I spent the day yesterday working with Year 11 students (if you need that in old money that is 15 and 16 year olds) as part of a day to encourage them to think of their options after GCSE. My job was to work with them on starting to create a CV. It was a great experience for me (and I’m hoping that they got a lot out of it too!) as it reminded me of the other side of applying for jobs that it is easy to forget when you are on the recruiter’s side of the table. All the anxieties around what is the best way to present myself and will anyone really care what my hobbies and interests are?!
I was also faced with the reality that these students and others of the same age, will in a few years be applying for jobs that I might be recruiting for. To understand their perspective and experiences, and even simply to be reminded that they communicate almost entirely in electronic format using “text talk” more fluently than I ever will, gave me a great insight to the ways that I will need to shift my expectations about job applications. It got me thinking about how we will make jobs and careers appealing to Generation Y, what ways will I need to be encouraging my clients to advertise jobs, what benefits packages are going to hold appeal, and how will businesses most effectively communicate with their next generation of employees? I don’t think I have all the answers yet but I sure think we at vivoHR better keep working at it as I think that those businesses taking a positive and pro-active approach to this will be the ones winning in the war for talent in the next few years. So on that note I say B gr8 2 get yr cmmnts – txt me! 🙂