Prehistoric Job Searching

Considering what we hypothesized about Recruiting Caveman Style, the Paleolithic Era humans looking for a way out of the dangers of hunting and the boredom of farming probably began thinking about the best way to better themselves. Although it may be hard for today’s job seekers to think about doing a job search without the aid of technological crutches, there was a time [between 10,000 years ago and yesterday] when listening and thinking ruled our brains. After realizing that the imminent danger of being eaten by wild animals was beginning to fade, a sense of complacency and cluelessness filled the void and built the next era of sheer panic. Being unemployed as a caveman usually meant starving to death. Talking to others about it was a sign of weakness.

One day a particularly disgruntled caveman hunter named Phffft stumbled upon a large stone etching promoting employment in the new services industry. That sounded like an easier lot than working and it was much more preferable than starving. This job board posting depended on someone happening to see the ad at the same moment that the job opening happened, so it was purely by chance that it was found. Not knowing any better, it seemed to this adventurous job seeker that he could grab the attention of employers by copying this method. If companies were going to post and pray, he could do the same by notching out his best characteristics on stone tablets and tossing them in front of every cave he could find. Thus was born the resume and the also the spray and pray method of looking for work.

After weeks and weeks of embellishing, rewriting, carving, tossing, and repeating the process, he was pretty discouraged that he couldn’t get out of his daily grind and into his dream job… which would be to do something easy. Then one evening as he talked to his fellow cavemen at the watering hole he commented that he didn’t know how much longer he could look for a new life. Maybe it would be better to be eaten by a wild animal after all. Overhearing this story, one of his friends commented that he had met a recruiter a few weeks earlier and had been invited to join a new company. He was actually going to start working there next week. The recruiter had also asked if he had any friends that might be interested. It was indoor work and rumored to be a cushy job. At this very instant the world saw the birth of three modern miracles: Networking, employee referrals, and employer branding. Phffft didn’t know what to expect, but he was a young strong male caveman and seemed to meet all the criteria for the job. He then invented the facepalm, “Why didn’t I talk to you earlier?”

OK, so you knew where I was going with this when I started telling the story. Did you know that even today there are caveman job seekers that are not quite to the facepalm moment yet? Shouting out that networking is the key doesn’t seem to reach those who are so enamored with technology that they refuse to talk to people. I hope there are no wild animals in their neighborhood.

 
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