Recruitment

My friends, I have mentioned before, that there is a reason for myself being less than forthcoming with updates on recent events. Well the reason, ironically is that I have more time on my hands. You see I am between roles at the moment and so I am spending all my time looking for a new job.

Now there are many aspects to this, but one of the most tiresome can be the daily dealings with recruitment consultants. Now you may have heard a few horror stories concerning recruiters. All I can say is that some can be quite accurate, whilst others tend to be urban legends. I have experienced a few myself though. Some recruiters will try to push you into roles that you clearly aren't interested in or are even capable of doing. Then there are the unreturned telephone messages and the non replies to emails. There's more too. Depending on who you speak to, a lot of recruiters can range in tone from smarmy estate agent, to Vicky Pollard, both of which leave you vexed and relatively impotent, in the knowledge that they are an inevitable part of finding a new job.

So it may surprise you to learn that last week I applied to become a recruitment consultant. I was told that I would have to attend an assessment centre and upon arrival was led through to a conference room with eleven others who were all going through the same process. Now, I had been warned that these were likely to be new graduates and this did indeed turn out to be the case. We said our casual hellos around the table before formal introductions started. A young chap nervously said "Hi, I.I..I'm Peter and I graduated in M.mmay", shortly before another voice of youth piped up with "Hiii, i'm Jane, I graduated in June and I like fluffy kittens". Actually she didn't say the last part, but I'm sure she was more than capable of it. One by one they went around the table. I was starting to feel very self conscious of the fact that I graduated in 2002 and even then, it was as a mature student. The eleventh person spoke "Hi, I graduated in June" and then everyone looked at me. "Hi, I graduated in Politics".

After the assessment centre, we had to go through a series of interviews. I had three on the day of the assessment centre and six the following day. I felt like one of the candidates from The Apprentice as I went from interview to interview."Sell me a telephone" said one - which I did. "Why are you here?" asked another. "Your CV isn't like any of the others I've seen" was something I heard 4 or 5 times. "The guys here mainly come straight from university, how would you feel working for a younger boss?" “Well, you yourself mentioned that you are 29" I said "but to me you are a guy who is interviewing me and could potentially be my boss and so your age doesn't come into it." Off we went again with more questions, "why do you want a career change?", "what motivates you?" and so on. Each interview was like a game, a sparring match to be followed by another round with a different contender.

"Ok, that's great, stay where you are though and I'll send someone else in to interview you" It was the end of the fifth interview on the second day. I was feeling tired but with plenty in reserve. The age thing had come up time and again and yet I had managed to bat it away at each turning point. I stood up to stretch my legs and walked over to peer out of the window and down into the hurly burly of London's west end. I turned around and noticed a rather diffident looking teen, seemingly lost in the reception outside the meeting room. I smiled inwardly and remembered my own time doing work experience when I was at school. I peered my head out of the door, "Are you alright, you look a little lost" I said. "Ah there you are. Hi I'm Tom, one of the team leaders.”