I've heard and noticed before that a major daypart would be open for applications but a lot of the time, they already have the person in mind...just curious if this is urban legend or true?
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Is it true that most major positions are filled before they even advertise?
- Thread starter Nonmenthol
- Start date
It's true. You can thank EEO requirements for that. Every position has to be advertised in several places to satisfy the paperwork, even if you're going to hire the owner's no-good son.
Enormous waste of time and insulting to everyone searching for a job.
Enormous waste of time and insulting to everyone searching for a job.
Damn! so basically you're either approached by someone or you get lucky?
Nonmenthol said:
Or you know someone. Thereby becoming "that guy" that all of the poor saps applying for the gig end up hating.
B
Bob1370
Guest
The way it usually works, some jobs never get advertised, or get advertised only as blind-box postings so you don't really know who's looking for someone or where the applications go. (That way the EEO requirements are technically met, but who's going to be able to call them out when the rules are evaded?)
Other jobs get publicly posted but the station brass already has someone in mind...and one of the outside applicants just has to blow the bosses' minds (or get the attention of someone still higher in the food chain at corporate HQ) to get past him.
Still others get nominally posted in order to improve a station's EEO record when the station has no intention of filling the gig with anyone at all, but just plan a voicetracked or syndicated show.
It's a rare job that's actually truly open to a promising talent just tossing a tape and resume over the transom. It happens, but maybe only 10% of the time, when a station has an empty bench with not much time to fill it and no suitable or sponsor-acceptable satellite alternative.
It didn't used to be that way, simply because stations' standards were more consistent and more stations needed more live voices. The false economy of satellites and hard drives convinced front offices they didn't need those voices any more (and they clearly haven't yet drawn the obvious connection among declining audiences, stagnant revenue and canned programming, or seen how well companies that still do program live and local, like CBS, are doing generating profits Clear Channel and Cumulus can only dream of).
Other jobs get publicly posted but the station brass already has someone in mind...and one of the outside applicants just has to blow the bosses' minds (or get the attention of someone still higher in the food chain at corporate HQ) to get past him.
Still others get nominally posted in order to improve a station's EEO record when the station has no intention of filling the gig with anyone at all, but just plan a voicetracked or syndicated show.
It's a rare job that's actually truly open to a promising talent just tossing a tape and resume over the transom. It happens, but maybe only 10% of the time, when a station has an empty bench with not much time to fill it and no suitable or sponsor-acceptable satellite alternative.
It didn't used to be that way, simply because stations' standards were more consistent and more stations needed more live voices. The false economy of satellites and hard drives convinced front offices they didn't need those voices any more (and they clearly haven't yet drawn the obvious connection among declining audiences, stagnant revenue and canned programming, or seen how well companies that still do program live and local, like CBS, are doing generating profits Clear Channel and Cumulus can only dream of).
I fully understand the frustration you fellows are expressing. But you make it sound like today is the pitts, and yesteryear (when ever that was) was somehow "the Garden of Eden".
As far back as I can remember, getting matched up with the job of your dreams.... getting matched up with the best available opening has always been something of a hassle. Yes, I can remember the day when I was quite confident that any day I decided to quit, or the boss walked in and said: "You're outta' here!"... I could be sitting in my next gig in three weeks time.
The trouble was... the next gig was like going on a blind date. Under those conditions you had no idea what kind of mess you might be getting into.
The good jobs were often quietly filled via the "good ol' boy" network not only in radio, but in the whole business world. That is why we ended up with EEOC laws on the books. The problem was quite evident. We can agree and do a lot of muttering that EEOC doesn't work out equitably or to our pleasure, but the idea that the world was an everyday banquet of Rainbow Pie back the the good old days just doesn't have much traction.
In the Spring of 1956 I went hitch-hiking up and down the roads of my state, walking into radio stations and asking if there was an opening, and finally one day I walked into one where they sized me up on the spot and hired me right off the street. I had no references, I had no track record.
I had no idea who they were, and no idea how they would treat their people including me. And we did it on a handshake. For better or for worse, we had a deal.
I get the idea the world doesn't work that way any more.... and that probably is all a BAD THING.
As far back as I can remember, getting matched up with the job of your dreams.... getting matched up with the best available opening has always been something of a hassle. Yes, I can remember the day when I was quite confident that any day I decided to quit, or the boss walked in and said: "You're outta' here!"... I could be sitting in my next gig in three weeks time.
The trouble was... the next gig was like going on a blind date. Under those conditions you had no idea what kind of mess you might be getting into.
The good jobs were often quietly filled via the "good ol' boy" network not only in radio, but in the whole business world. That is why we ended up with EEOC laws on the books. The problem was quite evident. We can agree and do a lot of muttering that EEOC doesn't work out equitably or to our pleasure, but the idea that the world was an everyday banquet of Rainbow Pie back the the good old days just doesn't have much traction.
In the Spring of 1956 I went hitch-hiking up and down the roads of my state, walking into radio stations and asking if there was an opening, and finally one day I walked into one where they sized me up on the spot and hired me right off the street. I had no references, I had no track record.
I had no idea who they were, and no idea how they would treat their people including me. And we did it on a handshake. For better or for worse, we had a deal.
I get the idea the world doesn't work that way any more.... and that probably is all a BAD THING.
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