IntroductionThis paper will address the desired skill set, the manner of recruitment, and the proper assessment of candidates for a job in Estate Management. Estate Management is a broad occupational umbrella that can cover all manner of tasks, from overseeing the financial affairs of an individual or family, managing rental properties, or providing oversight for the assets of a deceased individual. The desired candidate will be proficient with all manner of Microsoft Office Suite software, and will have the ability to conduct deep research using various Internet sources, in particular LexisNexis. The candidate will furthermore evidence a broad knowledge of property law, taxation matters, facilities management, and landlord and tenant law. In addition to this knowledge base, the candidate must also have strong interpersonal and communication skills, as they will be working closely with families, many of whom are in significant distress. Further, the candidate for this position should also hold, at minimum, a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration; however a Master’s of Business Administration degree and/or a Juris Doctor degree would provide a candidate with a distinct competitive edge. Overall, a job candidate for Estate Management should be well-versed in business and property law, should possess strong interpersonal skills, and be well-educated.
Advertisement and Recruitment for Candidate
In order to advertise for the desired candidate for the Estate Management position, it would be advisable to avoid such popular sites as monster.com or glassdoor.com. Such sites can potentially net hundreds or thousands of resumes, and create a bureaucratic nightmare for the administrative staff at the hypothetical company for whom I am advertising. “LinkedIn” might provide more targeted responses to the job advertisement; however a better approach would be to look for candidates on a local basis. A first suggestion would be the local university campus, if there is one, and if that university has a law school, even better. When advertising for a job position at a local university, it is advisable to first approach the “Career Services” center of such a school. Often, job counselors will be aware of qualified candidates who are looking for a position similar to the one that we are offering, and simply making this initial contact can lead to desirable results.
Failing the possibility of the local university “career services” center, another approach might be to establish a site at the “Job Fair” that is usually offered on a semi-annual or annual basis at such universities. When setting up a stand at a university job fair, it is important to remember that this approach holds several distinct advantages for a job recruiter. First, recruiters are able to meet potential job candidates “face to face,” and are able to size up a potential candidate before moving along with the application process or a job interview. Secondly, the stands at university job fairs often collect applications on site, meaning that the employee who staffs the desk at the job fair can often simply reject the resumes of applicants who do not “seem right” for the position, and can also learn to better tailor their approach to job recruiting.
When recruiting for a position at a university job fair, one of the most important things to keep in mind for Human Resources personnel at a given organization is that they should be very specific. Individuals who are about to graduate are often desperate for job leads and opportunities, and, as such, Human Resources personnel should make it a priority to keep these possibilities in mind. To refer back to the “Estate Management” position, Human Resources employees should keep in mind that they need to emphasize the requirement for high levels of education for the position. Such a screening tactic will help to eliminate the possibility of under-educated individuals applying for the position. Moreover, such a tactic will eliminate the possibility of people who are approaching the “job search” tactic from a mercenary position, and simply applying to all the positions that they think they are “60 percent qualified for” from applying.” The engagement of these tactics can be of enormous help to administrative staff in the overall recruitment process, and lead to the hiring of the most qualified personnel.
Two Methods of Asseessment
From the above recommended recruitment tactics, there are two levels of assessment which should be used to pre-qualify these applicants. First, an objective testing method with regards to the legalities and tax codes of estate management should be administered. It is all-important to ensure that potential job applicants “know their stuff” before they are given further consideration. Secondly, potential job applicants need to be assessed for their interpersonal skills, or lack thereof. This quality can easily be assessed in a one-on-one interview, in which the investigator asks questions regarding the applicants’ potential response to hypothetical situations. In a hypothetical one on one interview, the interviewer can obtain a better idea of the applicants “personality type,” or figure out how they would “think on their feet,” in given hypothetical situations. The in-person, “on your feet” examination is far more important than the “book test” that is administered requiring knowledge of given localities and tax codes. Overall, what our company needs is someone who can empathize with individuals who have just experienced an excruciating loss. In these instances, tax codes and issues of landlord-tenant rights matter very little, but it is crucial that such individuals have the interpersonal skills necessary to navigate such matters.
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