I did it and without the help of the recruitment "industry"

I doubt I have regular readers any more, as I don't promote this blog as I did the previous soapbox on Typepad.

This platform has I've found, been more of a place I can come to vent my spleen, mainly concerning my observations of the recruitment industry.

I've been actively seeking work as a 50 something for about two years. I'm in a marketing role, not necessarily by choice, but the work I do can be specialised, as I make promotional videos and when I get back to the office, I edit them, put in the captions, royalty free music and then promote them online to help with the company's SEO.

Another benefit of my movie- making adventures, includes coming home with a head full of stories for the company blog, another tool for helping SEO. And whilst I'm pointing a camera, I take stills which are used on the websites the company operates, in brochures and the company's external newsletter which I also write and publish.

In the last year, I've made three videos with Alan Titchmarsh, David Domoney and the Love Your Garden crew and a very nice bunch they are too. When I say I made videos with them, I blagged an invite on to the locations and pointed a camera at the proceedings. The edited results promoted the show and showed our company's tie in with the show as a minor contributor.

For whatever reason, I wasn't happy in my job apart from those fun excursions and I found when applying for work in my previous environment which was quality control related, I found myself getting nowhere. One day, like a bolt out the blue, I thought "I've a good little portfolio of work here, the written stuff, the videos all out in the public domain. Perhaps Alan Titchmarsh can help me get a job in the glitzy glam world of marketing.

So, I set about putting together an interactive PDF of my work, thinking my presentation skills would have the phone ringing off the hook.

I've already outlined that the jobs market has been well and truly sewn, nay stitched up, by recruitment agencies. I've several theories on why they have taken over the slotting of people into jobs which includes the possibility of lazy HR departments in companies that have the luxury of such things.

Add to that, the word Jobcentre is a misnomer these days. Gone are the boards of cards and the touchscreen terminals. Replaced by the order that any jobless scum (as we were oft called), will do 35 hours a week jobsearch online and prove it.

You are pressured to use the government's Universal Jobmatch service which lists jobs and where your applications can be reviewed by your Jobcentre relationship manager as I think they are called these days.

The UJ as it's called, is a service managed by Monster, a recruitment agency (and a pretty crap one at that).

My 6 months on Universal Credit wasn't too bad, mainly because I'm computer literate and was able to do my research from home and provide the examples they were looking for. I genuinely was looking for work and my relationship manager was very supportive. I remember bouncing some of my work off him and my attempts to make recruiters notice and he said "You really shouldn't be out of work"...

The interactive PDF bombed.

At one point, I put it on a server, where I could measure the downloads from my many applications. Zilch. It took me a long time to work out why. Most of these agencies can edit your address out of a Word document, but don't have the skills or the software to do so with a PDF, so my personal branding on the interactive cv of the decade, meant it never got used.

As for the lack of downloads from the server, sheer laziness. Too much effort to click a link or copy and paste the URL in a browser.

About three months ago, I had a bit of an epiphany. Irritated discussions with the odd agency bimbo (male and female for that matter), slowly uncovered that in their eyes, I was too old and worse poorly educated for the modern workplace.

"What, you don't have a degree in anything"? one exclaimed in a telephone conversation.

I have made a habit of fine tuning the PDF over the years and quite recently, added a small but flattering photo of myself in a shirt, tie and hard hat on one of my missions.

This was for one reason, to rule out the fact I'm not 12. Better to not be invited to interview because they think you're too old than travel ten or twenty miles to dash their hopes because you lack gel in your hair and a big knot in your tie, let alone the degree in social media studies.

Despite my rather gripish comments about age and education, I've always subscribed to the idea that if your boiler breaks or your car, the priority is to get it fixed quickly and at a good price. Yesterday for example, I had my cam belt replaced by someone I booked through an online service and you know what. They quote was reasonable and they could do it next day and at no point did I enquire how old the mechanic was going to be.

He did a good job by the way.

I also understand that employers can pick and choose who they give the job too and there is a certain amount of having to like you as well as evaluate what your experience and ability can do for their company.

Of course a lot of that gets lost when you've some mercenary fuckwit in a recruitment agency with nothing more on their mind than slotting anyone into a post to earn a nice commission. You are not their client, their protege nothing but a means to a commission payment.

Example of a mercenary twat. I provided a good application for a quality control job. Agency guy really friendly, dropped me a line and mentioned he'd been to see one of the referees I gave. A little extreme I thought, but turned out my referee had used a previous agency he'd been in (they do move around these people).

I never got an interview. He'd not been interested in my referee for anything more than looking for a prospect, an employer who might push a few job openings his way.

If it wasn't for the fact it makes me so angry, I could publish a book on misadventures and underhand dealings I've had with recruitment agencies. I met ONE who did a good job and even he got sick of the game and is no longer in recruitment.

A couple of weeks ago, I made another of my early morning applications for a job a lot similar to what I do. I received a reply and an invite to interview and the flexibility from the employer to go see them after work. That's always a good sign boys and girls. In fact a pal of mine, an employer himself says that any company worth their salt will see you outside work hours.

I visited the company and couldn't believe how friendly they all were. The lady who interviewed me even brought in the company owner to meet me and we got on like a house on fire.

I popped in for a second interview and a couple of hours later was telephoned to say I had the job. They were impressed with the work I've done for my current employer, Alan Titchmarsh was only mentioned briefly and my age never came into the equation.

I'll be starting there on August 6th and the only worry I have is that my car will be happy with 12 miles on the motorway each way, hence the cam belt and rocker cover gasket replacements.

I'm looking forward to a fresh start, nice people and a slightly better income.

If you're looking for work, especially over 40 years of age, you do need do be very aware that unless you have networking connections in your industry to draw on. You will be treated as a carcass by recruitment agencies. You don't matter to them in the slightest.

You do need to put forward what you do well and if you can give examples, do so like I did in the PDF.

I've always dared to be different. As a previous marketing guy in a motor dealership, none of my ads aimed at the local business community had a picture of a car in them.

I can speak from personal experience, it's a frustrating and drawn out process and the results are lottery orientated with recruitment agencies standing between you and your goal, not helping you.

Keep at it, constantly review and retune your methods, Try to cut out that annoying obstacle in your way the agency cretin. Sometimes, it is possible to use the job title of an agency ad to track down the employer who may be advertising independently.

All these things are worth a try.

Of course, the downside of going to another industry is I won't be hanging out with my celebrity chums any more.