Thank you for your well written and honest expose of most talent acquisition practices and processes.

*It has evolved from a sign in the window, an ad in the local paper; technology accelerated and greatly enhanced how we could communicate about anything.

Now the “It” referred to earlier is the same basic practices of send resume, hope and hope some more. Nothing in my thirty years of recruiting has brought more to degrade and minimize potential employees. You need help? And you ask for people to stick their “paperwork” into it.

Frankly, nearly all job seekers with whom I was able to speak refer to these virtual holes in the castle wall as The Black Hole. Referencing, I am confident, that all that enters this dark portal must abandon all hope much as it must in the cosmos…

In summary, the “Get a Resume-Send a Resume-Hope Process” is not what it once was, (and never actually was great, it was just what everyone did).

Technology rationalized continued use of the same “process” while it made it massively effective in creating fast and widespread distribution.

Jump ahead to today, don’t worry I won’t bore you with the same stagnant and worsening economy. Nonetheless the US DOL reports that there are 3.1MM jobs open. Actually it is more likely to be 8-10MM jobs.

Ironically, the drop in job advertising is more a result of the overwhelming response employers face by every communication pathway available. One can only imagine, for the sake of both employer and applicant, how much a submission feels like a lottery ticket, great when you do it, but in a few days, oh well…

So why no connection of the dots? The reasons are legion but none matter. We face challenging times and only directly effective talent acquisition, executed as a contact sport, will help to resolve this crisis of unemployment.

Workers, administrative staff, all people up to the “C” levels are continuing to gain work, albeit many are underemployed or part-time by need. They must learn how to seek, find and seize an opportunity. They simply have not received effective training as to how they can gain sustainable employment.

Employers need to answer the call to evaluate their hiring practices. They then must transform, as effectively fast as they can into recruiting entities with the magnetism that attracts crucial talent and manpower.

I humbly but simply recognize this all makes sense and therefore, it falls quickly under the stubborn scrutiny of those who resist recognizing the need for overdue change.

Bringing an employer from a hiring entity to a recruiting magnet starts with a commitment to the best people and therefore results.

Oh yes, what to do with that dusty rule book of recruiting, better to recycle it. Its content has already been broken.

By the way, we need to get coffee next week.

I don’t have any issues with people’s beliefs that they’re being authentic but the sheer volume of “content” that ends up as virtual landfill material astounds me; most of this is nothing more than Viagra or 416 spam.

It’s laughable how many of the “experts” have contacted me and asked me to help them become Fast Company’s most influential person…uh, why? Will becoming the most influential person stop future oil spills or prevent terrorists attacks? How about literacy and civil rights? Yoo-hoo, anything at all???

To me, the real issue is one of sustainability and collecting followers won’t make a cause or change sustainable if most followers are passive. It’s like collecting matchbooks from places you’ve eaten and placed them in a glass bowl for people to see. Wow…

I too am not that into you.