The Perfect Job (part 1) (
Page 1 of 11 )
Recruitment - the art of matching qualified applications to open
positions within an organization - is one of the most challenging tasks for
any Human Resources department. However, powerful open-source tools like
PHP and mySQL have made the process simpler, more efficient and more
economical than at any time in the past. This case study demonstrates how,
by building a complete job listing and resume management system from
scratch.It might not seem all that hard, but manning an organization's Human Resources
division is actually a pretty difficult task. Sure, HR guys and gals don't have
to worry about memory leaks, garbage collection or mangled code; however, their
problems are often just as compelling and challenging as those of any software
programmer or interface designer.
One of the most challenging problems
for any Human Resources department is recruitment, the art of matching potential
employees with vacancies within the organization. The process is complex: place
an advertisement, wait for resumes to roll in, and then begin the arduous task
of sifting through them in search of potential recruits. This is usually
followed by interviews and reference checks of potential candidates, and perhaps
a job offer.
Now, back before the Web was a buzzword, the only way to let
potential employees know about a job was via advertisements, either in a
newspaper or journal, or on television. And once responses started rolling in,
HR would have the unenviable task of wading through mounds of paper to find the
perfect match for the open position. Along the way, you could almost always
expect to misplace or destroy a few of those resumes, sustain multiple paper
cuts, and say goodbye to any hope you might have had of a social
life.
However, with everyone and their deaf grandma now connected to the
Web, reaching out to potential candidates has become much easier. A company can
now either advertise vacancies through online employment agencies, or place job
listings on their own Web site. Since online employment agencies aren't in the
biz out of the goodness of their hearts, the latter option is usually the one
smaller companies prefer, if only for economical reasons.
Of course,
putting up jobs on a Web site is just the tip of the iceberg. Once those resumes
begin coming in, there's still the task of organizing them into categories,
wading through all the data to short-list candidates for interviews, and filing
rejected applications for future use. Oh, yes...and just to make things
interesting, there's usually a clock ticking away in the background as
well.
With the help of powerful open-source tools like PHP and mySQL, the
process can be simplified considerably. And over the course of this article, I'm
going to demonstrate how, by building a job listing system suitable for a small-
or medium-sized business.
The goal here is two-fold: to introduce novice
and intermediate programmers to the process of designing and implementing a
Web-based application; and to offer HR managers and other interested folk a
possible solution to their woes.
Onwards!
This article copyright Melonfire 2001. All rights
reserved.
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