Day 35

On Monday, I went to a recruitment agency. I've dealt with this particular agency before, and the kind of jobs they hook people up with is the kind of work that 30 years ago, they would have thought we would have robots doing by now.

I don't really mind this. Maybe it's not ideal, but, as the recruiter at the agency was told, I'm not really sure what, exactly, would constitute 'ideal'. "Does it pay in money? Then yes."

I was in the office for about 45 minutes, and I was the only person to enter the premises during that period. This could mean a) a lack of jobs at the agency, or b) a lack of people looking for work. There were plenty of positions advertised in the window, so to the casual observer, human beings would appear to be the rate-limiting factor in this particular case.

I'm certain, in the 21st century, much of a recruitment agency's business is conducted online, rather than in blink-and-you'll-miss-it offices in obscure suburban towns, but perhaps this has an inhibitive effect on job seekers: if there's no personal contact, the overall effort that goes into a job application will likely be lessened. Standard CV. Template cover letter. Really, there's little difference between applying for jobs in bed and not applying for jobs in bed. For employers, I'm sure it's difficult to shortlist a selection of candidates from a pile of CVs belonging to a group of faceless somebodies. Even an applicant that's been annoyingly calling the employer for five consecutive days asking about the status of their application has a voice to put to the name. Getting a face, or even a voice, known to the employer is definitely a plus.

Of course, if it's already known to them, even better. There's probably a bit of an onus on Irish people to move away from the whole 'jobs for the boys' approach to employment. Having said that, while it's not quite nepotism, 'networking' seems to be an appropriation of the spirit of this culture. It's even been internetified, through LinkedIn and other similar sites. But really, I suppose despite all sorts of legal measures to impose some sort of objective structure on the process of interviewing and hiring, being closer to the employer puts an applicant at a higher likelihood of getting the position, and this is only natural. Having some sort of connection to a potential employee acts as both a reliable referee and an incentive for the employee to carry out the tasks of the job well.

Still, unless you've been clicking 'yes' to every friend suggestion thrown your way on facebook, there's obviously going to be dark corners of your contacts cupboard. No harm in the odd cold call every now and then.