hiring practices at this hypothetical company we will call Bank of America, see if you can find logic in this?

Question

Two people walk into their offices looking for a job. Both apply to work at their credit card call center. The job is both customer service, and up selling products like balance transfers. Who would you hire if only able choose one person?

person 1: 52 year old salesman who has done outside sales his whole life. He has recently decided he wants a more stable enviornment and welcomes the $30k salary. This person has little computer experience.

person 2: A recent college graduate, spent last 4 years working in different retail stores (while in school), and uses this to argue he has sales experience. This person has also expressed interest in moving up within the company. They also have ample computer skills.

based on these facts who would you hire for the job? Why?

what if i told you person 1 was hired over person 2, and person 1 quits 2 weeks later after not being able to learn the computer system. Would this change your future hiring practices?

yeah, the $30k kind of caught me too.

Answer 1

Experience is a big quality to have in an applicant, but lack of experience is only a temporary condition. Personally, I would have gone with person 2 given the information that you provided. I was liking person 1 until I got to the lack of computer experience. If this person has been doing any salesman work in the past 10 years then that person should have done at least a little bit of computer work. If not, then it may be that the person has tried to avoid computers, not something that the company would need.

Also, something that throws a wrench into the works for person one is a person with a lifetime of experience is only wanting a job that pays $30k? That is a starting salary these days. Seeing a person with a lot of experience take a job with a starting salary is a bad sign. A lot of times the person will quit as soon as he/she finds a better paying job.

However, maybe the company hired him to try to avoid any possible age-discrimination lawsuits. That is possible.

If it were my company, I would try to find a better way to handle things. The company lost 2 weeks on this person, may have lost some good potential employees, and will now have to do the job-hire process all over again. The company has lost money with this decision.

Answer 2

Yes, but most companies would rather have someone old with some experience than rely on a young kid to do their work. It's the way of the world. I am 20 years old and been trying to find a job that's not working at the gap while i go through school, but like i said they think its just a giant party to us...even though its not.

I would have hired someone with the skills needed, such as computer skills. Not to mention that wanting to move up in the company suggests ambition, strength, and confidence. Retail Stores are sales now, especially since working retail requires you to sell credit, product, and the store, so that they return to the store.

I would have hired person 2, but thats just me and my party generation opinion.

Answer 3

I'd hire person 1. You can't assume he won't be able to cope with the computer system, ... in fact, most fifty somethings have emmesely more experience with computers, believe it or not, than a twenty something. Second, is just as likely, if not more so, to fail in a business environment. A problem that the fifty something has proven he can assimulate into easily.

Answer 4

not enough information to hire either . . #1 has actually sales experience #2 only has retail experience but has computer experience but does #2 know the system my company is running ??