Online Job Recruitment: A Candidate’s View  

Modern, online job recruitment scenarios almost always follow a predictable standard pattern:

First, a telecall completely out of the blue after months or even years of silence, from a casual, cheery-sounding commercial agency worker who talks from a script, with modern over-familiar style, first-name form of address, and insincere-sounding form greeting, as if he’s your long-lost best friend. He claims he has just been given a job vacancy that is apparently the best thing since the proverbial sliced bread, and implies you are the perfect and unique candidate for it!

There then follows a very enthusiastic but limited, filtered and scripted exposition of the role and vacancy, extolling its many virtues, and stressing the applicant /candidate’s supposed ‘close fit’ to that role. This is all whilst expediently avoiding or minimising any negative aspects, such as the costly and long commuting distance or hours, extra unlisted duties, the low or concealed pay (“TBA or DOE” etc), abuse of IR35 rules and whether there’s any competition involved from other candidates, either from the agency or other recruitment sources.

The, often anonymous or shadowy, employer is represented as being very ‘open and keen to appoint’, but actual details by way of a proper informative job specification are not available, and there is seldom any opportunity to talk direct in detail about the employer and applicant role. The length of work vacancy offered or required is also usually suspiciously vague and is often later found to be shorter than that implied or suggested in the opening discussion, leading to the conclusion that sincerity and genuine vocational commitment is minimal and token only.

Everything is, of course, also terribly urgent (the candidate is to “hit the ground running” – a dishonest and vile cliché!) and that “interviews will be held in a matter of days”. In reality this is usually because the employer is in a bit of a funk, having suddenly realised that a critical programme, project or task is both behind schedule and urgent; not only that, but there is no-one of any relevant ability, experience or skills left in their hollowed-out organisation to do the work, and they have been unable to recruit direct. This also usually results in much crude hawking around of their temporary ‘off-cut’ jobs, accompanied by ‘fishing expeditions’ simply to test out the market.

The applicant having been persuaded to apply and submit the usual mass of details, there is then a long pause before a civil response, if any, is forthcoming. Suddenly all that massive urgency has vanished!  The long silent wait is at last relieved by the vexed and frustrated applicant, who has put on hold his/her week’s previous arrangements in order to be ‘available’ and whose hopes have been raised, contacting the agency to find out whatever is happening.

After much missing each other and leaving ping-pong messages, usually due to the agency worker being “in a meeting”, “out of the office” or “unavailable”, suddenly that supposedly desperate employer has become fussy and picky!  Finally a very reluctant admission is extracted, with minimal informative feedback, that the wonder vacancy has been filled or even withdrawn, there’s nothing doing and that the applicant’s hopes and effort have been dashed.

Not that the agency cares: it still get its fee, irrespective of whether it places a applicant or not  – at the end of the day the employer, not the candidate, is its client to whom it is beholden.

Sound familiar?! This is precisely why so many job applicants no longer want to work for an employer!

Paul R, former property surveyor.