I was interviewed by a recruitment firm today. The kind of interview you have so that you can be on their books; meaning I’m categorised in their database. Except that I’m not. I’m not sortable. Despite it being a strange phrase my bigger concern is narrow mindedness of the system the recruitment firm is using.
I was handed an A4 sheet, with 6–7 columns full of skills that I was asked to circle. The last two columns referred to the more vocational aspects of work. I could not circle any of them! Never mind that unsortable equal invaluable?
My comments here are not a gripe about the difficulty of finding work but a frustration at what I see is a complete failure to serve anybody. The job application, the recruitment firm or the employer. If the database is not comprehensive then how can anybody be matched by the system. I believe this also stems from a tendency to only serve the jobs advertised with them and not bother going to their network to see what is possible (ok, so the last sentence is a bit of a grip about the difficulty of finding work but I search for win-win whenever I can). The story that I’m told is, “Your ideal job doesn’t exist because it’s not been advertised with us”. It appears to be a great excuse to do nothing.