really does not make sense to be when they pass people over for degree issues.

I mean how many 4 yr universities give out a BS in Desktop Support ? Just about every person I know with a college degree is working in a different field 4 years later.
If we had to have a degree relevant to our job then none of us would ever be able to change nor would new fields be created.

I cant entirely blame HR though, you cant expect an HR generalist to realize if someone has enough experience to fill a technical role. I think the hiring manager should be the final judge. If there is a resume that might fit, let them talk to the person.

In general I really like the companies that had some technical people at the job fairs to meet and greet applicants. It made me feel like they were more serious about attracting employees.

just my 2 cents

I believe one of the replys hit on the main issue -- HR does not have the specific technical skills to judge the candidates. Many have complained that allowing the resumes to come straight through would eat up too much time. I have found that I can filter out about 90% of resumes in about 10 seconds. I prefer to see the resumes myself as I can judge the technical competence rather than relying on a certification -- or lack thereof.