1, A very experienced Computer Forensics professional I have known for many years attended an interview which was a disaster. Although the role was very senior, it transpired that the organisation still required much stronger hands-on knowledge than this person has and so it was a hopeless mismatch all around. Nothing upsets me more as a recruiter than wasting someone’s valuable time and I feel particularly bad as this person is a friend.
2, I expected two job offers today but both were unsuccessful at the final stage. When I broke the news to one chap he was devastated. I think that sometimes we forget the emotional commitment a jobseeker puts into finding a new role and to be turned down late in the process from a job you really want can be heartbreaking.
3, I can’t make contact with a line-manager who has interviewed three jobseekers in the last ten days or so. Following on from the point above, I struggle with this aspect of recruitment as jobseekers are naturally anxious for feedback following an interview and surely a Line Manager has a duty to provide that information asap. This makes us recruiters look pretty inefficient and more importantly, leaves the jobseeker completely in the dark.
4, On a more personal level, eighteen years ago this week my best friend at University, Nik Lynch, was killed whilst travelling in Brazil. We met via the University Sailing Club and had travelled all over the country to sailing regattas enjoying some of the best times of my life. Nik was always the life and soul of the party.
In April 1993 he was visiting Manaus, in the heart of the beautiful Amazon rainforest. Having spent a perfect day swimming in the river and having fun with friends, later that evening he and two others went for drinks at a local bar. They were walking back to their hotel when they got caught in gunfire between armed robbers and security guards and Nik was shot in the head by a stray bullet. He didn’t regain consciousness. Nik Lynch was only 23 when he died. I still think of Nik every day and often wonder what he would have done when I find myself in tricky situations.
In April 1993 he was visiting Manaus, in the heart of the beautiful Amazon rainforest. Having spent a perfect day swimming in the river and having fun with friends, later that evening he and two others went for drinks at a local bar. They were walking back to their hotel when they got caught in gunfire between armed robbers and security guards and Nik was shot in the head by a stray bullet. He didn’t regain consciousness. Nik Lynch was only 23 when he died. I still think of Nik every day and often wonder what he would have done when I find myself in tricky situations.
Just before writing this blog I saw a moving blog post by Mervyn Dinnen about the very sad death of a multimedia expert, Fraser Maclennan, who carried out the filming at the Unconference I attended last month:
The premature deaths of Nik Lynch, Fraser Maclennan and others puts all our business problems in perspective. Mervyn ends his post with the following which pretty well sums up how I feel today:
"Life is precarious, sometimes too fragile to be ignored. If ever I needed a reminder to seize the day and grab every opportunity to enjoy it then this weekend provided it. You never know what will happen next."
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