Will you hire a staff who doesn't even have the basic skill?
By Lee Ka
@kaka135 (14994)
Malaysia
October 19, 2010 5:24pm CST
My company has just hired a new staff, and I just found out she doesn't even have the fundamental knowledge in my field. We are doing software development/programming, and she doesn't even know what is "for-loop" which I think it is really basic in programming. She doesn't really understand how to write a method/function, and some other basic stuffs. These are the basic stuffs we have learned during our first subject in programming.
Besides these, she is actually quite dependent. She will come to you and ask "teach me this", "help me to do this" before she does some research on the Internet. Though I think it's too demanding and dependent to just ask people to help you to do your work, as a fresh graduate, I think it might still be acceptable.
I just don't understand why my boss hired her, and my manager still thinks she is quite good as a fresh graduate. Am I too demanding? Don't we need to fulfill certain requirements to enter the job field? Hopefully she can learn things fast, otherwise she'll just keep on eating up other people's time. 
5 people like this
18 responses
@tkonlinevn (6427)
• Vietnam
20 Oct 10
Hi my friend. This is my ideas: she maybe ask you to make friend with you. You can open your heart, you'll look for some strong from her. Then, you'll understand why your boss hire her. I think that your boss has any good reasons to hire employees.
1 person likes this
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
20 Oct 10
Some jobs necessarily require some on the job training to bring a new recruit up to speed on their position,but any job should require at least some competency,background knowledge,and aptitude for that job position to get you in the door in the first place...A Guy I know manages a Hotel Leisure centre,and was commenting recently on someone walking in to the place with an attitude to ask for a Job there, expecting to be offered one despite having no relevant qualifications,and being astonished to be told there were any...
Among the qualifications they'd prefer would be a Lifeguard certificate,Sport training certificates,First aid certificate (They've recently acquired a portable defibrillator,and training on that would be a must)..I don't remember all of the stuff the staff could be expected to be qualified to do as part of the job,but it would be an impressive amount of training to get through all of it..
I'd be with you on this..although new staff would be welcome to help out in a busy place,the "Alice in Wonderland" act is not..
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
25 Oct 10
That would depend on the person. Some people learn a job quickly even tho they don't have skills. Others who have "Degrees" sometimes can't do well in the work field. I would rather take someone who doesn't have experience and teach them the way I would do the job in the office. That way they don't develope bad habits.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
23 Oct 10
Looks like she is not even competent to handle the job she is hired for. This is something strange as employers should be able to gauge a person capabilities and knowledge well. Only in rare cases where employees are employed based on internal connections. Meaning they are employed through back door and not through proper channel.
@maygodblessu44 (7336)
• India
1 Nov 10
Hello my friend kaka135 Ji,
Well, I was very much under impression that you had wished good-buy to your job and became house-wife to take care of your toddler son. Well that was by the way. Coming to the point, it is as per latest Man-management to mix-up man-power, where if some one does not turn up, work is not stopped stand still. I have seen Infosus getting some Mechanical Engineers. The theory behind is very simple, after all all engineers have their basic knowledge and they can pick up easily from others while at the job. Next they may hjave to pay less for actual Engineering experts in particular fields. Take care.
May God bless You and have a great time.
@ram_cv (16513)
• India
23 Oct 10
:) Haven't we all faced such issues. As I have been in the IT industry for more than a decade, I know what you mean and can understand how it feels. I once had a person who was hired for doing some Java based work. The first task assigned to him was converting some htmls to jsps. He promptly did it in 10 minutes flat!! He simply renamed the files from .html to .jsp :) Imagine how I would have felt at that moment!!
Now one a personal note, will I hire such a person? The answer is obviously no. But will I put up with such a person, well I did put up with the above person for nearly a year. But the best way is to talk with your boss and see if this person can be pushed for some training etc. If the boss has hired this person because of aptitude, then training might help. If all else fails use the appraisal mechanism to put the person on notice.
Cheers!
Ram
@chenxiaoyue_713 (2165)
• China
20 Oct 10
it's normal that a company should hire someone who at least has some knowledge about the specific field, but the truth is a company may hire someone who is compeletely ignorant of what he or she is going to do. there are always some potential rules affecting the job market. a truly skilled and qualified person may probably be turned down while a stupid one may win the favor. you know the rules, right? so it's really nothing suprising. just help her whenever you could. it won't do you harm.
@maezee (41985)
• United States
20 Oct 10
No, you don't sound too demanding. This sounds like a no-brainer. Why would they hire her? But then again I don't know the full story behind it. Maybe give it time. We were all new at our jobs at one point, maybe it just takes some getting used to and she'll pick things up more quickly than you think!
@incredibleDNA (1742)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
Geez, that's pretty tough! i know that there are bootcamps as well but not having some basic lessons in programming is a NO NO.. he/she should have at least have some knowledge about programming structure etc..
In your case tho, you might wanna talk to your HR manager and try to settle these things out.. It's not that being selfish but if she's gonna develop a software, she should really get a grasp of programming.. You can also suggest that she should undergo training and shadowing
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
21 Oct 10
I think that the boss needs to know that she is struggling with the work that is expected of her. The thing about hiring someone that has just graduated is that everything about them can look very good on paper, but there are really no references that can be checked into to make sure that they know what is expected of them in the new job. I actually think this is a big part of the reason that there aren't a lot of new graduates that are able to find jobs in their field right off the bat.
@bounce58 (17380)
• Canada
22 Oct 10
I guess a big part of the qualification for new hires is 'soft skills'. I don't know the background story for this new hire of yours, but maybe she has a lot of this soft skills, and may have been the basis for her getting hired.
If she doesn't know the basic things, I would expect her to learn quickly. If not, then it would just prove to be a costly exercise.
@Strovek (868)
• Malaysia
20 Oct 10
When hiring a person there are several criteria that are important. Maybe what you consider basic skill maybe different from what your boss consider is a basic skill. I don't know your company or your boss but maybe it might be the boss saw a potential in the new girl and wanted to give her a break.
Based on what you mentioned, she looks like she has the right attitude and a willingness to learn but only lack the confidence and guide. Give her sometime to learn 1-2 months then see if the boss was right to choose her.
@celticeagle (189927)
• Boise, Idaho
20 Oct 10
I might. If I feel what I am doing is such that I want to teach someone from the bottom level up. If I thought they had other characteristics I felt was important in my persuit then, ya, I would. I would have her follow me through my day and I would tell her:"Okay this I want you to do from now on so I can do this." Etc. If she is smart and quick study then its a go.
@anurag3786 (6265)
• India
20 Oct 10
I think persons who are hiring by any company must know the basic knowledge about programming language. Because if they know this then a person who are trainer don’t feel much problem to trained them better. So I always prefer to hire a good staff that has at least basic knowledge about some programming languages.
@ddaguno (3107)
• Philippines
20 Oct 10
It is noble for your company to hire someone who doesnt have experience but I think if they were to hire a new graduate then that person's course should have somehow been related to your field.
Companies sometimes hire newbies so they dont have to give high salaries.
Anyway, she has you to teach her. Give her a learning period and if she doesnt improve then tell your boss to look for someone with experience to replace her.
@Sanitary (3968)
• Singapore
20 Oct 10
The way boss employ staffs is by looking at their academic results. As long as it's acceptable, they don't mind because to them, results reflect on one's knowledge. However I can boldly say that their mindset is wrong. I'm one such person who graduated from accountancy but my results are not that fantastic. Whatever knowledge or memory I have are just for the examinations, anything after that are all forgotten even the basics.
So I'm not surprised why your boss employ her if it's based on her school results more than her on field experience.
