Good Afternoon George,
In hundreds of government museums (city,state,federal) the interviewing
supervisor does not even see the initial wave of applications.  In my
experience, if 70 or 80 applications are mailed in for a single
application, HR (in my case at City Hall) will only let me see the
applications that make the minimum qualifications (MQ)cut.  This 1st MQ cut
may consist of about 10 or 12 applications receiving interview
consideration, sometimes out of the original 70 or 80 applications.  I
don't even know the names of the individuals who don't make the cut, and
won't be able to see those applications.  Anyway, all
correspondence /contact (telephone, e-mail, etc.) to the applicants is
handled by HR.  By policy, I cannot contact the applicants except to set-up
the telephone and face-to-face interviews, or to give the applicants
a "take-home situational essay exam" (yes, we do those for senior
positions).....after HR gives me formal "go-ahead."   As you can well
imagine, this will take months....and, sometimes HR will not contact the
applicants that were cut until after the candidate is chosen and accepts
the position so they will have a pool to contact if necessary.  This is
sometimes done when the interviewing supervisor needs to interview more
applicants for a variety of reasons.....sometimes this happens when several
candidates don't show-up for an interview (it happens more and more).  I
have been responsible for filling well over 100 museum positions (from
museum directors and curators to grounds keepers and janitors) and have
seen over 1200 applications over the last 3 decades......I don't know how
many application that I haven't seen because HR never forwarded them for
reasons state above.
I hope this sheds some light on why some things (in government affiliated
museums) are the way they are,
Wesley S. Creel
Administrator of Programs and Interim Director of Museums
Pink Palace Family of Museums
Memphis, Tennessee
www.memphismuseums.org
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