The memes are true. Recruiting has gone insane.

[iloveeverykindofcat]

I've never seen it this bad. I'm an academic/charity professional. I'm fortunate that I've worked one relatively good contract after another for ten years now, and the last five years has been very good indeed. I'm well paid at the moment. But my contract ends in April. I'm very used to looking for the next thing, that's just how the industries are these days- even so-called permanent jobs are falling to redundances and budget freezes. Normally my I'm pretty sanguine about it.

Oh my God. I have never seen it this bad in my life. Jobs that don't exist, posted purely for data gathering. Five page applications for a first sift. Employers that ghost. RECRUITMENT COMPANIES THAT GHOST. 100+ applications per post. Experience mandatory, then rejected for being overqualified. Bullshit salaries for posts that are easily 3 jobs in 1. 4+ stage application processes for entry level posts.

It seems like my 2 best leads right now are based on my network - effectively, who I know. Which is sad, that's but reality right now. Anyway this is a vent post. I've built up a bit of a savings buffer over this last post, and I'm a hairs breadth from jacking it all in for a year and cleaning houses whilst listening to podcasts.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Seeing the five stage thing for entry level uni placements, told they’d been successful and company would be in touch then nothing. DC getting sifted out after the personality tests (harsh). Not sure how much is AI and if this affects the response. Personally I’ve been trying to get progression for years but I’m semi rural, commuting costs would mean I would earn less for most jobs and other people are just staying put so no opportunities. But out of interest (as a curiousl ex academic) why. did you put recruiment companies in capitals? I would think they are more likely to ghost because they only get paid by the employer when they recruit to a post so might not have an interest in following up. Hope you get something, filling in the forms is such a tiresome business.

You're right, its just annoying when recruitment companies spam your LinkedIn to get you sign up then ignore you. I meant more on the charity professional side. feel terrible for young people trying to get started these days - someone passed me another potential lead this morning, which again, is based on my network. It feels vaguely wrong, even though at the end of the day, if I get one of these roles it will be based on the strength of work and relationships I've already accomplished. I have no idea how people build a career from the ground up right now.

My 16 year old is finding it impossible to get their first job. It’s constant rejections and being ghosted.

They had an interview that went great and they were told they would be contacted on X day and then.. nothing. When chased up they got a generic unsuccessful which is fine but don’t say they are perfect for the role and then disappear.

Their friends that have managed to get a job get given 4 hours a week if they are lucky and they’ve pretty much all been told there is no job after Christmas for them.

Two of my DCs & DiL work in recruitment. They tell me that posting jobs that don’t exist is considered very old fashioned & bad form. Their boss got sacked for it last month. I have learned from them that recruitment has its niches, DCs recruit people who fight cyber crime, so don’t know if this is universal throughout recruitment. I wish you every success finding a job. I work for a charity that needs people at a high level, but I suspect they will hire one person to do most of the work of the 2 that have recently left. We have been squeezed by the raising of employer NI contributions & the raising of minimum wage. The charity generates a lot of income, but it only goes so far.

Oh, the "you are perfect" then ghost thing is still happening, both to me and people more senior than myself.

If/when I get the next contract sorted, might publish a page of "Humane employers who treat candidates like people" vs "Worst recruiters, do not apply" list on my LinkedIn 😂

Posting jobs that don't exist feels like it should be illegal.

I agree, it's really bad at the moment. My problem is that employers are put off by me having a 3 month notice period, but I know that it's easier to get a job while you're already in one. I also have too much experience, or too little experience, or not the right experience. I'm a decent person who does the right thing and goes the extra mile to help if someone needs it, regardless of whether or not that fits directly into my role description. That puts me ahead of 90% of the people I currently work with but in this market it counts for nothing.

@Ansjovis how likely is your organization to hold you to 3 months? Mine is officially same, but my line managers are very decent and told me if I got an offer that depended on taking it sooner they'd work it out. I would just put 'negotiable' if possible until you get an offer.

That said, there's a logistical argument for me keeping this post until the last moment and saving as much of the highish current salary as possible, to cover a longer gap (which I am doing).

I don’t understand why someone would do this.

@KilliMonjaro data gathering, and to scope the market.

Same here. My 17 year old is desperate for money but can't get anything. He applied online for a retail job which made him do an online test (answering questions about a job he had never done before!) he failed 😔 and now can't apply for that company for a whole year...

DS is in his final year at uni and the job situation is ridiculous. All jobs applications make him play video games, measure reactions time, take pages of personality tests and then ghost.

The kids are trying to game the games and it’s all terrible.

I moved company recently after a very long stint in one place. My feedback is that I only got good traction through 'real' recruiters who I could have a chat with and who could understand my experience and what was out there - they were older and more in my age group. I took a contract role in an attractive company, and being able to start immediately was a huge advantage. Then being in the door, getting a permanent role was very straightforward. Applying to jobs directly on LinkedIn is a mugs game I think. Expand your network with a few good recruiters and that will help.

@SparkFinderI think you're right. Cold applications feels increasingly like a waste of time. Every realistic prospect seems network based.

yes but not really clear what you would get from that if you don’t have a job going. Seems like a complete waste of time.
I say this as a recruiter at a charity

My DH recently started a great new job after having much the same experience as you - what got him through the door at interview stage was messaging his would-be boss in the company on linked in after he’d applied for a job there, asking about the company and the role etc. They had already engaged with his posts so it wasn’t totally out of the blue.

I think you're totally right that sadly, for a lot of people now jobs are going to be solely down to networking and contacts. He’s very well qualified and before getting this one was rejected from so many roles despite a perfectly matching CV without even getting an interview!

This has been going on since I was in my 20s - so annoying

I also wonder if some of these places are money laundering outfits. My friend got seen by a place that gave her the heebie-jeebies for many reasons, but when she looked into them, or tried to, she found they were kind of a shell.

Geez what is he studying wanting to get in to?

I agree, i've done lots of FTCs and never known it as bad as it is now. There just seems to be a wall of AI cyberslop between employers and employees and i'm not sure what the point is. I've never been successfully placed by a recruiter though, despite being in a specialised field and knowing most of them on first name terms! Its just dumb luck that i've stumbled on the one genuine job ad out there and been employed direct. Its very, very soul destroying and so tempting to just give up. I certainly fear for the coming generations, something has to be done to revolutionise the hiring process and make it work for both ends 🤷‍♀️

Different email address!

I've been looking to move jobs for more than a year now, and yes, the recruitment world really does seem to have gone nuts.

I got filtered out by one job last week, because I failed their psychometric test. The results suggested that I wasn't curious or driven enough because I gave up playing a game on the test which was clearly designed to be impossible to win, rather than sticking with it for some predetermined amount of time.

I am plenty curious and plenty driven. I'm also not an idiot and don't have time to waste on shitty pointless games. Also having two psychology degrees, I don't trust the majority of psychometric tests as far as I could throw them. So feel like maybe I dodged a bullet there anyway.

I also refuse to apply for jobs where the application process includes 'upload a video of yourself answering these questions/talking about x/telling us why you should work for us'. Just no.

And I think I have given up on Linked in. It's just a swamp of crap jobs, and people bullshitting about how great they are.

There just seems to be a wall of AI cyberslop between employers and employees and i'm not sure what the point is.

@Buttcraic I think you've put your finger on it. This is the key variable that's changed - Gen AI. Sometimes when you've done a 5 page essay and get some AI slop email rejection back its tempting to reply "Thanks ChatGPT"

I didn't know that was a thing. Why do they do it?

To get you on their books and tell their clients look at all the amazing people we have.
It’s not just bad form it’s a breach of the Conduct Regulations 2003. You can report them to Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate on the .gov website

200 applicants recently for roles my employer advertised. Some unqualified but frankly we could have filled each role several times over with recruitable candidates. There is a lack of employee turnover in my team as people are clinging to roles like molluscs. It isn't the time to be taking a risk with a new role. It feels like the 2010s austerity period. I’m not making any big ticket purchases this Xmas.