canadian headhunter

Don't Hire Self-Serving Slackers

Photon Courier tells us how to identify Opportunists IN the workplace.

Of course, he doesn't tell us how to spot them during interviews (when it counts) - but he does make an important point for naive people who aren't used to job-hunting.

Many career books encourage you to drive a hard bargain in terms of starting salary and act in other ways that resemble the behaviour of opportunists.

Sometimes it's necessary to be tough. Someone I know well made his prospective employer sign documents committing the company to give him a certain kind of laptop, parking place, etc. before he would accept an offer. And, it's a good thing he did so because once he was on staff they tried to back out of everything they'd said.

I should note, however, that this guy is a person of truly exceptional abilities who had many different offers he could have accepted. And, the employer, a large public institution, had a reputation he was well aware of.

But, most people don't have as many options as he did, and, if you seem too self-seeking, you might turn people off.