The conditions of society are such that
even software
crackers and
reality crackers and reversers might eventually have
to apply for a
job. If you have made a sufficiently convincing
written application
you might end up with an invitation for an interview
and further
evaluations.
Every newbie is anxious before going to the first
interview. Feels
like an exam, only that there is no formal education
for it. A swift
Web search might be helpful, though.
Some tips
may be found hereSome
employers are
genuinely generous, stimulating and receptive. They
focus on the work
to be done.They take pride in doing good work
themselves. They collect
around them people they believe they personally can
collaborate with
and who can collaborate with those already there.
Other employers seem more detached from the
production process - I
believe
because they have a production-irrelevant education
(like law or
economy) and
seem more preoccupied with money and status - and
control, slave
mastering if
you like - than with production. They introduce
bureaucracy of the
silliest
kind, demanding that those in the production units use
their precious
time for
making reports instead of working. (You can read it
every day in the
Dilbert
cartoons find the reference yourself)
You can see
these in
interviews in the
business pages of newspapers or elsewhere where hot
air is blown. In my
experience they use a lot words like "leadership",
"visions",
"teamwork"
"rational" - well, you know. I do not think very
highly of these
people, so I
think most of them believe their own words. But they
are also cowards,
by using
the parrot strategy of reproducing the current and
fashionable
rhethoric so as
not to offend their superiors and the shareholders.
These "leaders" are sometimes in the market for
employing new
people, but do
not really know what kind of people they need, and
THEIR bosses may
have so
strict punishment systems for failure that they do not
dare even to
make their
own independent decisions about which persons to
employ in their own
department.
Instead, they hire a recruitment firm; a well-reputed
one. (I will say
something
of that later) so the blame for a misplacement can be
put on somebody
outside
the organization.
(A few words about the terminology of failure: In
my terminology
failure is a
disaster of some kind, or the chronic inability to
have the work done.
I think
these firms have another definition of a failed
employment. Employing
a person who opposes them when they are wrong, will be
considered a
misplacement.)
Whatever the reason, there has become a market for
dedicated
personnel
recruitment firms, either by outsourcing of the entire
selection of
personnel, or (for the really big companies) to have
their own
internal recruitment firms, using the
same methods. If you apply for a job with one of these
firms you may
be in for a
surprise or not, depending on your level of cynicism.
Recruitment
firms
I hope I have
supplied enough
material below for the readers to judge for themselves
whether these
firms have a useful product, and whether the
renumeration is in
proportion to the value they provide.
Every Fravian will know that financial success is more
a result of
successful marketing than of the qualities of a
product. Even useless
or superfluous products may become a financial
success. (Microsoft
Powerpoint is aspiring to be my favourite product for
the time being:
the tool for marketing of useless products, full of
visual frills. How
about a selective PP macrovirus that leaves unharmed
Word, Access and
Excel which may be buggy and overbloated, but actually
are tools for
quite some useful work?). Marketing in my opinion, is
a way of lying.
Even if every word is true, the less favourable sides
are usually
omitted or de-emphasized so that the full picture is
distorted.
Twisted. If this is done deliberately, it is lying -
which is not
nice.
But then for the crack.
Have you heard the fairy tale by Hans Christian
Andersen about the
vain emperor?
(The Emperor's New Clothes"
You
may fetch the text here if you like
Synopsis: The Emperor was buying a new suit
of clothes from
some criminals
who posed as tailors. The criminals had told him that
the suit could
be seen by
everybody, except those who were stupid or who were
incompetent for
their
positions. They made him pay and ran a number of
trying sessions to
document the
progress of the work. But the entire suit was virtual.
Of course he
noticed, but
he did not dare to say anything, for fear of being
exposed (:-) as
incompetent
or stupid. To know more of the suit he called in
various presumably
competent
and wise persons for a second opinion. None of his
servants or cabinet
members
dared to tell him that they saw nothing, so they were
full of praise
of the new
suit, and the Emperor memorized their descriptions to
be able to
retell later
what he was wearing. When he wanted to show his new
dress to the
people, he went
along stark naked. Everybody saw the nakedness, but
nobody dared to
speak for fear of showing themselves as stupid or
incompetent, and the
joke was exposed, literally spoken, only when a child,
who had nothing
to loseb, cried: The Emperor has no clothes on! First
the child was
only quoted cautiously by those surrounding, but then
everybody
adopted the idea and cried it out loud.
The recruitment people are making a virtual suit
that nobody dares
to expose. "Personality testing" of the applicants is
one of their
tools, including IQ testing , but even worse tests may
apply, for
example graphology - analysis of your handwriting for
personality
traits.
The search below may give you an idea of this
racket.
This
Excite search may give you an idea of this
racket.
Most of these firms are rather good at covering
their tracks (or
lazy). But
one firm stands out with an informative Web page.
Mercuri
Urval
If you do a little
research in this page
(I have copied it here for your convenience), I think
you can feel the smell.
Mercuri Urval is an
international
recruitment,
selection and human resource utilisation consultancy;
specialising in
the
evaluation of an individual's personality.
Mercuri Urval
conducts this
evaluation in relation to a specific job, and the
client company's
profile.
Two
key beliefs are
imperative
to our development: - that people are the most
important
resource in
every company; and that,
-
an
individuals
personality
is the determining factor influencing their results in
a given job.
Please
note that
this is an unsubstantiated belief, and the glaring
absence of any
definition of
"personality".
Mercuri Urval is an
international
company.
Since our inception, approximately 30 years ago,
Mercuri Urval has
established
more than 70 offices throughout 17 countries.
Our selection as
human
resource consultants for both the Winter Olympics in
Norway, and the
Eurotunnel
project between England and France, has strengthened
and enhanced our
reputation
as a company that ensures results.
Mercuri Urval works
with
recruitment, selection and effectual resources
utilisation.
Recruitment and selection are undoubtedly the area
for which we
are best
known. We assist in filling positions for both
the public and
private
sectors; with an emphasis on service, and providing
the best match
between
client and employee.
Within the
effectual resources
utilisation
area, Mercuri Urval performs assessments for both
small and large
projects. In some projects the focus is
primarily upon the
relationship
between the human resources of a company, and the
market demands facing
it. With other projects, the emphasis is on the
individual
employee and
manager; with a focus of improving the effectiveness
of the individual
in their
position.
In Mercuri Urval�s approach, the
relationship between the
individual
and their job is the fundamental building block for
every
organisation. The
basic issue of organisational performance lies in
continually fitting
the
abilities and motivation of people to properly defined
jobs.
The
Mercuri Urval Recruitment And Selection Process
Company
Analysis
A thorough
analysis of our
client�s company is essential. Once performed,
this analysis
enables
Mercuri Urval to obtain an understanding of the
company�s image and
environment,
and the standards and values of the company�s culture.
Isn't
it lovely what
these people
can do?
Recruitment And
Selection Procedure
Mercuri Urval�s recruitment and selection
procedure is methodical
and
unchanging.
Most other
firms boast that they try to keep up to date with
research and
development.
Not this firm. They stick to the religious way: What
once was, will be,
and never shall change - for ever and ever. Amen
It consists of the following stages; job
and demand
analysis;
recruitment; administration of candidate applications;
analysis of
candidate
applications; the preliminary interview; in-depth
assessment of the
candidate;
reference checking; decision reporting;
development reporting; and
last but
not least, the follow-up. Below you will find an
explanation of
each of
the stages.
1. Job and Demand
Analysis
We
place
considerable importance on the analysis of the formal
demands of the
position
and the personality demands of the client.
2. Recruitment
We carry out the
recruitment of
candidates through
an agreed advertising campaign. Mercuri Urval
provides clients
with the
choice of advertising through print medium, Internet
advertising, or
both.
3. Administration of Candidate Applications
Mercuri
Urval believes
the candidate is entitled to be informed when their
application is
received. With this in mind, all candidates are
sent a
confirmation within
24 hours of receipt of their application.
4. Analysis of Candidate Applications
Mercuri
Urval then
analyses all applications based on the formal
requirements for the
position,
based on the findings from the �Job and Demand
Analysis�.
5. Preliminary Interview
Next we invite
selected
candidates to a
preliminary interview at our premises. This
interview has a
duration of
approximately one hour.
6. In-Depth Assessment
Unique to Mercuri
Urval, and
imperative to
the successful placement of a candidate, is the
in-depth assessment of
candidates. Candidates will spend approximately
four hours in
our office
completing the following; a personal information
questionnaire, speed
and
accuracy tests, and a personality assessment.
The candidate will
then have
an in-depth interview with the consultant, which takes
approximately
two
hours. The candidate will then receive extensive
feedback from
the
consultant.
As you
can see, most
of the work
is pure secretarial work, and work leaning heavily on
the knowhow of
the client
(meagre as it may be). I would like to focus on the
in-depth
assessment. This
speed and accuracy test - I should not swear, so I
will not, .... I
assure you
by my anonymous honour and my priesthood: This test is
a classical IQ
test. The
IQ test was designed long ago (in the
nineteen-twenties perhaps) to
identify the
less gifted among us so that they could receive
special teaching and
become
useful citizens even thought the odds were against it.
And then you, a
person with a higher education, will spend an hour
with tasks like
deciding whether a rectangle
or a cicle fits best with a pentagon and a square, and
will have to
use half an hour to write your CV on a form - a task
that takes any
literate person about 5 minutes. Then you will spend
two hours with
someone who has a background in social sciences or
what not, who will
use this interview to assess your personality and
decide about your
fitness for the job with Micro$oft or Coca-Cola or the
Olympic
Committee of Lillehammer (shudder).
7. Reference Checking
Mercuri Urval will
check a minimum of three references from past
employers.
8. Decision Reporting
We provide our
client with a clear
decision
as to the suitability of a candidate for the position.
9.
Development Reporting
We provide the
successful candidate with
information enabling their successful, and timely,
introduction to the
company. This information also assists with
their integration
into the
company.
10.
Follow-Up
Follow up, with both the employer
and the employee,
at 3, 6,
12 and 24 month intervals, enables the evaluation of
the business
results of the
employee.
This
looks nice, doesn't it? The firm does the choosing,
the employer
employs after
spending a huge amount of money for the services of
this
firm.
Here the tale ends. The slave masters have taken
over, and the poor
candidate
is employed. The result is evaluated by the consultant
and those who
hired the
consultants. Mercuri Urval boasts that they are
successful in more
than 95
percent of cases. Surprising that there are any
unsuccessful
employments at all
under these conditions.
Reminds me of elections
under Communism, in
which
there was 99 percent participation, and 99+ percent
voted for the
Communist
party. If you opposed this, you were out. It also
reminds me of the
general
satisfaction with IBM computers long time ago, or with
today's
Microsoft Office
and Windows 98. If you used lots of money on the
rubbish, you will
never admit
that the consultants were stupid and incompetent or
the software
overbloated and
buggy. And if you do, your bosses will hang
you.
The
ethics of it
allI
cannot remember seeing the word "ethics" on any of the
Fravian pages,
but I
admit there are quite strong elements of old-fashioned
ethics as well.
Anyway, I
miss the word. Perhaps there is a shyness from these
left-wing people
of using
such an old-fashioned right-wing word. But I think our
quest, our
mission, as
reality crackers and reversers, right-wing or
left-wing, religious or
atheists
or mammonical, is the reintroduction of ethics into
society, in
opposition to
the greed of companies and individuals and states and
unions; European
ones and
others. I think job selection is a useful illustration
because it
concerns all
of us. But I have more. The link below is to the
Online Journal of
Ethics. These people are friends, so I give you only
the link to their
page.
Graphology article from
the Online Journal of Ethics
The author
analyzes
graphology from an ethical point of view, and far
better than I can
ever do. To summarize quite briefly: Your
personality is your private domain. No employer has
the right to know
your
personality, only your ability to do the work and
function socially so
as not to
disturb the others - which is what he pays
for.
Whatever your academic merits, and
whatever you have
accomplished: the job selection people offer you the
standard
procedure - for idiots and professors, for bosses and
errand boys.
alike. But what they really do, if you are educated
enough to understand what they are into, is measuring
your ability and
willingness to accept humiliation and harrassment.
If you show
yourself so meek that you go through the whole
procedure without
shouting, chances are high that you have the
slave mentality that the employer wants from you. If
you are not; if
you are an
unyielding and independent person - a homogenous non
compromising
reality
cracker - you will not accept these conditions.
Economic necessity
may force
you, but an employer using such methods does not
really deserve you
among their
employees, and it should not be for long.
If you are satisfied with an employer that uses
such methods, then
you will
not think long about my warnings. You will probably
start cramming for
those IQ
tests. To the others I say: Now you have been warned.
If you have the
choice:
Find another employer. But even if you manage to keep
a straight face
and
"succeed" in your application, you may find a nice and
competent
employer next
time.
Good luck!
As a priest, I should say: Thou
shalt not hate.
Leave
them alone. Mind your own business. And I have asked
myself quite a
number of
times: What harm do these firms do?
First of all:
They are spreading
falsehood. "A speed and accuracy test": It is an
outright lie. The
personality
testing is nonexistent, and if it were true, it would
be unethical
because it is
a very severe invasion of the privacy of the job
applicant. They are
charlatans,
with a completely bogus product, and they live
comfortably on the fact
that
there is no child around to tell the world that their
product is
nonexistent. But they reinforce the general accept in
the society for
bogus solutions, for swindle and lies.
Fravia says:
Damage
Micro$oft. I would say: Add Mercuri Urval to
your list. Damage Micro$oft AND Mercuri Urval. Blow
them off the
surface of the earth.
The Priest
entrance