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Straight & Wobbly Lines To The US
by John Scott[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3]
Labour Market Dynamics
In an ever-continuing debate about the role of the profession, the US Society for HR Management has recently launched interim results of a research project. In a number of themes, there are two of immediate interest – demographic changes in the US which may reduce the talent pool and the contradictory effect of globalisation which will make acquisition, retention and development of talent a key challenge in the period ahead.
TMP have recently consulted with clients in the Tri State area and many are now considering increasing their recruitment activities as consumer confidence continues to grow.
As some sectors of the US economy emerge from a very bruising recession while others power ahead, this contradiction will make itself felt once again.
Career Opportunities
In my search for an HR position in the US, all of this should make my heart sing:
- Technology which closes a gap presented by the Atlantic and several time zones, speeding up a traditionally slow process whether in St Albans or San Francisco
- A labour market which neither demands of nor offers a traditional career path to potential employees
- Growing value of knowledge workers with international experience
- Continuing demand for talent which is likely to increase in the immediate short term as the economy recovers
The Promise And Reality Of Technology
The straight or orthodox lines of my search have involved the usual activities. I know the visa situation is complicated, but work on the basis that sensible people and good lawyers can do wonders.
I have registered with a number of websites, both company and recruitment. My experience has been mixed, but perhaps some examples will suffice to indicate there is still a way to go.
A major headhunting firm fails to recognise international applicants may wish to register and because London is not in a State and my telephone number is not a US one, I have been imaginative in my response.
A number of IT companies send along automatic receipts which appear on my screen as very poor examples of customer communication – badly laid out, poor grammar and incorrect spelling included. Others promise responses which never appear.
An international consulting practice committed on two automatic occasions to forward a hard copy application which appeared exactly one month later and seemed to ask the same questions as those I had completed on the web-site along with some regulatory flim-flam.
And finally a number provide agents - a search facility completed by the candidate which will then automatically send along relevant vacancies by e-mail. Although I have indicated my abiding interest in an HR Director or VP role, to date I have been variously informed of secretarial and admin roles. All terribly interesting, but not really helpful.
The experience has not been entirely negative - some web sites are well designed, idiot-proof for Luddites like me and deliver what is required. Most however are not and rather strengthen an impression that the web is a black hole in to which I have poured over two months of effort. I am never quite sure what is happening out there, but experience would suggest very little at all.
As part of my efforts to find a role, I have been consulting with friends and colleagues in Europe. The managing partner of an international recruitment company looks at me over a cup of coffee as I puzzle over the nature of web-based recruitment. He politely points out the web is very much candidate driven – for every vacancy made available, he and his colleagues receive huge numbers of inappropriate responses because it takes so little time to send an application. He describes the web as providing nothing more than a handshake between employer and candidate, made all the more distant by recruiters: the human touch will remain ever important in recruitment. I am left feeling my technological handshake is in need of urgent review.
[Page 1] [Page 2] [Page 3]
John Scott is a London-based European HR consultant having previously worked for Coopers & Lybrand. He was a prize winning MS student at LSE and his MBA is from City University Business School. John can be contacted on JSCOTT374@aol.com
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