Detective work

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Guess the employer

Between attending recruitment events and responding to various advertisements in the specialist IT industry journals Computer Weekly and Computing, there were still long periods during which there was nothing obvious to target. I have already described two major campaigns involving the Computer users' year book, but I found another use for it. Some agencies refused to deal with me but I still looked through their advertisements. Using the clues provided therein, I looked up the Computer users' year book, guessed where the vacancy might be and sent my CV there directly.

I call it cheating

I didn't like doing this, partly because I had a long tradition of working through agencies and wished to maintain it, but also because I regard it as cheating. Furthermore, agencies can sell me better than I can sell myself if they do their job correctly. After all, I'm not a salesman but some of their staff are. For all these reasons, I only used this technique when there were no other suitable jobs to apply for, the last time being in early 1997.

Well, it was worth trying

I was not always sure whether I guessed correctly when I used the above method, but there was one occasion when I clearly did. The employer replied saying there was no suitable vacancy. On the day the letter arrived, a different letter arrived asking me to telephone a different agency from the one who had originally advertised the vacancy. When I did, I learned that there were two possible vacancies including one with the aforementioned employer. I wrote back to that employer, who then acknowledged the vacancy. Apparently, they considered me and would explain my lack of suitability if I telephoned them. I decided not to because I preferred to spend my resources, by then very limited, more productively. Of course, if I thought that there was anything to learn from it that would help me, I would have made that call, but I didn't think so then and subsequent events elsewhere reinforce my belief that it would have been a wasted effort.

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