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Anna | BACK TO SENSES's avatar

So much gold here. Talk about agency, being deliberate and strategic. This is how we do it, kids.

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Francesco Imola's avatar

This interview touched a nerve I didn’t think was still there.

Right, the market is more competitive, and recruitment has changed (I'd argue for the worse). The anonymous designer interviewed here says designers caught in this mess—although it applies to everyone really—need not to raise their concerns but suck it up, dry their tears, and just give. Offer yet more expertise, soul and time to greedy companies and the recruiters that represent them.

I admit that a part of me is wary of the cult of contemporary self-making and how it’s become an expected part of life in this economy. But the other knows that applications are a tango. It takes two to close a deal. That's why I appreciated the practical tips shared to guide people in taking the most helpful steps. I trust the interviewee wants to be helpful. And yet, an avalanche of questions came to mind soon after getting to the end of this that the well-meaningness behind it had to take a side step.

Isn’t this job-hunting-is-in-itself-a-job problem as much about candidates as it is about hiring processes? What does it say about businesses who seem increasingly detached from spotting real talent? And where is the conversation about these expectations and the weeks upon weeks of unpaid time candidates are asked to invest into each application?

Until I switched gears recently, I was in the job market too. I was swimming in it for over a year. No matter how much my interview skills improved, no matter the increasingly positive feedback on my CV, the imbalance remained pretty clear. Yet, for some, the question of who needs to adapt seems to fall heavily on candidates rather than being shared.

What I find more interesting is how people who land jobs—through skill, timing and yes, maybe a bit of luck (and often a lot of free time on their hands)—end up presenting their experience as a recipe. "I've figured it out. If you just do what I did, you'll get there too!" But they forget they’re asking you to take the tray out from the burning oven with your bare hands, and rarely do they question why the system is keeping all the gloves to itself.

Is anyone else wondering about this? Are we just accepting these requirements as how things are? Shouldn’t we be having a chat about regulating who has the upper hand in hiring and how recruitment, in general, could work better for everyone?

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