idealpeople blog

Just when we thought we’d run out of things to criticise some technology recruiters for, there’s something new which reminds us of how daft some of the people working in recruitment can be…

Anyone fancy a job paying £1 - £2 per day? Well, here you go: link.

Because we know that the link might not work for long (at least we kind of hope it doesn’t), here’s the advert in full:

My Client is looking for an experienced Support Engineer to work in Leicestershire on a 3 month contract. Must have some experience of working in a 2nd/3rd line support engineering role. -Windows -Citrix -Troubleshooting Please send CV’s ASAP and i will then provide you with some more information. Kind Regards [name removed]

Quite aside from the clanger with the salary given (which really is stated at £1-£2 per day), this raises a more general issue over advertising by recruiters.

Advertising used to be something of an artform. The basic premise was that a successful advert would need to be enticing - it needed to appeal to people, to creat a picture of something exciting.

Let’s have a vote - who find the above advert appealing?

This approach of “write a rubbish two-line advert and post without reading it through or even caring if it makes sense or sounds exciting” approach is becoming more common. If anyone’s interested, it’s come about largely because traditional recruiters are so scared that another recruiter - or even the applicant - will be able to figure out who the employer is if they “give too much away” in an advert. This, of course, completely devalues the service they’re offering and show minimal levels of trust and therefore indicates that they should just be avoided. And of course it’s also because they know that they’re just one of 17000 agencies running this position and therefore time is of the essence if they’re to “attract” that dream candidate.

We’re honestly thinking of starting a “put some sort of thought into your adverts or just go away” campaign. Who’s with us?