The Jobs Market

SPEWED OUT

Looking for work? Apply on-line, come what may.
After that it serves to put your name in a box,
There's no time to meet so email your choicest resume',
Tell us what you've done. After all, it could be a hoax
Played on us agents by people who've lost their way.
And please…accept this,
Our clients worry too, about finding the right staff,
They're harried, monitored, bothered by ethnicity,
Have to be on guard, sure of a person's probity,
So, prove to us who you really are, give it a try.
A passport will do or the right slip of paper.
As long as we have copies there'll be no hue and cry.

Turned down? It's difficult, a big ask
To accept, even if you're up to the task,
But the thing is, they'll look at anyone,
Even those who've only worked 'for a bit',
The liberal use of buzzwords often does it.
They're what the better qualified may shun,
The mature ones who've worked long enough.
Unfortunately, in your case, as with others,
The computer failed to recognise pertinent ones.

Who's right and who's wrong? We'll never know.
The machine's chosen, spewed out many in one go.
Convinced, it's gone for the bright and the youthful,
Those who our quirky clients can happily command
And, being picky, trim salaries saving a bucket full.
What is more…the thing is…as you well know,
They've got targets to achieve, bottom lines to protect.
'Don't worry', they'll reassure us, 'we missed some,
Even those that the machine spewed out we reject'.

So, hopeful fretful ones, as you can see
It's not our fault you've been spewed out.
The best qualified often don't have a voice.
As for us recruiters? Mechanically and anonymously,
We're paid for making an effortless duly diligent choice.

Jan Vivian©
July 2010