The last month was the month of “indeed” – almost every day I was exploring a job searching platform in the hope of finding something valuable. Something that makes me interested and excited.
I read hundreds of announcements where the future employers were looking for the potential parts of their teams. And one fact surprised me: in 95% the future employers do not know exactly who they’re searching for and they look for a person totally opposite to an “ideal candidate” described in their opus.
Here is the description of this ideal employee, a kind of a Terminator, who has so much advantages that a normal standard person would be ashamed even to stay in his shadow:
- a perfect team-player and at the same time able to work independently
- capable of taking decisions and dealing with the responsibility
- proactive and energetic
- multi-tasking
- ready to meet new challenges every day (! EVERY day)
- able to work under pressure
- excellent communicator
- perfect organizational and interpersonal skills
- sense of humour
- understanding of customer service and thousands of other tasks and duties.
Hello, guys? Who is this Mr/Mrs Right? Does he/she even exist?
The paradox is that for any innocent job-seeker this great description looks like the role profile of some middle-rank manager or at least senior specialist/head of a small department. Would be fair enough if it was so. Unfortunately, guys, these are the critical skills of an ordinary secretary/administrative assistant in an ordinary firm with a very ordinary budget.
Surprised? Me to 🙂 What surprises most of all is the innocence and inexperience of the employers mentioned above. Do they really know whom exactly they need? Or it’s just copy-paste without taking a thought?
I am not saying that these abilities are rare, unique and do not exist. They do. The point is that there is a contradiction here:
- or you need a professional secretary who has very strong administrative skills. This position also means the person is a 100% executor. Which is also good, because a good executor is a treasure.
- or you need a manager, a person who thinks independently and proactively, who can take decisions, risks and react quickly, who can manage the staff and take the responsibility. This person is another type of employee. He has something from an entrepreneur, a leader and doing routine administrative work is not his strength, he is just another type of person.
Is not that clear? You can not buy 2 for the price of 1! An excellent executor is as good as gold. So is an excellent manager. And if they’re excellent they know their price, they value their time and efforts and they don’t want to be a Terminator. They’re just not into this.