Viva Las Espuelas
11-13-2008, 03:49 PM
Seven-page job questionnaire goes to extraordinary lengths to protect incoming administration
Have you led an entirely blameless - or better yet blander than bland - existence for your entire adult life? Can you guarantee that you have never sent an embarrassing or angry email or text? Are you absolutely sure you have destroyed those awkward teenage diaries? The Barack Obama administration may want you.
A seven-page job questionnaire prepared by the office of the president-elect is going to extraordinary lengths to protect the incoming Obama administration from potential scandal in its job hires.
Job seekers are being asked to supply copies of all résumés or bios for the last decade - presumably to screen out people inflating their credentials.
Applicants are also being asked to hand over all written material - from books and articles to lowly comments on blogposts. They must provide all internet handles, and the URL of professional and personal networking sites.
The process of staffing the incoming administration got under way this week, with Obama taking job applications on his change.gov website.
The bonanza in political appointments is one of the rituals of the transition process. It even has its own bible: the so-called Plum Book, a purple-covered official guide to the more than 7,000 job vacancies created with the change of administration.
The guide, issued after every election since 1952, was released online this week.
But Obama appears to have set a new standard for intrusiveness as recruiters try to establish a financial, personal and professional paper trail for job applicants, their spouses, and their grown children.
Applicants are asked to list any legal offence, including traffic violations punished by more than a $50 fine. They are asked to list any gift worth over $50 they or their spouse have received from anyone who is not a relative or close friend. They must reveal whether they or anybody in their family owns a gun.
A good portion of the questionnaire is devoted to seeking financial information - down to the rate of interest the applicant is paying on their mortgage.
It also aims to weed out anyone who could be linked to the current mortgage lending crisis, asking flatly whether the applicant or any member of their family has worked for any of the firms now being bailed out by Washington.
The rationale behind the extraordinarily detailed questionnaire is fairly transparent: Obama is determined to avoid giving any ammunition to his enemies.
"Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career," the questionnaire asks.
It also asks the applicant whether he or she has any enemies that "might take steps, overtly or covertly, fairly or unfairly, to criticise your nomination".
Then again, with America's jobless rate at a 14-year high, maybe Obama just figures he can afford to be choosy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/13/obama-white-house-questionnaire
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Have you led an entirely blameless - or better yet blander than bland - existence for your entire adult life? Can you guarantee that you have never sent an embarrassing or angry email or text? Are you absolutely sure you have destroyed those awkward teenage diaries? The Barack Obama administration may want you.
A seven-page job questionnaire prepared by the office of the president-elect is going to extraordinary lengths to protect the incoming Obama administration from potential scandal in its job hires.
Job seekers are being asked to supply copies of all résumés or bios for the last decade - presumably to screen out people inflating their credentials.
Applicants are also being asked to hand over all written material - from books and articles to lowly comments on blogposts. They must provide all internet handles, and the URL of professional and personal networking sites.
The process of staffing the incoming administration got under way this week, with Obama taking job applications on his change.gov website.
The bonanza in political appointments is one of the rituals of the transition process. It even has its own bible: the so-called Plum Book, a purple-covered official guide to the more than 7,000 job vacancies created with the change of administration.
The guide, issued after every election since 1952, was released online this week.
But Obama appears to have set a new standard for intrusiveness as recruiters try to establish a financial, personal and professional paper trail for job applicants, their spouses, and their grown children.
Applicants are asked to list any legal offence, including traffic violations punished by more than a $50 fine. They are asked to list any gift worth over $50 they or their spouse have received from anyone who is not a relative or close friend. They must reveal whether they or anybody in their family owns a gun.
A good portion of the questionnaire is devoted to seeking financial information - down to the rate of interest the applicant is paying on their mortgage.
It also aims to weed out anyone who could be linked to the current mortgage lending crisis, asking flatly whether the applicant or any member of their family has worked for any of the firms now being bailed out by Washington.
The rationale behind the extraordinarily detailed questionnaire is fairly transparent: Obama is determined to avoid giving any ammunition to his enemies.
"Briefly describe the most controversial matters you have been involved with during the course of your career," the questionnaire asks.
It also asks the applicant whether he or she has any enemies that "might take steps, overtly or covertly, fairly or unfairly, to criticise your nomination".
Then again, with America's jobless rate at a 14-year high, maybe Obama just figures he can afford to be choosy.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/13/obama-white-house-questionnaire
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