And employers too seem to be losing the plot too.

Odd encounters in the past fortnight with two prospective employers.

Applied for a part time freelance writing post. They asked for examples of work, sent them links. Had a one line response a few days later, saying they were interested. I now believe this was a template e mail and not a direct response.

I responded asking what the next step was. Nothing since.

Last Thursday, I received a call regarding a post I'd applied for. Woman asked if I could go in next day. Simple fact is, I couldn't.

This was an employer, not an agency. I made sure she was aware I was interested in the post and told her I could pop along the next week to suit them. A also asked a little about the post and politely if she could give me an idea of the salary.

She was reticent to do so. Just a hint, I said. I did this because if the salary was say 5k less than I am currently on, then we would both be wasting each other's time.

She gave me an idea and I responded to the positive. "But I'll have to talk to my husband, see when he's free". She seemed to splutter over the words.

I thanked her for the call and even looked up the company website, e mailing my continued interest and have heard nothing since.

Blinkered seems to be the operative word here. The employer by nature of the capitalist system, is looking for the most work / skill from an individual for the least amount of money. But by not indicating a salary range, people who let's face it work to pay their bills, may have to sneak a morning off work to attend an interview etc, should be given the full story.

After all, the employer gets a decent picture of the applicant when they read through a cv don't they ?

Now, I'm not being bitter and twisted on this one. Fact is, I wasn't much fussed by the job on offer except it was local, but to the lady on the phone, I showed all the professionalism and enthusiasm an employer might expect and yet, just because I couldn't meet her tight deadline, I seem to have been given the finger.

Probably one of the worst cases of not knowing the salary on offer for me, was about twenty years ago.

Three high pressure interviews, the latter two with about six guys in the room and little old me. The last one I was put under pressure by the MD, a rude, northerner.

I realised, I was losing the battle and and was becoming a little irritated by his rudeness. I told him that I'd attended three interviews, running to approaching 4 hours in total, so this far in, I wondered if I might be told the salary for the job.

One of the others in the room, who'd been in the interview process from the beginning, told me the job would carry a salary commensurate with the duties it carried.

Great answer, I thought. Then the MD dropped his rudest response. "I'll tell you one thing, you can rattle on"...

I responded politely saying I felt the best way to paint a picture of my experience was to offer examples of how I'd overcome business problems in my previous job. I finished with "I'm overcoming nothing here". I then started to pack my stuff away and left without another word.

I didn't get the job.

There is no excuse for rudeness when interviewing people and as for pressure interviews, there are few situations where this is necessary, even in sales, which this job wasn't.

I return to my analogy. When you need a man to fix your boiler, you look up the relevant skill for the person to do the job, not a pastry chef.

Common sense seems to have left the recruitment process altogether, in favour of allowing greedy agencies to mud sling a collection of applicants, many of which are unsuitable and so waste time attending and the time of those looking for a suitable person to fill the post.

Lazy HR departments, who rely too much on psycho babble and personality profiling (another snake oil method from across the pond), rather than choosing a person on their skills and the perception given at interview that they can do the job. After all, the deck is stacked in the employer's favour, that should the person not turn out to be as good as they claimed in their cv or at the meeting, you can them and find someone else.

Only downside there, is maybe a little egg on the face of whoever on the hiring team said welcome aboard...

Judging by the experience of a much younger friend with possibly a more "attractive" work profile than myself eg, a degree, this higgledy piggledy process from agencies and employers alike seems not to be confined to a particular age group.

She had two interviews which were inconclusive, she just never heard from the employer again.

From any angle, this is just wrong.

The job of jobseeker is probably one of the most thankless ones there can be. It certainly doesn't pay the rent.