The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Sorry, But I’m Not Buying What You’re Selling …

So the ‘talent director’ of a rather well known creative agency called me last week about joining their company.

To be honest, she has called me quite a few times – however even if I was interested, she’s pissed me about so much in the past, that I have a nasty taste in my mouth about her and to a certain degree, the agency she represents.

What really cheesed me off was when I asked how her Christmas was and she replied …

“It was good but I love my job so much, I was so happy to come back”

Putting aside that most people – however much they enjoy their job – like having some time off, this is a mother who complains she spends too little time with her beloved children so it begs the question, who the hell does she think she is kidding?

Did she honestly believe that having heard that, I was going to say, “WOW, that sounds amazing, where do I sign?” 

As far as I am concerned, Talent Directors are just a new name for Human Resource managers [abit like Channel Planners are a new name for Media Planners] and if you go here, you’ll see what I think about most of them.

I’ve been doing this advertising lark for quite a long time and one of the only times I’ve genuinely been impressed with an HR department was years ago when I was asked if I wanted to join a UK agency called Circus.

When they came back with a formal offer, I was somewhat underwhelmed with the overall package – however this is where their brains and skill really shone through …

Because they’d spoken to some of my references, they knew that I was the sort of person who would walk away if I felt a company was trying to ‘screw me over’ even before I’d taken the job – so instead of coming back with a basic increased financial offer, they created incremental value …

1 Return flight to Australia [because they knew I’d miss my friends there]

2 Season ticket to Nottingham Forest*[because I love ’em]

3 Pret A Manger Card [so I could have a decent sandwich each day]

4 Odeon Cinema Pass [because they knew I loved going to the flix]

Sure they were basically increasing my salary package – but by doing it this way, they were showing they ‘got me’ and interms of a job, I know I only want to spend my time with organisations who embrace me for who I am, not who they want me to be.

Anyway, for a whole bunch of reasons I didn’t end up taking the job – but it left an amazing impression on me and ensured when I started cynic, I wanted to follow a similar approach

And that’s another thing this HR person I’m dealing with, did to wind me up … she called me ‘awkward’ for asking a bunch of ‘tough’ questions.

OK, so I admit some were overly provocative – but surely any major consideration should activate a whole host of enquires?  Hell, if someone I was thinking of hiring didn’t have any questions, I’d be majorly concerned about their suitability/capability.

However the bit that made this whole episode particularly distasteful was that her agency goes on and on about how it encourages, embraces and executes ‘new thinking’ – yet they immediately got shitty when I questioned some of the claims and plans.

I guess I need to remember where advertising is concerned, people often preach but rarely practice.

Saying that, at least she gave me something to rant about – so it wasn’t a total waste of time, ha!

* You’d think this fact alone would stop them wanting to hire me. Mind you, they’ve gone bust now so maybe they were abit daft 🙂

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