moshenko

Hi,

I'm afraid this is going to be a bit of a rant but I want people to hear something from the perspective of an employer: I have ads running on the CGA job site - ads that I (my company) have paid money to run - that state specifically our intentions to hire individuals for in-office work, meaning they must be eligible to work in our location (Toronto, Canada). In fact, here is the exact wording of our posts:

"This is a full-time position on location in our office, situated in the heart of Toronto's design and fashion district. No contractors please! Applicants must be qualified to legally work in Canada."

Of all of the applications we have received to date, 75% have been from individuals that do not meet these criteria. Further, most of these have been from individuals with no intention whatsoever to meet these criteria, and a couple have been outright spam applications from companies overseas telling me about their outsourcing services. It is extremely frustrating (not to mention time-consuming) to go through all of these applications only to find that most of the applicants have no respect for the process that we are undertaking. Not only does it make me want to stop advertising on CGA - and I mean this as no disrespect to CGA itself - but it weakens my faith in those that I would consider a possibility for contract work, should it materialize.

Before anyone starts telling me that I'm beating up on contract workers, let me state a few things about why I am looking for on-site employees:

1. Canadian employment regulations state that we cannot hire individuals from outside Canada without first going through a thorough search for Canadian workers. When we cannot find a suitable candidate within Canada we then must prove to the government that we have conducted a reasonable search. Then, we must go through a work visa process that can take months to complete and that does not necessarily guarantee a successful outcome;
2. Contract employees cannot replace the dozens (or more) of benefits that full-time, on-site employees bring to a company. These benefits include, among other things, technical development, asset creation and organization, training, project management and team morale;
3. Contract employees are more expensive than full-time employees because of the reliance on hourly wages;
4. For many projects there is a need for immediate communication and action that often cannot be accomplished with a contract employee given their lack of exclusivity, time-zone differences and communication barriers.

As I said, these are reasons why I, personally, am looking for full-time employees right now. That is not to say that I am against contract workers, nor does it state that I am completely opposed to some of the outsourcing/insourcing concepts that have been discussed of late. I recognize that contract workers need to spread the word but applying to a job posting that he/she is not qualified for is not the way to do it, IMO.

__________________
Nicholas Moshenko
DesignStor
www.designstor.com

prodham

sensible post - hope you feel better now....

i suppose you could make an excuse for people contacting you that they were trying to provide you with options you might not have considered.

but as you said, you made that very clear in the job posting - no excuse in this case.

amer abidi

my sentiments exactly!

and on a much brighter note, I checked your website, some of the best work i've seen around!! no wonder you were getting all sorts of leachers trying to get their way in!

__________________
"Well I figure it has to be bigger than smaller. Whats the point of designing a concept the size of a hot dog stand? "
J.G.

RobNJ73

The few times I've been on the hiring side of things, I've noticed that no matter where we advertised, only a fraction of the respondents met what we listed as the minimum requirements for whatever position it happened to be... if we were looking for a character animator at the time, I'd have to sift through 15 modeling reels before I found an animator's reel. I think it's really just the nature of the beast when it comes to want ads... people don't read. They see "we're hiring", and send in their info.

On the flip side, when I've been looking for work, I've been most successful when sending out my resume and reel to everyone, everywhere... even the positions I thought at first I had no chance for/wasn't qualified for. Every bit of job search advice I read said the same thing. Heck, I wouldn't have my current job if it wasn't for this approach.

EddieLeon

I haven't posted a job on CGA this year and I get those annoying emails anyway. I am accustomed to it so it won't prevent me from using the CGA job site. People are free to email whoever they want and for whatever reason. Even if it's a shot in the dark for them. This is something we just need to live with.

One suggestion that I have is that (for an extra fee) CGA can receive the applications first and pre-qualify them for you so you don't waste your time.

moshenko

If those options were things not normally considered then it might be OK. But I'm pretty sure that every employer in our industry knows that contract workers are available so I don't see it as an earth-shattering revelation

Hey, I understand as well as anyone that it is hard to get work sometimes and that one needs to get the word out. But I believe there should be an internal alarm that goes off when certain thresholds of qualification are not met, particularly when using a formal job site. I have also had people send their work to me via our website after seeing these job postings, and that's cool because it's a means of telling me they're interested and available while still respecting the process. I don't think a quality-check system would make this process any better - in fact it would probably add too much expense - I think this is a matter of personal responsibility and industry respect.

__________________
Nicholas Moshenko
DesignStor
www.designstor.com

ikinman

Yeah, the two times I've used the CGA job board as an employer looking for people the exact same thing happened, so I empathize. What you need to remember is that there is really no cost for anyone to reply to your posting, so there is nothing to prevent them from trying to get your attention. That's more of the issue than people not paying attention to your job posting.

I have to admit, that if I were interested in a job at your firm, and you were advertising for a position that I wasn't qualified for (whatever the reason) then I would still seriously consider applying for it. To get my name out there, etc. Granted I might write a cover letter to that effect, but there would be no downside for me to apply for that job.

-Ian

EddieLeon

How about a cost or inconvenience factor? Maybe a "snail-mail" response should be required instead of email.

Ky Lane

Fair comments...

I spent 6 months in Vancouver looking for work.. and noone either wanted me, or could afford me. I ended up coming back to Aussie.

I have a Masters in Digital Design, which makes me eligible for the "Skilled Workers Migration" scheme. Have you considered that?

If I didnt like motorcycling as much as MTB'ing, I would have settled in Vancouver Bloody weather is a major downer..

EddieLeon

Miami weather might be a little better, but no hills or mountains here