Sirona Says

Google's Barbie Doll recruitment approach.

I read an article today by Matt Asay, which makes me wonder if Google are turning to blatant sexual stereotyping to aid their recruiting? Surely not I hear you cry, Google exploiting certain market sectors to get what they want?
Matt mentions that one of his friends was in San Jose for a corporate event. While waiting at the Marriott, he ran into a "swarm of beautiful young girls" that were "uniform in their good looks" and "Vogue like" beauties, coming out of the nearby Fairmont Hotel.

Bet you can't guess who they worked for? Google of course! And even better when asked what they did at Google the response was, "We're recruiters! Do you know Python?"  So no shallowness there then!! I wonder what the response would have been if he replied yes? Would they have sat him down and given him one of the impossible (and I mean impossible) Google tests (for engineers of course!)?

Using the "attractive young female" recruitment ploy in a male orientated market is nothing new, but with their position and status in the industry, do they really need to lower their standards and 'low-ball' their competition by using real life Barbie dolls to help them recruit staff? Maybe they should try the using the Stepford Wives next?

Can you help me with this definition please!

I believe that this word is the most abused word in the world of recruitment - it is the word, urgent.

The strict definition of this adjective is 'Requiring immediate attention'. Isn't it very strange that this appears lost on both clients and candidates alike!!! (Can you tell this really annoys me?)

So, I would really like to hear from you with any 'recruitment orientated' versions of the word urgent please!

Use this career site with warning - you could end up buying a wedding dress at the same time!!

There is much debate and complaint regarding companies using (or not using) their own websites to recruit staff. Of course there are some very good sites out there, that really do give a great candidate experience such as Mothercare and The Body Shop. But there are times when even experienced recruiters (such as my good self) are dumbstruck with some of the corporate sites out there, and the complete lack of care they show when putting together their career pages.
One such site is for the department store group - Debenhams. Just take a visit to their homepage, and go to the Jobs link at the bottom of the page and click on it.

No it doesn't take you to the Debenhams jobs as you might expect but to a page with a wedding URL!! Even more bizarly, there is a career section there!! And then when you want to return to the career home page (in pink at the top of the page), it takes you then to the weddings home page itself!!  Maybe they think that all new recruits should first buy their wedding attire before they apply for a job at Debenhams!!

Is it any wonder that retailers struggle to attract and recruit high calibre recruits when they are making the most stupid mistakes like this - what impression does that leave with a jobseeker?? It actually gets funnier (in a sad way!), because there is actually a http://www.debenhams-jobs.com/ domain at the same time!!