Radio DaZe:
This was written while I was in the employ of big radio company “Entercom.”
I am looking for a person to fill a position at one of the radio stations that I over see. I have had to hire a person for this job as a program director a few times in the past so I have a certain routine that I follow. You make phone calls to other people in the industry using the network to give you leads on potential applicants. I place ads in the trade magazines which are now almost all on-line.
Nowadays the applications all come in over email and that’s ok with me. It saves time and makes it easier to weed out the ones who are just shot-gunning out resumes with no real interest in getting this particular job.
This job requires that the successful applicant be on the air so most emails include a short MP3 of a recent air shift and maybe a sample of the other parts of the station. Sometimes the person applying gets a little carried away and sends the equivalent of a small symphony but that gets bounced by the hamster powered server my company uses and takes them out of the running.
This time we have placed ads with the big on line job search web sites. I won’t tell you which ones but I will tell you this. If you are trying to get a job or you are trying to fill a position using these services you are relieving yourself up a flag pole. Oh I have gotten loads of resumes from these on line job places, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that none and I mean none of the resumes I have looked at have the remotest experience in anything resembling radio.
People with long resumes and years of expensive sounding training in a variety of fields have shown up on my electronic door step. None of these no doubt well qualified people would know a microphone from a toaster oven. Why would the big on-line job service send me an applicant who has trained as a chef by the cordon bleu culinary institute? I am sure we would all eat better on the way to the poorhouse as the radio stations ratings resembled the Titanic after Kate Winslet took her clothes off.
I saw one application and resume from somebody in India who has years of experience in graphic design. With a name made up of mostly consonants and an address in Calcutta someplace I am thinking that this might not be good fit. Even if the person didn’t sound like what you get on the phone when you call customer service for a software problem I would love to see my bosses face when he gets the bill for airfare for that one.
And so the search goes on. Maybe the big online web job places will send me a program director graphic design expert who knows how to make a soufflé.
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The Rant D’Jour is about excrement of the Archilochus colubris.
I don’t know if it was poo or pee. More on that in a bit…more
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