...and is having a devil of a time getting meaningful work at a liveable wage. He's a likeable and smart guy, a family man, well respected and with long, deep roots in his community and decades of experience in the radio biz. And, believe it or not, experience in the radio biz can actually translate out to experience that's useable in many other businesses.
All my friend wants to do is work, to have the personal dignity of a job, to do well at it and earn a decent salary. But his job search has been full of frustration.
Why is that?
Well, for one thing, he's a gentleman of a "certain age", which is to say, over 40. Is age discrimination illegal? You bet it is. Does it occur? You bet it does, and it's the very last discrimination that will actually ever be dealt with legally, especially when the plaintiff is a white male. But my friend is not the sort who would use the legal system...he still believes that experience, skill, smarts and motivation make him a candidate.
But he'd rather work in radio, the field in which he's worked for almost three decades.
He tells me that out of 25 resumes he's recently sent for radio gigs, there were only three replies. Two were rejections and one was an answer that told him the choice for the job was made using the flip of a coin. He relates horror stories of rude treatment by Human Resource types in all businesses, and especially in radio. Program Directors just do not respond at all, even when the package was sent in reply to a posted opening. Or hearing that "I don't have anything for you, I just wanted to meet the guy I grew up listening to" or "Hey, you're a legend in this town" (Really? Can I have a job? No, sorry, nothing here) or "Someone from personnel will call you tomorrow".
Know what? That's horsehockey. Have the sack right up front to tell an applicant there's nothing there for them. Don't make them come in and go through an unnecessary tap dance just to fulfill your ego.
Are you afraid of hiring an employee who might be more qualified than you for your position? Let me give you a little hint: fill your staff with experts and you'll be the star. The smartest managers I ever knew were the least paranoid about losing their jobs...they all knew that hiring the smartest and best performers for their team made the managers look GREAT!
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UPDATE 4 September: I just came across this and wanted to add it to my thoughts directly above about hiring smart. It's from an article in Forbes:
Ogilvy's Law: David Ogilvy gets my vote as the greatest advertising mind of the 20th century. The founder of Ogilvy & Mather--now part of WPP--left a rich legacy of ideas in his books, my favorite being Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy wrote that whenever someone was appointed to head an office of O&M, he would give the manager a Russian nesting doll. These dolls open in the middle to reveal a smaller doll, which opens in the middle to reveal a yet smaller doll...and so on. Inside the smallest doll would be a note from Ogilvy. It read: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants." Ogilvy knew in the 1950s that people make or break businesses. It was true then; it's truer today.
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I might take a moment here to remind HR people and PD's everywhere that you will someday grow older, someday you will lose your job, and someday you will be in my friend's shoes. You will be begging for a job as my friend has had to, and there will be no answer but the same smirk you delivered "back in the day" to so many potential employees, one of whom will probably be in a position to hire you.
Trust me...they will remember you.
I went to work for myself a lot of years ago and it's turned out just fine. For me. For others, it's maybe not the best thing. This guy should be working.
If you want a quality employee, contact me and I'll pass your name and phone number along.
