Am I on the Bedpan Yet?

My experiences thus far with headhunters have been pretty much near misses.  I seem to make it through the cover letter/resume stage, past the vetting stage, often to the next stage and ... the stages seem to go on and on and on.  Often, this all includes some sort of massive personality test – always guaranteed to be only part of the search, something to “inform” the decision making process.  I think any deep knowledge of anyone’s real personality would result in immediate rejection, and probably a recommendation for immediate mental health care!

To me, the process of working with headhunters is somewhat like taking aim in a bedpan.  You know you gotta do it, you can’t really even see what you are doing, one’s sense of dignity is shot to hell, help is definitely needed to complete the process, and then, when it is all over, you sit with it, wondering when somebody will come back and get rid of it all so you can try again later.

Wild.

Having gone through a number of hiring processes as a potential employer, I really do understand why headhunting firms are retained: it takes a long time to go through resumes, conduct initial interviews and keep the home fires burning while doing all the other odds and ends associated with filling important positions. Creating a human process to hire another human being takes time.

Perhaps my experiences from the other side of the table have not been so terribly unique after all; still, seems like headhunters have quite the business going – sometimes, I feel, at the expense of their employers’ best interests.

Headhunting, the practice of taking a person's head after killing them. (from Wikipedia)

Like undertakers, headhunters will always have business. Half the jobs out there in the nonprofit world end up metaphorically killing employees anyway, especially regarding matters of the sacred soul.  Might be different if we took a fresh look at human resources and the unnatural – even false – conditions people are forced to interview under.

Time to remove the bedpan.  NURSE!

SJA