For many job openings, getting the foot into the door – getting recruited – tends to be the most tricky part. Obviously different companies have different ways of going about this. 3 latest trends that I see playing out in the job hunt marketplace:
- Recruitment by Resonance
- Recruitment by Challenge
- Recruitment by Algorithm
Search for Resonance – The Trend & its Contra Trend
”..If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. ..” has been one of the most revered quotes by Steve Jobs.In many ways this articulates a burgeoning stimulus that has in fact become a mainstream business model of some job sites.
Take ReWork – which asks you to find work that is meaningful to you.
Don’t settle until you find work that you love or until you get an opportunity to work on the issues you’re most passionate about – seems to be the mantra of this site. See their story here:
Or take Escape The City – which encourages you to quit your corporate job and do something different, something that you have perhaps always dreamt of doing.
Life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you… Change jobs, Build businesses. Go on adventures. Do something different – constitutes the Escape Manifesto. See their story here:
The fact that an increasing number of people have begun to search (often passively and sometimes unsuccessfully) for jobs that truly resonate with them, seems to be the insight behind these ventures.
While searching for that perfect day job where your passion meets purpose meets your paycheck is a defining feature of many a job search today, a contrarian view point seems to be gaining a critical tipping point in recent weeks. In many ways this school of thought almost says – Don’t follow your passion (!)
Cal Newport in his latest book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” makes a case on why Passion is not something you follow, it’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world – irrespective of what you embark upon. Read another great post that Cal wrote on this topic in HBR here. (And yes, I have earmarked this book on my reading list now).
Irrespective of which side you take, one thing is for certain – the search for resonance has come to underscore the significance that it has for job seekers and recruiters alike in getting the foot into the door first. Like never before.
Do read the above mentioned posts by Cal Newport and let me know which side you take. And if you read his book, tell me what you think of it.
Riffs on technology, marketing & culture 