Most job hunting advice is rubbish
Posted by Mitch on 21st March 2012
Those self-help books are the worst.
Several hundred pages of author self-promotion all designed to sleep-walk you into their next seminar and with about as much meaningful practical advice as can be put onto a post-it note.
Much of the perceived wisdom about how to find “your dream job” (like that has ever existed for about 99% of the population) revolves around candidates selling themselves.
Why should Administrators, Accountants and Actuaries be expected to be good at sales? That makes as much sense as expecting salespeople to good at coding.
In fact, expecting everybody to be able to sell themselves is firmly placing the burden of critical assessment with the candidate when it really should be with the hiring company.
I’d have thought that most competent interviewers would want, when interviewing an Accountant, that person to display their financial management skills. Not put on some show of self-aggrandisement or personal marketing that has little relevance to the content of the job of being an Accountant.
Career Consultants should be writing books that illuminate the art of selection and assessment so that candidates can receive better quality job-interviews – instead of the fatuous and banal experience most recruiters, HR and hiring managers put these candidates through these days.
Because if they did, then maybe some of these candidates would be better informed about what people to even bother talking to before they get stuck in a room with them and being asked what what Star Wars character they most identify with.
Recruiters need to start getting good at assessment.
That way, maybe we’d get fewer experts writing books about how it’s important to wear a clean shirt to a job interview.
Comments
By Nick Gendler on Wednesday, 21 March 2012It’s a different kind of selling. It’s a kind of consultative selling where the candidate educates the employer / recruiter in order to prove their competence and experience. After that, and more important, it’s about being liked. That’s what career consultants should be teaching candidates, but most of them can’t so they take the easy route and teach basic selling skills.
It’s down to HR people to teach employers and recruiters the art of selection and assessment. Career consultants help their clients to succeed within the flawed process. If the employers and recruiters up their game then the candidates will have to, and that’s when the consultants will need to start earning their money.
By pearl on Friday, 06 July 2012
i feel yes.. career consultants should write the books as well an organization should hire external recruiters who are above par excellence in this job and select the best candidates that fit to the organization and contribute to its growth. Mullins Cuddihy & associates provide < a href=“http://mullinscuddihy.com/executive-search/”> online recruiters</a> which possess excellent knowledge in recruitment and career consultancies.
By Recruiting Animal on Tuesday, 02 October 2012
Mitch why don’t you delete the comment from pearl which is just a plug for Mullins Cuddihy & Associates.
It makes Mullins and Cuddihy look like total jerks.
By Mitch on Wednesday, 03 October 2012
Maybe that’s a good enough reason to leave it there?
By Paul Myers on Friday, 12 October 2012
Couldn’t agree more, good article!
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