Job search advice – who can you trust?

This morning I spent an hour or so  watching job search advice videos on YouTube. I got very angry and I’ll tell you why in this post. But on the positive side, it prompted me to consider why so much of this advice is stale, naïve, clichéd and just misleading.

I think the first thing we have to recognise is the sources of the advice being provided. The most common sources are:

• Recruitment firms and recruiters
• HR and line managers in organisations
• News channels and journalists
• Government agencies

One reason these are the main sources on YouTube is that high quality video production is time consuming and still relatively expensive. So typically, it is only organisations that have the resources to produce this material that post it. Now I know anyone with a decent laptop and webcam can do it too these days, but there’s a world of difference between this and professionally produced video production with graphics, good sound, editing, lighting, location shots etc.

The second reason is that typically, these producers have an agenda to promote themselves, their message or both. That’s fine, but my point is you must understand this when considering the relevance, merit and value of what is being said. For my part, I post videos here regardless of their source and production quality ONLY when I feel they have true merit and value.

So what was it that got me so cross? Well overall I’d say it was the unrealistic and out of date advice I found. It was as if the recession had never happened. No-one talked about the reality of ageism. No-one talked about the fact that today’s jobs market is one where mature professionals with decades of experience and skills still cannot get hired. It was a true elephant in the room moment for me!

Let’s just look briefly at the agendas of the four sources I list above. Recruiters make money from getting their candidates hired. They are the real estate agents of the jobs market. No sale = no fee. So what they do is look after their buyers first. That’s sensible because that is where their income comes from. Job candidates are just their raw material supply. But jobs are getting scarcer right? So in a world where buyers are getting scarcer, recruiters focus more and more of their time on finding these and less and less on finding candidates. They have absolutely no interest in telling anyone how tough the jobs market is, or how job hunters can optimise their chances of success, after all they have no shortage of applicants, just a shortage of buyers.

HR and line managers in firms are employees right? They are on the company payroll. And like all employees these days, they are simply swamped with work everyday and they struggle to keep on top of it. So what happens? That’s right, the quality of their work deteriorates. They won’t be too popular with their bosses if they talk about how their talent acquisition processes aren’t really that great. So when they film an interview, what do they do? They just provide, generalised wishy-washy comments that won’t upset anyone, especially their bosses.

But it’s worse than that. HR managers and line managers have very often been in their job for at least the last two or three years. And as I have talked about elsewhere on this blog, the world has transformed massively in that time. What worked three years ago, just doesn’t work anymore. But because these folk have not experienced any of this personally, and since they spend all their time hoping from one emergency to the next, they are often oblivious to what’s happening in the outside world.

What about news channels and journalists? Well we all know that journalists feed on shock and horror stories. If they can’t do that, the next best thing is to cover something that is newsworthy because it’s odd or unusual. Neither of these situations are particularly helpful because what really matters is what is happening generally and commonly. And that’s not particularly interesting news is it? Moreover very few journalists are highly specialised experts in any particular field, and they work to tight deadlines…result? You guessed it  -  too often superficial coverage which delivers little value to its audience.

Last but not least we have government agencies. Hmm. Well I suspect you are already ahead of me here. Western governments are all facing monetary and employment crises. And they are running out of options to solve these problems. By their very nature, they are forced to present a version of the current situation which acknowledges the problem (it’s too big to deny anymore after all) and then describes all the efforts they are making to solve it. Oh and all the while trying to minimise the problem as much as possible.

So I hope you can see why so much material about this topic is distorted and diluted by virtue of the nature of its source.

So what am I to do about this? Well firstly, I have begun posting comments on YouTube about these videos. And I will continue to share videos on my Blog only where I feel they contain information that is credible and valuable. I have also set up a YouTube channel which you can visit here: http://bit.ly/114Mgac

My next move will be to produce my own videos which I will add to my YouTube Channel and post here on this blog if you’d like me to do this. To get me off and motivated, I’d really appreciate your comments and suggestions as to what you’d like me to cover, so that I give you what you want to know,  instead of what I want to say!

Finally I am aware that many readers of this blog are members of the four groups I describe above. I hope I have presented your positions fairly. If you are one of these and you’d like to add your comments, please do and I’ll be happy to share it, even if you don’t agree with my evaluation.

Do please let me know.