Advert Sham

You surf your company’s intranet job-search portal, finds an attractive opening, sends in your application, waits for a favourable response, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks.. Then you hear yourself saying, there’s no more hope. You know that for highly competitive positions, in the supply-exceeds-demand landscape, your chances are pretty low. That’s fair game, but to have to face the fact (hear from a reliable source) that you have practically no chance at all because the hirer has already picked his choice, thereby dispensing with any shortlisting formalities is more than a tad hard to swallow.

“I already know who I want to hire” smacks of downright discrimination at the highest order.
Then why bother to even advertise the position. Formalities, internal procedures. HR whitewash, I say. All the talk about cost-cutting. Here it is for you, the powers-that-be to walk the talk, but no, you wanna show that you abide by rules and regulations, and yet ironically not follow the rules.

All these rampant and blatant “I’ve already in mind who to hire” games under the guise of formal recruitment rigmarole is wasting not just every applicant’s time, but also your HR’s time. And you think only family-run companies are bias like that. No, the Fortune 500 listees too. Corporate shit-heads.

So all you aspiring job searchers, the sure-fire way to clinching that job within your current or ex-company is to up your ante on that company’s internal networking circuit.
Yes, the god-fathers/mothers ought to know who you are. That impeccably-written resume & accompanying professionally-shot photo won’t see light of day anymore, unless you’ve been personally invited to submit them.

Meet the new-age corporate honcho-cum-headhunter. Your challenge is in hearing him say “You are hired. Send me your resume and my HR will see to all the formalities.” And to you alone, no less.

P/S I’ve known all along that this kind of acts are as natural and pervasive to a fault.
It happens right under our noses, or rather to those in the know.
Nobody complains, no one shouts foul, no one heck care. Afterall, you ain’t after that job. But when you finally see that much-sought-after job in the “positions-vacant” recruitment portal, cajoling all suitable candidates to apply, you unwittingly fall prey to yet another oxymoronic “we are hiring” but “we're not hiring you” ad sham. Duh.

Oh, and I must mention too this requirement for internal job applicants to inform their immediate Manager whenever they apply for any job posting. Why the need to do so at the application stage? Can’t we wait till we’re being offered the job, or at least till the hiring manager shows an interest in you (which in all probability is close to nil, considering the prevalent “I know who I want to hire” practice).

Hear HR’s reply:
“The normal process is that you have to tell your current manager that you are applying for an internal role. This is because the hiring manager can approach your current manager to get some feedback if he is interested to interview or talk to you. We do not want your current manager to get a shock.”
Well, I would indeed be shocked if he gets shocked just like that