Hello!
Thank you for joining me, I’m so glad you’re here.
Sorry for not posting yesterday - I spent my Sunday with a friend I’ve known since school, watching a 25th anniversary screening of The Matrix in the old cinema in our hometown.
We have a strong connection with the film, as it was played often by our RE/Philosophy teacher at school. Mr Potter was a fresh-faced young teacher when we started upper school, and he came with loads of wacky lesson ideas, like the time in year 9 when he had us move all the tables aside and we all meditated on the floor for a lesson. There’s a lot of philosophy that goes on in The Matrix, and we spent a lot of time talking about Plato’s Cave through it too. (Here’s a short video explaining how the two are linked).
I was kinda sad to not see Mr Potter at the screening. But it was a good afternoon nonetheless!
As promised, today’s newsletter will be full of links that have been sat growing stale in my saved lists. They will be a massive mix of things, so buckle your seatbelt!
Things saved on Substack
Following on from my massive rant last week about how the UK political parties are meme-ifying the general election, it’s interesting to see that the Conservatives have stone-cold dropped all paid campaigns on social media.
Kevin Wheeler’s Future of Talent newsletter is excellent, and I saved a post a while back that discusses how organisations can’t simply drop the degree requirement for some roles; it needs a different recruitment strategy. It needs for recruiters to actually know the business areas they’re serving, to be able to know their stuff about the skills needed, and to identify good candidates without the crutch of degrees. The post is free to read, but you have to sign up/into Substack to get it (sorry).
Things saved on Facebook
Not necessarily job applications, but on freelancer site Upwork, someone has been including a message to AI which includes a line identifying applications made with AI’s support. I wonder if this would also work with job applications? Link to post from Recruitment Brainfood.
Another one from Recruiting Brainfood - someone asked for opinions on this kind of assessment. I think as we as recruiters explore “progressive” ways to assess candidates, there are so many wacky (and frankly rubbish) assessment tools out there. I witnessed them first hand in my recent job search. I think more can be done here to prepare students entering the workplace so they understand what these tests are for, and how to complete their requirements confidently.
Things saved on Reddit
I don’t want to poop on other companies with their recruitment marketing, but a MASSIVE bugbear of mine is when degree apprenticeships are sold as “free degrees”. Apprenticeships are a totally different experience from going to uni, and offer different benefits. I mean, this advert doesn’t even mention apprenticeships once - I guess it could be the case they are paying for “normal” degrees, but with the “4 days in work, 1 studying” it looks and sounds like an apprenticeship. Are they being snobby or something? “FREE DEGREE?!” on Reddit.
“People who were bottom set maths, English and science, what do you do now?” I LOVE LOVE this thread. The amount of people who are now in maths-related jobs having been in bottom set maths is great. If you’re on the careers advisor side of things, there are a couple of lovely stories to pull out of here as inspiration.
Another nice little thread, this time talking about what people wish they’d been told before they started their first job. I think there’s a lot we employers can do around setting people up for success in their first job.
As we move to more companies being required to put salaries on their job adverts, we will sadly see more of this kind of thing where massive salary ranges are supplied just to get through the gate.
An interesting discussion here around whether degree apprentices should qualify for student bank accounts. On one hand, they do get a salary, on the other hand, it’s often not that much, and the added benefits that student accounts give (such as railcards, and £2000 overdrafts) would be just as useful to them as to a traditional student.
The last couple of links in this section come under the category of “recruiters, we need to do better”. And I say this as someone who, just last week, rejected a group of candidates, using bulk actions and name tags only to realise that the name tags didn’t work for some reason, and so each person would have received an email saying “Dear” but with no name. Recruiters make mistakes. Often. But there’s way too much of it going on and we need to tighten up out games.
The first example is someone having been sent a rejection with “<insert tangible but not cultural feedback>”. I have to say that a sometimes, the feedback you’re given as a candidate is not the reason why you weren’t selected. The second example is this rejection from Uniqlo which still contains loads of corrections from, apparently, people editing the rejection template. Eek.
Things saved on Instagram
I can believe (to some extent) the stats in this post. When I was working at an apprenticeship provider, I had parents turn up with their children when I interviewed them, but they were 16 and so I don’t think it’s out of the ordinary. I do have parents phone up and ask for updates on their early career children’s applications from time to time. I always refuse to take those calls - I want to encourage independence. The other items on the list (aside from the language one) are all familiar. I did have one guy vape in a (video) interview with me once, though.
Things saved on TikTok
This one caught my eye - it’s about a pharmacist talking about how they support people who are needing to escape from partners. It got me thinking about how we go into professions thinking it’ll need certain skills (like medicine knowledge etc) but in reality the roles require so much more. So many people out there working in the community have a lot more on their shoulders than decades ago, and we’re needing to be aware of mental health, be able to spot safeguarding issues, understand the signs of people needing help.
I bit of a wacky one: it seems in Australia there’s a case of an employee insisting on wearing a tail to work. There are people known as “furries” who wear very high quality animal outfits, including tails. It seems someone (? I can’t access the original article as it’s behind a paywall) has asked to bring their furry hobby into the workplace.
This one made me tear up a bit, especially as it’s exam season. I hate exams. I don’t perform well in that kind of environment. I wish I could go back to 15 year old me sat in the sports hall just like that and tell her all the cool things I’d do in the future and tell her to not worry. And also that some person on Reddit failed maths and now is a Data Analytics Director or something.
I’ll leave you with this TikTok from my favourite account - A View From A Bridge. I’ve linked to their videos a few times, but this one really hit me in the feels so I want to share. This time Steve is on the bridge. He wanted to cure cancer in his career, but has retired and is following a passion. I think it’s just a lovely little video.
OK, I barely made a dent, and didn’t even cover the random links I’ve saved, nor my LinkedIn saves! I guess I need to do another one of these soon as I think this newsletter is long enough.
Have a lovely rest of your Monday!
Until next week,
Charlotte