The summer of 2007, the economy in Ireland was in still in rude health, the skies of Dublin blackened with cranes and the streets bedecked with designer bags. The “summer” was also notable for its incessant rain that fell each day for the month of July and all played to the soundtrack of Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. Perhaps in hindsight it was a portent to the future and the impending economic calamity to beset us all.
Since that summer I have worked in both agency and internal recruitment across a number of industries, below is some of the key changes I have experienced in my time at the coalface;
1. The death of newspaper advertising. Yes I know, job adverts are still found in our regional and national newspapers but back in 2007 we had weekly pull out sections dedicated to job advertising. When working on a new role, you always held some budget for newspaper or industry journal adverts. Today most recruiters have never advertised a job on a paper based platform
2. The end of filing cabinets. As a geriatric millennial or those born between 1980 and 1985, I traversed the analog and digital ages. In recruitment this was also true with hardcopy and soft copy filing. In 2007 all key paperwork such as registration documents, job specs, interview notes etc were all held in hardcopy and on new online databases. Today’s recruiters now see filing cabinets as a relic of the past.
3. The video interview! Back in 2007 the recruitment process could be arduous and delayed as a candidate struggled to get time to register with the agency and in turn meet with a prospective employer. The COVID lockdown measures of 2020 to 2022 further elevated video interviewing as the norm rather than the exception.
4. The shrinking world and the deepening talent pool. In 2007 when a new role hit my desk, I immediately rushed to an old filing cabinet bursting with candidate files or wrote up a quick 200 word ad for a local industry periodical etc, in 2022 I jump online and reach out to most of Europe and beyond for talent. The evolution of services provided by companies such as LinkedIn, Ryanair, Google, Apple and many more has made the world a smaller and less frightening place for candidates.
5. The Smart phone. Yes, I had a mobile phone back in 2007 but I couldn’t fire off a job spec to a candidate during a discussion, send on a google maps link to set up an interview, jump on a quick video call, assess a skills video via WhatsApp, check my emails in the gym or Google “changes in recruitment since 2007 as I anxiously write this article!
I can recruit any time or place now, I’m still trying to figure out is this a good or...