Dear Evil HR Lady,
I recently applied for a Career Counselor/Coordinator position. I received a phone interview on a Friday as a preliminary to the in-person. During the conversation the interviewer admitted that it was more of a case manager position. That following Monday the position was retitled and re-posted as a Case Manager. This also happened previously when another agency posted an ad for an Office Manager, and during the interview I discovered that they really wanted an Payroll-HR/Office Manager. Both were non-profits, but is this the normal now? I thinking of withdrawing my candidacy for the former scenario because something just smells dishonest. Your thoughts?
So, Is That Job Posting a Lie?
that happens a lot if:
– there is little communication between the business and HR and the recruiters cannot properly articulate the business requirements;
– it is a start-up and the roles are not clearly defined;
– it is a project role, and again the JD can be a bit fuzzy.
What you can do is either research what the company is about and maybe try LinkedIn to do some intelligence work, make a cold call or just stop by… what do you lose?
As the (entire) HR Department at a small non-profit, this sounds very familiar. I have had to change and re-post many job ads over the last 2 years, and some of EHRL's scenarios are right on. I'd also add that, at non-profits, it's often about the talents of the individual rather than the job description. The previous Office Manager may, indeed, have been handling payroll because s/he had the skills to take on that task. It may not have been a responsibility original to that role or in the job description. They probably just didn't do an audit of the position before they made the original posting.