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- Being Headhunted
As everyone is rushing to finish off their tasks before the holidays and do their end of year reflection, I’m just stopping by to say a big THANK YOU for reading my newsletter! Whether you’re a new subscriber or have been following me since the beginning, I’m so happy you read my work and I do hope you find it helpful!
If you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see more of, hit Reply and let me know.
Today I’m sharing a positive way to look at the abysmal job market situation (hope it gets better in 2025!) and a fun list of books to keep you company during the holidays.
😱 Head-hunted 🎯
It feels like everywhere we look, we see news about people sharing how challenging the current job market is, how they’re being laid off, and how hiring forecasts in IT are the lowest they’ve been since 2011.
In this environment you’d image there are countless talented and experienced candidates to easily fill out every job companies could require. Yet the staffing and recruitment industry is booming - in the UK alone, there are over 30,000 agencies, and the industry is expected to grow.
While many agencies hire in bulk for low-qualified positions, a lot of the biggest recruiters hire for specialised management and leadership roles.
Why???
When there are so many available candidates out there, why would a company pay thousands to an external firm to find them the best candidate?
The reason is that hiring is more complicated than most people realise. On the one hand, you have companies bad at describing what they need, which leads to misleading job advertisements. A deluge of CVs for every position also make the job of HRs harder.
But the most important reason is that great people have value. They can make a big impact in an organisation with their knowledge and ideas, and their roles are not just boxes on a spreadsheet that need to be filled.
As we head into the new year, I can’t promise you that your job is secure - we don’t know what’s around the corner. But I’d suggest you stay confident in yourself. Don’t view yourself as a nameless CV landing in a recruiter’s inbox at 16:52. Instead, know your value and imagine you’re one of the valuable candidates that someone would headhunt personally.
Happy holidays!
📚 Shelf Shocks 💥
1. The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters by Tom Nichols
The world is full of experts (even outside self-indulged LinkedIn posts) - people who’ve spend years - sometimes decades - studying a certain topic. They’ve read the books, discussed issues with other experts, watched YouTube tutorials, put in the work. And yet, there are many people who not only ignore their knowledge, but actively try to fight and diminish it.
In today’s information-overloaded echo-chamber, even the most ridiculous voices demand to be heard. Many factors, such as the emergence of social media and the never-ending news cycle, have created an environment in which quantity drowns out quality. And when we are faced with dire issues like Covid-19 and climate change, this shift towards dumb populism can be catastrophic. This book explored trendy anti-intellectualism and what its implications can be.
🎧 Summary
2. Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo
Most people see books as space-consuming objects that are the least exciting form of entertainment. Yet books have always held power, and in ancient times, they’ve been the main star in many heroic tales.
The author takes us on a 6,000 year adventure through the history of the book, from ancient scrolls and oral traditions to Twilight, to explore how the written word has influenced our world throughout history and why it is vital we protect these objects from those who may want to destroy them.
3. Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
If the Christmas period has gotten you in the mood for an edge-of-your-seat thriller (maybe from watching Die Hard again), I’ve decided to share a real-world suggestion. Snowden is the infamous whistle-blower who exposed how the US government is secretly spying on every phone call and email in the country.
This memoir is the story of the modern spy - one who didn’t grow up in a war-torn country or in a secret government base, but on the Internet. And in this new digital battlefield the rules - and stakes - are different than what we’re used to.
Fun Links ⏰ ❗️
Napkin AI is a fascinating tool that allows you to create a diagram from text. Simply paste your information in the app. Then, you can edit the icons, structure and even the colours of the image, allowing you to create beautiful graphics that will make you next financial report really pop.
Start here!
You've reached the end of my newsletter. Hooray! If you’d like to see more of my work, you can GET MY BOOK Write Better: A Simple Guide to Better Business Writing or connect with me on LinkedIn for more fun and educational content.
If you have any comments or would like to share what you enjoyed the most, feel free to get in touch! See you in two weeks!
(📚 За всичките ми български читатели - здравейте! Ако харесвате съдържанието ми, може да се запишете за коя книжен бюлетин БУК Клуб.)