350 applications, 1 role, 7 days!

Obviously reading the latest official jobless figures today, showing that unemployment is continuing to rise - and is now at its highest level for 17 years - made us think about some of our advertising campaigns & the sheer volume of applications we receive. Youth unemployment has also increased, with more than a million now out of work. The latest jobless figures show that the number of unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds had broken the one-million barrier, rising to 1.016 million, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

We have recently been asked to run a Fixed Fee Recruitment campaign for a Marketing Administrator role within a premier law firm. The advert stated these rare words “The role would be an ideal first job for an ambitious 'A' level or degree level graduate or a placement student with a desire to join a professional and service focused Marketing and Business Development team”

As you can imagine, we were inundated with applications for this role (an average of 50 a day for the 1^st 7 days of advertising) – many of whom were probably already visualising themselves sitting at that very desk fulfilling the role! This always makes our job a lot harder when we have to reject them and they don’t understand/think they are perfect. We were also surprised that at least 50% of candidates applying had a wealth of administration experience (3-5 years +), considering the salary on offer and the way the advert was written, many of these we would have to reject too. The client has been able to literally cherry pick the most suitable candidates and will be interviewing & hiring soon, which is great news for them.

I was also listening to Radio 5 live this morning with Victoria Derbyshire and a couple of the phone-in’s were expressing their pure frustration when applying for jobs (they were experienced candidates and couldn’t understand why employers were not moving forward with them, thinking they would get ‘more candidate for their buck’ rather than a more junior candidate. Victoria agreed saying that it was “short-sighted of employers” and that it was “highly unlikely that a candidate would leave after 6 months” when they get a better offer.

It isn’t short-sighted of an employer/recruiter to not select the more experienced candidate, it is based on a) previous similar experience of hires leaving for a better offer and b) they obviously know the type of candidate they want for that role and when in a position to pick & choose, then they will do!

If you are an employer and want help in dealing with recruitment administration / direct advertising recruitment campaigns then we’d love to hear from you J