The job description-reality gap
Posted on February 27, 2015
We left our heroes, Bathsheba Everdene and Gabriel Oak, trying to get a good price for their sheep at careers fair [Link to post from 3rd October]. This week’s analogy is another market, the oriental bazaar stall that is the job description. You can browse without any commitment and see if something takes your fancy, though you may be hassled by hawkers of sponsored links along the way. Some stalls are stuffed with boxes and luminous yellow star-shaped hand-scrawled price tags. Other shop windows are going for the minimalist, lifestyle-selling image with two faceless mannequins in passive-aggressive poses. There are lessons in the bazaar for the recruiters who write the job descriptions and the job-seekers who read them.
The problem(s) with job descriptions
The ideal for a recruiter is to have one perfect applicant, and the job-seeker’s ideal scenario is to apply for and get one perfect job. It usually takes a bit more trawling by both sides but it’s better for everyone to be approaching one, as in f(n) g 1. Head-hunting, at one extreme, is about finding The One. It’s when jobs come looking for people and usually arises for people who already have jobs. Sickening as it might be to imagine someone who already has a job being offered another one when you’re still on the hunt for your first, the flattery of being head-hunted is something to look forward to when you’re the best around.
Read on: http://www.statsjobs.com/the-job-description-reality-gap/
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