Pretend You Are Sitting On an Interview Panel

[Nightvisionary]

to select a candidate for a supervisory public safety position. Along with his resume one candidate includes a copy of a 15 year old letter on white house letterhead signed by the POTUS thanking him for his assistance during a presidential visit. Would you view the inclusion of the letter as proper, improper, useful or irrelevant in making a decision?

[just a scout]

Mostly irrelevant but it does provide some background.


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[Circle_10]

to select a candidate for a supervisory public safety position. Along with his resume one candidate includes a copy of a 15 year old letter on white house letterhead signed by the POTUS thanking him for his assistance during a presidential visit. Would you view the inclusion of the letter as proper, improper, useful or irrelevant in making a decision?

I think I'd view it as a desperate attempt by someone with relatively few actual accomplishments to pad their resume with whatever they could.
It would depend on what the candidate was like during the interview but including that would probably rub me the wrong way and they would have to work a bit harder to win me over than if they hadn't included it.

[armtx77]

Wreaks of desperation and a career civil servant who is probably pretty worthless. Hence the lengthy career in civil service.

[Firefly]

Well I’m of two minds.

If he put it in as a conversation starter about like his function at that event and how he handled supervision but makes his point and moves on then not bad.

If he talks endlessly about it then he’s a glory hound.

Also he’s not the only person to get letters like that. It’s not like him and Dubya shared Mexican hookers and got High together while watching Scooby Doo.

[26 Inf]

I certainly wouldn't view it as improper.

In terms of relevance, was it a pro forma letter sent to every officer who assisted, or is it personalized as in 'your assistance with making the arrangements for the security detail' etc.

Or, are you looking at it from a political perspective?

ETA: During our hiring processes you would be surprised at the number of resumes of application that get rejected simply because they don't hit all the prerequisites for the position. For us, if that letter was an attempt to meet some prerequisite, it might be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. To the point - if one of the prerequisites for a job was a background in adult education, I'd damned sure indicate I had taught adult Sunday School and was a Coach in my job at McDonald's if I didn't have anything to throw at that prerequisite.

[Nightvisionary]

I certainly wouldn't view it as improper.

In terms of relevance, was it a pro forma letter sent to every officer who assisted, or is it personalized as in 'your assistance with making the arrangements for the security detail' etc.

Or, are you looking at it from a political perspective?

ETA: During our hiring processes you would be surprised at the number of resumes of application that get rejected simply because they don't hit all the prerequisites for the position. For us, if that letter was an attempt to meet some prerequisite, it might be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. To the point - if one of the prerequisites for a job was a background in adult education, I'd damned sure indicate I had taught adult Sunday School and was a Coach in my job at McDonald's if I didn't have anything to throw at that prerequisite.

Political implications aren't a consideration but the feedback already in this thread has been very helpful.

[kerplode]

It's probably not improper...It's probably not all that relevant either.

[Budget]

The more I think about this, he sounds like a douche. I wouldn't hold it against him, but I'd take a closer look at the resume and see if he's done anything other than be a pulse, especially during critical incidents.

I'm young guy early in my career and I want to work for guy who leads from the front. Someone who is going to be direct but not in a dickish way. I know our promotional panel turned away someone for bombing the oral, so maybe if he makes it that far, it will come out then. Hope you find who/what you're looking for. I don't envy the position bosses are put in.

[Bulletdog]

Irrelevant. Carries no weight with me and has no bearing.