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Quoting David Castro <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com>:
> Remember, decisionmakers don't tend to go for the *best*
> candidate for a job...they go for the *safest*. They want to hire
> someone who isn't going to turn out to be a bad fit, because a bad fit
> reflects poorly on the person who decided whom to hire.
There's a lot of truth in this comment. However, I don't think that hiring is
usually so conscious a decision. For all the deliberation and testing that HR
does, hiring decisions are closely connected to first impressions, and I think
that this is where the problem lies. Many people would have a problem with the
calendar, or think that they should, or that someone else might.
If the sample were used, one strategy might be to place it in the middle of of a
collection of samples. I suspect that any impact is much stronger when you go
directly to the sample.
> If I was going through a technical writer's portfolio and saw the
> verbiage that was included in an earlier post...much less seeing the
> calendar that it described...it would immediately send up red flags
> that this person was as likely to exhibit poor judgment in the
> workplace as he or she was in putting together the portfolio.
Again, I see what you're saying, and don't exactly disagree. However, but
Michele didn't specify that she was applying for technical writing positions.
For a marketing or design job, the calendar would less exceptional.
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