So the other day I happened upon a job posting for a company called Concep. I'm sure it's a lovely company. They were advertising for a "Marketing Executive." For some goofy reason I clicked on the job description, and found out that this "Executive" would be paid £28,000 annually. Not in the outskirts of Hyderabad, but right here in London. It was an entry level job. Why in the world would this company refer to this position as an "executive" position? Perhaps they meant the role entailed "executing" entry level marketing stuff? It reminded me of a conversation I had with a recruiter long ago, who explained to me that a "Business Development Manager" managed the process of business development. Silly me, I thought managers managed people inside a company, but by now we have all become accustomed to the meaninglessness of the word "manager."
Such inflated, hot-air bullpoop job titles make us all take recruiters less seriously. And when you add up all the wasted seconds clicking on mistitled job-postings, slows down the process of searching for jobs and getting people employed. Of course, these kinds of job titles gum up online recruiting, as the precision of various search engines and matching engines is dulled by job titles that don't match required skills or role definitions. I guess the upside is that we can now be "Global Heads of " something.
Liquid HR Angle
Stop for a moment. Put on your conspiracy-theory hat. Think about the number of conversations you have had with recruiters that have led nowhere. Think of the number of CVs or resumes you have created and posted. This process isn't improving recruiting. It's not helping you get a job faster. It's slowing you down. It's making you get a job slower. It's making companies operate less efficiently because they have open positions. It's destroying value, not adding it. Let me run it by you again: these folks are taking money from companies, creating imaginary value by slowing down the recruiting process, and sending you on various job hunting misadventures. Think about it.
I remember a documentary clip I saw about a firm that would measure your body and send the measurements to their factory to create a bicycle that perfectly fit you. They would then intentionally slow down the delivery of this bicycle to raise perceived value. Let that notion inspire you. Be creative. Think about it.
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