Job hunting in a tight market.

Interesting, if a little testing, times are all around us right now. As anyone in the digital recruiting space knows there are a vast number of candidates going for every job out there and competition is fierce. For the most part, I have avoided this so far though.

I guess I have been in something of a privilaged position in that I know a huge number of people in the industry and there has been a lot of interest in working with me since things with Onrec came to an end. To date I must have met with 13 different individuals and businesses to discuss the potential of working with them and what I can bring to the table, O.K, as of now I'm not working but I don't see that as a massive issue, I've got to spend some time evaluating the offers and opportunities out there and work out what it is exactly that I want to be doing right now.

Having said this there is another side to the whole thing. I have a very good friend who worked on product side advertising who is having an utter nightmare, though he was good at his job, so were the other 6 people at his company who also got given the "heave ho" earlier this year. His job hunt has been an horrendous experience, since losing his job back in Jan he has been to more interviews than you can shake a stick at and has had countless companies ask him for a sales strategy presentation which they have just kept and offered little feedback from. This does appear to be a little bit of a trend right now. i have heard from several people that this seems to be the tactic used by a number of companies to get some new ideas and benefit from candidate experience and their desparation to get a job.

Now I'm not pointing fingers and this is nothing I have seen personally but I have spoken with a number of people who have been made redundant recently who have said the same thing. clients ask for a sales strategy, marketing plans, management structure planning etc at interview stage, the candidate sees little if anything back from the client and the company implements the idea and promotes internally. I seem to remember Jo Courtney saying that she had a similar experience when asked to put together a social media strat for an employer.

Now is this a true reflection or does it say more about the frustrations of candidates not being able to walk into jobs like they used to? Personally I'm not sure but I really do feel the frustration of those who are jobseeking right now.

Personally I believe the world is offering some great opportunities to those who are willing to take a bit of a risk and either work for themselves or get in on the ground floor with some of the more exciting and innovative startups out there.

Bottom line, for employers: don't waste people's time, for candidates: don't lose hope and try and see where companies are looking for something new from candidates and for those with new ventures, take advantage of the vast amount of experience that is available now that you may not have been able to even speak with in the past!