When Newington Town Manager John Salomone posted a job for a new administrative assistant earlier this year, he expected to receive dozens of applications, with a handful of top candidates easy to identify.
Instead, he faced a new reality brought on by the economic downturn that has pushed the state’s unemployment rate to 8 percent.
More than 500 people applied for the job.
And Salomone — who spent weeks, nights and weekends reading each and every cover letter and resume — was left sifting through hundreds of qualified applications.
“If you don’t know how difficult things are, go through a job search and you’ll see just how many people have been downsized from their jobs,” said Salomone.
In fact, Salomone said he realized early on that he had to let go of the now-antiquated notion that an applicant who is out of work is someone to avoid.
“The majority of the applicants had been downsized or were under the threat of being downsized,” he said. “Certainly there is no stigma attached to not being currently employed. You get that message when you see 500 of those.”
Although some companies are still hiring — nationwide nurses, pharmacists and discount retailers are in demand — the vast majority of open jobs are for very specific talents or training. So a general abilities job like the one in Newington often becomes a magnet for hundreds if not thousands of applications.
Recently in Ohio, more than 500 people applied for the job of a school janitor. In North Carolina, more than 250 sought to fill one of 12 openings for fire fighters. And in California, more than 600 people submitted resumes for one of 30 jobs in a local probation office.
The confluence of applications can overwhelm a human resources department, or in some cases the one person responsible for screening candidates.
“It’s very taxing, not only from a work level but also you are never quite sure if you are consistent in terms of evaluation,” said David Cadden, a professor of management at Quinnipiac University in Hamden. “Most people want to do their job well but that number of applicants means you are overloaded.”
Cadden said employers can take a number of approaches to sift through hundreds of applicants — making clear criteria and eliminate anyone who doesn’t match; look quickly at resumes only; or simply agree to look at only the first 75 or 100 applicants that arrive.
“Human resource departments are often under appreciated in terms of the overall organization, but they are critically important, not only to find the best candidate but the best mix of candidates,” Cadden said.
Of course, the flood of applicants means employers are benefiting from a larger talent pool for their job openings. But at the same time, they have to make sure that overqualified candidates won’t leave as soon as the economy improves.
Salomone said that question came to mind when he saw a lawyer applying for the administrative assistant position. Other applications came from some earning more than $100,000 a year (the administrative assistant job pays from the mid $50,000 to the low $60,000). And at least a few were from people looking to entirely change careers, including one chef.
Salomone said the overriding task was how to examine the more than 500 applications fairly.
“For each and every person, it is important to them, and I felt I owed it to them to look at each application closely,” Salomone said. “I knew we would get a good response to the job, but this was at least double if not triple, what was expected. They just kept pouring in.”
