Ipso Facto

It is January so I still have time to get my “2009 Predictions” in along with the hoards of others.  In the Recruiting community, predicting what will happen in our industry has become not only a tradition, but a somewhat stale one at that (like Aunt Ruth’s Thanksgiving Turkey, who everyone has to eat even though it’s dry and overcooked every year) with most “predictions” being nothing more than observations of what’s happening already:  (these are actual predictions from our thought leaders)

There will be less hiring this year

There will be fewer recruiters employed this year

Social Networking will continue to expand

Recruiting vendors will suffer

Less business travel

and so on.

Not exactly Nostradamus-worthy predictions right?  Since much of this was already happening in 2008, these just don’t seem like predictions to me.

So I’m not going to make a bunch of “observa-predictions” – you can read it in the Wall Street Journal and make your own.  I’m simply making one prediction.  One thing I can see on the horizon that, if things don’t change, will come true by Christmas this year.

I call it the “Ipso Facto” prediction.  Here it is;

I predict that 2009 will be the year that Job Seekers take back their job search.  I predict a “revolution” of sorts where job seekers, tired of being treated like a commodity, begin to fire their job boards and begin to demand tranparency from corporations they apply to.  If we are going to see 10%+ unemployment and it hits all industries and socio-economic levels – I believe the 21st century internet job seeker says, “ENOUGH ALREADY”.

So why “Ipso Facto”?

There will be no one to blame for this trend but job boards and corporate career sites!  Allow me to elaborate;

Job Boards today are flush with “false” jobs – jobs put there by anyone with a checkbook  who can pay for a posting.  At worst, they are people/firms who want to lure candidates into the false hope of finding work (to feed their family) so these predators can build a multi-level marketing organization or get someone to work for commission only with false promises of big returns (Madoff style).  Anyone posting a resume on a big board should have the Arnold Schwarzenegger of spambots on their computer – it’s really ugly and people are tired of it.

Corporate Career sites have no fraudulent intents but commit similar “crimes against job seekers”.  Even though there is no law requiring private sector companies to post their jobs externally, many HR departments are convinced this is a best practice for Equal Opportunity reasons.  In times of growth and expansion it may be a good idea as you can gather the best internal and external candidates for consideration.  In times of contraction, when you are already planning on filling that role with an internal candidate or a pre-determined candidate – this “artifical posting” is simply cruel hope to the millions of unemployed Americans.  These same job seekers who gleefully complete your online profile and apply for the “artifical posting” or even the real postings are, more often than not, rarely communicated with once their application has been acknowleged.

I think job seekers will be pushed past the tipping point and begin to demand better from eRecruitment.  They will flock to solutions that put the control of their job search in THEIR hands as they once and for all tire of putting it into the hands of people who don’t handle it with the care it deserves.  They will demand a “job seeker bill of rights”:

There are recruiting solutions today that treat the job seeker with the dignity they’ve always deserved and I’m happy to say there are corporations out there who treat job seekers the same way.  The partnering of these corporations and these solutions vendors will become a force in 2009.

I’ll answer to my peers if none of this happens but I think it may already be taking hold as you’ll see when you read this post from a blog titled; “The Day I Fired Careerbuilder”.

Power to the Job Seeker!