Can a prospective employer ask for background check info before they interview you?

We don’t even ask, we just do it. Your submission of an employment application to us gives us specific authority to do so.

That’s a problem? You don’t want to give us that authority? Your choice, but your application will proceed no further unless we can do a background check. It’s irresponsible to hire anyone without one, and we don’t waste time interviewing people we know we’re not going to hire.

Originally appeared on Quora

Do hotel cleaning people sometimes steal items from the rooms of their guests?

Rarely. You might be surprised, if you've never worked in a hotel, just how so.

Even the dumbest room attendant knows that whatever the temptation, if it happens, the guest will say something right away as soon as he or she notices the item missing, and there's always a record of who cleaned which room. In most hotels - and in any well-run hotel - there's just no way to do it and not get found out. And busted. Very quickly.

And any hotel owner or manager (who aren't always necessarily smarter than the housekeepers) knows that if a problem develops, unless it's addressed and dealt with immediately and conclusively, he or she is going to lose control of how to contain it. (For example, once a police car rolls up, which will happen if it's an item of any serious value, there's going to be an investigation, which means housekeepers being interviewed - on company time - by the cops.) So there is no incentive for a hotel owner or manager to cover up for (or even put up with) one or more sticky-fingered housekeepers, and at least some disincentive for even the grungiest manager of even the rattiest motel to tolerate it. Usually when there's a problem, it's the fault of weak or incompetent management, not complicit management.

I'll give you a pair of travel tips.

What are the most overrated qualities employers look for in a job candidate?

Credit rating.

Using a credit score to assess risk of embezzlement or theft, or as a measure of 'character', is about as ignorant and irresponsible as anyone's, or any company's, hiring process gets.



Dishonest people who are likely to steal don't care about the debts reported on their credit, anyway: if anything, they'll have very few showing because they use little credit and deal primarily in cash. Those who do steal don't do it to pay lawful debts of long standing. A debt problem of sufficiently lengthy standing to show up on a credit report is rarely the incentive or motive for someone who actually steals. When debt is the motive for theft or embezzlement, it's more likely someone who's being pressed for payment at the moment - perhaps by a bookie, loan shark, or drug dealer -  not someone who needs to pay a valid debt that's been around long enough to show up on a credit report.

After an interview, do potential employers send out rejections first or give out offers first?

We don't reject anyone.

If (for example) Son of Sam (David Berkowitz ) got out of prison and showed up looking for a job, we'd politely take his application and file it; and it would then sit in that file for sixty days, then probably get tossed (in accordance with our policy, spelled out clearly on the form that Son of Sam filled out and signed off on, that that's how long we keep applications on file). In the meanwhile, of course, chances are that Son of Sam's application wouldn't be acted upon beyond the point of his having submitted it and our having filed it, since -- if we're accepting applications at all and a staffing need comes up -- we've usually gotten at least one application from someone who isn't Son of Sam.

(Of course, in the interest of 'equal opportunity', we take care to do that with any job application that's been around for sixty days, even some that are viable, even a few from people that we'd like to have been able to hire; if we did not have a staffing need in the meanwhile for which one of the applicants would have been a good match. Chances are, with hourly jobs, any application that's more than three weeks old was submitted by someone who has since moved on and found another job, if for no better reason than he or she had to, and couldn't sit around and wait for us to get our mess together and make a decision.)

But we're not looking to reject or to 'discriminate' against Son of Sam - or anyone else. We're looking for the person who is the best match for the job. We're not going to reject people, one by one, until we find that person. We're going to go through the pile, choose several on the basis of what we feel are the likelihood that they will be that person, and continue with the screening and selection process.

Does Bill Gates have a resume?

Probably not. (I'd be amazed if he did.)

And, would you refuse to hire him because of that?  Or if he did give you one, would anything on it make a difference in your decision to hire him? Should it?

Who would you need, or expect, to call for references?



That's a shining example of how I consider the entire field of human resources generally dysfunctional . . . and why I don't put full pedigree information on my LinkedIn profile or spend too much time with it . . .

The information that shows up on a resume/CV (and the follow-up calls you'd make in connection with one if you had one) is a very small part of what a person -- especially a person of Bill Gates' known abilities, attributes and achievements, or a person who is similarly extraordinary in other fields -- is all about, and tells you very little about his or her capabilities. And that body of information would tell you way too much about his or her weaknesses, past mistakes, and failings, and put far and away too much emphasis on those. (Should it be held against Bill Gates that he dropped out of Harvard? After all, dropping out is bad. Especially after Daddy paid a whole lot of money to send you to Harvard! . . .)

Sales: What are some best responses to "Sell me this hotel room"?

"I see you have no idea whatsoever how to successfully market a hotel, or how to find or identify candidates who might, nor would you know how to work with and properly supervise someone who could perhaps help you in that area; so I won't waste any more of your time. Good day."

Hotel sales and marketing people do not sell hotel rooms, they market the hotel. You might point out a unique design or uncommon amenity item in the rooms; but as far as 'selling a hotel room' goes, there is very little differentiation between hotel rooms found within the same class of hotels, even between competing hotels, unless you're selling a recently renovated Class B or economy property.