Companies Find New Ways To Filter Job Applicants

Widen Net

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is trying to widen its net by getting people to apply who wouldn’t typically pursue a career at the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said Andrea Dadas, who manages recruitment marketing there. For example, Goldman has positions for backgrounds including law and journalism, not just those who work in finance, she said.

“For us, it’s not about narrowing the pool of candidates - - it’s about helping the candidates narrow down how we might be a good fit for them,” said Dadas, who is based in New York.

For other companies, the solution is a mix of the two strategies -- emphasizing groups of employees the business deems critical, while also showcasing the breadth of opportunities.

Earlier this year, General Electric Co. aired a television advertisement coinciding with the Winter Olympics depicting a little girl imaginatively describing what her mom does at work. The message served to highlight the wide-ranging jobs at the company, and also specifically described the role women play at GE, said Andy Goldberg, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company’s global creative director.

“Our goal was to really focus on how does a kid talk about a mom,” Goldberg said. Judging by the social-media response, “people were excited. They said, ‘Hey, that is so cool GE is highlighting a mom who’s an engineer, a mom who is a scientist.’ There are people who literally wrote, ‘I want to be part of that.’”