Insights from the cattle show

There was a cattle show yesterday: oh excuse me, a career fair. I went, as usual, as a forlorn hope. I saw three employers, one of whom had something intelligent to say, and one of whom has gotten, today, just desserts.

The positive contribution came from a consulting firm's recruiter who left me with something to think about. Rather than focus on what my record has to offer objectively, she suggested concentrating on what it offers subjectively. That is, I have many years of varied experience related to their competencies, look "distinguished" (old) and could quite possibly play a management consultant on their TV. That's a flippant way of condensing serious advice that I mean to look into.

Now for the comeuppance. I was getting the standard polite brushoff from one person representing an IT company, when her associate barged in, evidently bent on getting rid of this annoying old fart: fine behaviour for a "diversity" job fair, but there you are. Ms. Rude backed off quickly when she discovered that I knew of and had used a number of contemporary technical writing tools. Apparently she thought that the limit of my technical skill was the electric typewriter. That wasn't so much a comeuppance as a board check.

The comeuppance came today with the news that this company has been sold. One can look forward to the possibility that some of its HR people will be looking at life from the other side of the recruiting table. One can only hope that the polite ones stay, and the jerks go.