The Dean

My old friend Darren is pondering this - see link below:

http://darrenledger.wordpress.com/category/dubai/

100 mile radius of High Wycombe? As he says, that's a big catchment area.....

scrubbedexpat141

If you advertise on Twitter and Facebook, you deserve no applicants. That's just ****ing stupid.

shiva

either that or a million **** nugget responses

jackthehat

Ah! - He forgot to have a translation done! (Bulgarian, and Romanian)

The Dean

He was making a point - he says he NEVER does that, but thought he would to test the water........ and to see if there really were thousands of desperate people gagging for work.

There aren't.

Darren is a very smart operator, I can assure you.

scrubbedexpat141

What about him asking for people within 100miles of the location?

I wouldn't commute 100 miles to work and back. Covering a region of that size is fine, but you'd need to be based in the centre, at the office, not 100miles away.

I get his points, and I understand he's advertising vacancies, but does he truly expect to find someone who is great, the perfect candidate, the perfect character, the ideal guy....unemployed?

The Dean

He wasn't expecting to find the 'perfect' candidate - he was wondering if there were ANY. The 100 miles radius thing was a similar exercise - to catch more 'possible' applicants, not because you would commute that far.

Your comment about being unemployed is interesting - twenty years ago, being out of work carried precisely that sort of stigma ('If he hasn't got a job, he can't be any good' etc) - but no longer, surely? In my profession, some seriously outstanding people (that I would employ if I had a suitable vacancy) are in that situation. We have all been there - the slowdown has hit every walk of life, and every level of seniority. Nobody is dismissive of unemployed people any more, and the unemployed themselves don't bother to hide it.

scrubbedexpat141

he got plenty of applicants, but they just so happened to be Indian chaps!

I completely disagree with the bolded comment, people still don't look favourably on someone who has not been working for 4,5,6,7 months for example.

The best people are not let go. Sometimes they are unlucky, but someone, somewhere will certainly take them if they aren't too fussy.

I could advertise a vacancy for a Mechanical Estimating Manager in Bristol. I guarantee I won't get one suitable CV. Guarantee it. There are definitely unemployed people in Bristol (for example)...

Darren-Ledger

The Dean - many thanks for sharing the blog discussion.

Just in response to some of the comments. Firstly I didn't specify a 100 mile radius of High Wycombe in any advertising format. My point was simply that of the total applications received by the very end of the process of the 500+ there wasn't a single suitable candidate within that kind of radius. There was an option for the successful candidate for one or even both of the positions to be home based providing they had reasonable access to the office on a regular and short notice basis if required.

I guess I could write up a follow up article which would outline my actual findings and assumptions based upon the entire process. The article was originally posted circa 12mths ago so it may be worth revisiting.

scrubbedexpat141

Please bear in mind I skim-read it and cast negative judgement.

I'm really not worth listening to...we all know that candidates are wankers.

Millhouse

Let me know when you advertise. I need a new job and will apply.

scot47

The Recession we are living through is as deep as the one that started in 1931 with the collapse of Creditanstalt. These are not normal times.

lullabelle

Bang on. There are some seriously top notch people in my industry out of work at the moment. Really brilliant directors/producers etc. The best programme editor I've ever worked with is twiddling his thumbs in France right now.

Scamp you said "The best people are not let go. Sometimes they are unlucky, but someone, somewhere will certainly take them if they aren't too fussy."

So completely untrue in the media where often the very best people are let go for very personal reasons. There are a lot of very bog standard, unimaginative people with impressive job titles holding down their jobs because of who they know not what they know. There's also numerous incidents of excellent people not being promoted while useless twats run the ship... Just because someone is unemployed doesn't mean they are crap. I'd look more favourably on a candidate who had held out for something suitable instead of taking a sub standard mcjob just just to fill a gap on their CV (provided their finances could take that...)

Hello from rainy Herts btw.

Quackers

You will if it pays great