I’m going to give you the inside scoop on how jobs are posted and filled.? You would think the scenario goes something like this:

Mary, the office manager, writes a letter of resignation, giving two weeks notice to her boss, Karen Karen takes a copy of Mary’s job description to HR HR posts the Job People apply HR screens the applicants Karen interviews the top three applicants and picks the best one Job offer is made and start date set

Oh, if only that were the case.? I’m sure that happens sometimes.? (I should say in jobs where there are a lot of people doing the same thing, like retail or call centers, that is how it happens.)? But, in jobs like the examples you listed, that is rarely the case.? Here’s how it might go.

Mary, the office manager, writes a letter of resignation, giving two weeks notice to her boss, Karen Karen tries to figure out what she is going to do now.? Should she put Steve in Mary’s job and Jennifer in Steve’s job and post Jennifer’s job?? Should she hire a new office manager from the outside?? If she does the promotion chain, does Jennifer’s job really need to be a full time position?? Maybe Jennifer’s job responsibilities should be divided between Steve, Jennifer and Jose in HR/Payroll.? Hmmmm, thoughts. While Karen is still thinking about this, she calls up Jose who handles payroll and HR.? “Go ahead an post the position, using the same job description as last time!”? she says. Jose posts the job. People apply Jose starts screening the applicants Jose shows up in Karen’s office.? “I hate the HR responsibilities I have,” he says.? “What if you hire someone with some HR experience and we turn that responsibility over to the office manager?”? “Ooh, good idea,” says Mary.? “But, if we give the HR responsibility to the office manager, you’ll have to take over the vendor management.”? “Hey, I’d rather do vendor management than payroll and HR, can we give both to the office manager?” Jose says. Jose schedules the top three candidates for interview, even though he and Karen are still in discussions about the position Jose, Karen and Patti (the company president) decide that vendor management is really a much more critical role now than it used to be.? They create a new position for Jose as the Vendor Manager and combine the office manager role with payroll and HR functions Since your interview was scheduled for today anyway, they decide to tell you then that the position is also has a large payroll/HR function to it

And that’s in an easy case.? This example assumes that Karen, Jose and Patti all agree.? We haven’t talked at all about Tom who wants to steal Karen’s headcount or Nisha who thinks the office manager position is silly and another sales person should be hired.? And then there’s Jurg in finance who doesn’t care what the job function is, he only wants to budget half of the current salary for it.? In the mean time, Jennifer and Steve are doing Mary’s old job and grumbling about the extra work they have to do.

I seriously doubt that anyone is trying to be dishonest and trick you into interviewing.? I mean, at the end of the day you’ll actually have to work with these people.? It’s not like they can pull a switcherroo and get you to buy the big screen television when you only came in wanting a small one to sit on the counter in your kitchen.? (That’s not to say that hiring managers are all 100% honest.? It’s a rare manager that says, “So, mainly this job stinks and I’m a terrible boss who micro-manages, yet if you do precisely what I tell you to do, you’ll fail.”? But, as for the job description changing mid-process, that’s not dishonesty, that’s indecisiveness.)

Job postings change.? Managers decide they want different skills then the previous person had.? They decide to raise or lower the pay grade, and hence the responsibilities.? People try to push their unwanted tasks onto the new vacancy.? People fight over headcount.? Sometimes positions completely disappear.? Sometimes they are re-titled, re-vamped and re-worked to death.

If I were you, I’d accept it as part of the job hunt process.? If you’re interested in the new job description, keep your hat in the ring.? But, don’t worry about it being dishonest.? It’s most likely just part of the process.

Photo by cogdogblog, Flickr cc 2.0

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