¶ … ad brought in too many unqualified applicants because the ad did not specify much about the job. The specific qualifications were not listed. The company needs software design engineers and Dorothy's ad simply asked for engineers. Thus, the job description was not sufficiently specific. The qualifications were also not specific. "Recent college graduate" is not clear as to the educational credentials of the desired applicant. Looking at the ad, it is difficult to determine what type of person the company is seeking and what that person will be doing once hired.

Dorothy also used a major newspaper, as opposed to placing a more focused ad. Thus, the ad was read by many unqualified applicants who undoubtedly decided to simply throw their hat in the ring. Dorothy needs to place the ad where it will reach the target market, not the general market.

Dorothy's ad has two problematic clauses. The first one is with respect to "good appearance." Appearance has nothing to do with the job qualifications. If Dorothy is using that as a selection criteria, she is ruling out otherwise qualified applicants. The job is highly specialized and therefore Dorothy needs to focus on those key specialized skills in the ad. Also, using appearance to screen candidates is going to set the company up for legal action. Discriminatory hiring practices are often subject to lawsuits. While not explicitly illegal, hiring based on appearance is only allowed if it is a bona fide occupational qualification (modeling or acting, for example) they are if appearance is irrelevant to job performance, which is the case with software design engineers (Panaro, 2003).

The second standard that needs to be removed is "good credit rating." As with appearance, credit rating is irrelevant to the job. A candidates' ability to manage their credit rating has no bearing on their ability as a software design engineer, so this clause should also be removed and replaced with a standard that is directly related to job performance.

Works Cited:

Panaro, G. (2003). Is hiring on the basis of appearance illegal? Bankers Online. Retrieved December 3, 2009 from http://www.bankersonline.com/operations/gp_appearance.html