Computer Industry Recruitment Failures 7. Recruitment
So how does the computer industry recruit? On the bone, and disregarding high‐principle of education? I can tell you from extensive experience. Here is a rough transcript (as I recall, please make allowances) of my interaction with a firm in London. They are leaders in their field,
The recruitment industry
I received a text message. I can receive as may as I like. All I do is submit a job application. You see, my CV lists ‘Scala’. At the time of writing, a Scala coding salary will buy a car with satellite navigation, a flat in London, and even a pension. Big money, beats any schoolteacher, closing on a public doctor (GP). Not only that, my CV credibly lists C, and basic PHP. So I receive an email, of course, and a text message, of course. Nowadays, sometimes, I don’t try. That day, I rang back and picked up a receptionist. The company, he said, would ring back. And they did.
Hi, I’m XXX, I’d like to talk about your future with you. I’m ringing about your application.
I ask, which application? Do run past me which one? Ah, THAT application.
Would you like to tell me what you are up to at the moment?
No.
Personally, or in terms of computers?
Err… What have you been doing recently?
The ‘Why is there a gap in your CV?’ question.
I explain that I voluntarily left my previous post to return to my parent’s home to look after my mother while she was disabled. I am now free to work. Moreover, I can work wherever I want. Good to move, because I live in one of the poorest areas of the UK. No computer firms here.
Would you be available to work in XXX?
XXX is a long way from my current home, but yes.
What are you doing in computers?
Right now? Writing a beginner’s tutorial about x86 64‐bit Assembly Language. Online soon.
[Note: this work was later destroyed. Not by me, by others R.C.]
What else do you do in computers?
To be helpful, I say, “I program in Scala”.
Have you any experience with Big Data?
Umm, no, Look XXX, I applied to this job because I have a range of criteria for job applications. This job was a little to the side, but fell in range, so I thought I’d apply.
Talk moves on a few lines.
Are you aware of YYY (a Java library and API)?
It’s a Map Reduction exercise.
Do you have any experience with YYY?
It’s a Junior role. I’m expecting to learn about those APIs. I’m interested and have demonstrable work in similar areas.
My interviewer breaks out, suddenly,
Big data seems to be the trend which is happening right now. A lot of people I’m talking to are getting into Big Data. Big data seems to be where it is happening.
Since 1970’s mainframes? Or Java was created in the 1980’s? ‘YYY’ was written in… I didn’t say that. I said,
Uh huh?
Talk moves on a few lines, then again she breaks out,
If I have one piece of advice for you, just one piece of advice—it is that you find an online course—you can find courses online—on Big Data.
Let’s assume the interviewer is talking about a Post‐Graduate course. But I told her I don’t don’t have money enough for a bus‐fare. If that was her idea, it’s poverty‐racism. Otherwise…
But the interviewer isn’t an ugly person. I guess that. She’s polite. She’s an enthusiast. Her first name is a wall‐climbing flower. So I assume she is talking about an online course, meaning a ten‐step introduction. I’m currently working in Assembly Language. Working hypothesis: she has short‐term memory loss. Not a useful skill for an interviewer, but we all can get muddled on the phone. Failing that, she has not a clue what she is talking about.
Talk moves on a couple of lines.
If there’s anything I can do to help you in your search for work, then do get in touch with ‐the firm XXX‐
I say, “Have an awesome day.” We press off.
To judge by the interview, the recruitment firm would not be pursing my application. On the stated basis that I had cared for my Mother, that I came from an area of high unemployment, and that I had not completed an online (YouTube)? course in ‘Big Data’. Maybe some more subtle clues thrown in and known only to highly‐trained interviewers. The interviewer was uninterested that I could speak a useful foreign language, that I programmed in Scala and machine code, have top‐rated customer service skills, or that my referees include a senior university lecturer and a Justice of the Peace.
The post stated that the firm were interviewing over the next two days, so applicants must rush for places. I applied a month after the date of posting. The post listed ‘0’ applicants. A week later the post showed ’2’ applicants. Must be bounce on the keyboard. Still happens.
But I know nothing of recruitment in computing. Firms may have special internal candidates. Maybe that’s who they’re using. Title of ‘Junior Junior Junior’.
Still, I learned something. Half an hour of online course gets you work in SAS—and a professional salary. Don’t know why everyone isn’t doing it. Someplace, I’m missing a trick.
Efficiency and the frenzy
Every so often, people promote the muscle approach. Of course, this has connections to Western resources of labour, and labour surplus. Not much between the behaviour of modern recruiters and 1840 navvies. The idea is to throw as many people at a canal as possible, in the hope it gets dug. A few losses won’t bother anyone much.
I’ve no ‘in’ on the recruitment industry, but I think it works like this. Everyone is encouraged to post a CV online. All bodies who would like to recruit are encouraged to post requirements. Then recruitment navvies are encouraged to match the two. Likely, they are given lists of leads. Also likely is that the navies don’t read the documents, any more than their predecessor asked what they dug or why a hole needed to be dug. They have software that searches for keywords. So they match up ‘Three years experience’, and ‘Hedge trimming’ with a set of CVs, then give the attached phone numbers a ring. Get a hit like an interview or a job placement, and the navvy gets commission.
This kind of frenzy‐attack can be effective. In some situations. If you need a canal digging. Or have a vast resource, easily strip‐mined… and a large, poor labour base. This kind of attack can be futile too. Ask yourself, why do bluebottles die hard?
A mystery is why the computer industry recruits using these methods. Sure, they are following the herd. And sure, this is disappointing, given their rhetoric of ‘cutting‐edge’. Then again, given who they are, their behaviour is predictable and to type. But their outspoken claim is that they are having problems recruiting. They say there are no programmers out there—well, that justifies their salary. But if this problem exists, then maybe the recruitment itself is at fault?
Onwards, Next