Elitism & Snobbery or just a Vision of the Future?

[jonathanhill]

(Why do employers have to be anyway)

It is likely that the organisation in question receives large amounts of public money.

[Stuart91]

It frieghtens me that in order to be diverse (Why do employers have to be anyway?), the better, more capable applicants will be left without a job.

 

Not necessarily - the idea behind the scheme is to track applicants. If the post is only attracting applicants from a relatively narrow section of society, it's a possible sign that the advertising needs to have a wider reach, or other aspects of the process need tweaked. The best candidate from the job could be the person missing the ads altogether at the moment.

 

Quotes for actual appointments is a different matter altogether.

[Brian]

I've recently sat an exam where we were given a form intended to monitor 'diversity' (my quote marks). I simply put my name on the top where indicated and at the bottom wrote "I decline to answer any of the above questions" and signed it.

[Wingwalker]

These are some very interesting comments and certainly makes you think. I received a standard email this morning (from the establishment that prompted me to start this thread) saying that I could apply to join their list of casuals. As I am still sending out my various application forms - some of which don't have closing dates for several weeks yet - I decided to put in a request to join as I still have bills to pay and I need to put food on the table.

 

However, if anyone does have any work available either part time / casual or full time permanent then a copy of my LinkedIn profile can be found below.

 

I'm currently based in Sutton (London) but happy to work anywhere is Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Surrey or London.

 

Many thanks in advance.

 

David.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-walker-024090b9?trk=hp-identity-name

[Just Some Bloke]

 

It's pretty standard in most recruitment processes I have been through

 

 

How strange. I've applied for shed loads of jobs in the last 5 years and never seen anything like this.

[paulears]

What happened to the notion of the best person for the job? You can't ask what sex somebody is, you can't ask how old they are, and the only relaxations in the law are very odd, and biased towards one sector.

 

Has anyone seen a straight dresser in theatre? All my friends who do it are either gay or female. It's also legally fine, because there are some circumstances a particular sex is acceptable - but nobody ever tries to add gay because they're worried about that - it's really silly. Wanted - female dresser (section X of the Sex Discrimination Act applies) that's fine but too risky adding in 'gay'. Another friend of mine got a job in a black, female famous gospel singer's band. He got asked - do you believe in God? Yes he said. You are in! That's OK too. Some strands of society are under represented, but that's how life is. We work in an industry where people get rejected because they are ginger, too old, too thin, ugly, unfit, or in one example I remember well, too smelly!

 

Quotas are ridiculous.

[djw1981]

 

It's pretty standard in most recruitment processes I have been through

 

 

How strange. I've applied for shed loads of jobs in the last 5 years and never seen anything like this.

Maybe it depends on the sector, all the public sector employers have asked for it. Haven;t worked in the private sector via a recruitment process in that time.

[Wingwalker]

Well I heard back from the company today and have not made it as far as an interview. Shame really as with over 30 years of experience I could have been really great for them...

[the kid]

Ah I have now been reminded of a theatre, attached to a school I applied for.

 

At the time the theatre was new ish, and the job was a mix of making productions and receiving small small tour shows. I had experience, but not that much, so I chalked it up to that.

I applied to the job a few times when I saw it come up, I guess was every 2 years, one year I heard back from some other people that it was full of ex uni students. And infact the person that year was someone I had "taught"

I applied before I left the country and didnt get an interview, but I saw it was readvertised, so I asked out right "I dont understand, I fill all the criteria very well, I have a mass of knowledge in small theatre, what is the issue?"

 

They said - "you don't have the educational experience we would aim to have" (read gone to uni)

 

I saw it readvertised think maybe 3 or 4 times after then but each time they had now put on "required" a BA in something production related.

[paulears]

This always happens when the HR department is separated from reality and run by graduates, who see a degree as a badge of office, and a membership of some ridiculous club. I came to education late - and ironically at the time I became Principal Examiner for an A Level subject, I didn't have a degree. I do remember a few years later, holding a piece of plastic drain pipe, with a red ribbon wrapped around it, that I probably wasn't really any better educated at all - but I had learned about lots of people who had never really had proper jobs, but had done lots of writing on certain subjects.

[alistermorton]

In the 70's my Dad was edged out of his job as a deputy head my school because he held a teaching certificate rather than a degree. The head at the nearby school he moved to, who had worked with him when he had been a different department deputy at my school too, considered this my school's loss and definitely his school's gain.

[xllx]

This always happens when the HR department is separated from reality and run by graduates, who see a degree as a badge of office, and a membership of some ridiculous club. I came to education late - and ironically at the time I became Principal Examiner for an A Level subject, I didn't have a degree. I do remember a few years later, holding a piece of plastic drain pipe, with a red ribbon wrapped around it, that I probably wasn't really any better educated at all - but I had learned about lots of people who had never really had proper jobs, but had done lots of writing on certain subjects.

 

A good fifteen years ago, I was approached to do a combined tech support/teaching role in what was then a fledgling technical theatre course at a university. I got on well with the teaching staff, who were mostly from a sound background while I came from lighting. There was much talk about wanting "real world experience" and "industry contacts".

 

Over lunch with a higher up in the university hierarchy I was asked what degree I had. As soon as I said I didn't, I was told that there was no way I could teach people if I didn't have a degree and that was the end of it! A shame really because I think I would have been a good fit for what they were looking for.

 

I didn't realise that if I had done the History degree that I nearly did instead of going to work in the local theatre straight after school I would have been better qualified to teach lighting.