Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a Contracts Manager in the Social Work department

You'd never have thought it, but things are sure hotting up in the Scottish job board market. If the recent revamp of S1 jobs weren't enough, here comes myjobscotland, the government portal for all things McPublic Sector. No, bear with me, please.

The site, which appears to have been built by Stepstone and written by someone with the attention span of a dazed haggis, promises much at the outset. Nice, we think when we read the intro. Public sector job marketing with a real understanding of how to leverage the concepts of worthwhile work and social value. We read about how we're to be introduced to 'superheroes' who work for local councils. We stare lustily at a humorous banner which, in good old Adam West Batman fashion, has ejaculations (look it up) in cartoony starbursts. YYESSSS, it says, with two Ys and four Ss. WOW! CLICK HERE. And we do, but that only takes us to George.

Now George is possibly an excellent solicitor. But a superhero he is not. He looks like the kind of strait-laced individual who gave up on Gordon Brown long ago for being a tad on the flighty side. Perhaps he allows himself a go at the crossword occasionally, but only when his shoes are polished and he's finished at the Presbytery. Read the third paragraph: bet you any money you need to read it three times over before it makes sense. Slowly the curtains are closing before your eyes, and you are being lulled into a deep sleep, like Greyfriars Bobby expiring on his master's grave.

So what's going on? It's clearly a massive creative non-sequitur, but there's more afoot. We're looking directly into the heart of the schizo nature of British public sector recruitment.

Public Sector ads are either great, or poo-pants, or both. At the top end you get the best briefs in the business. Coppers, firefighters, spies. At the bottom end you get semi-display ads for paperclip polishers in Bogbrushire Council.

The good are good for two reasons:

Firstly, public sector clients are less hidebound by brand restrictions. As recent victors of the Ri Fivers show, you can do nice full-image ads with funny headlines and original photography, which if you presented to the EB Manager of M&S would probably result in your getting a crate of Percy Pigs stuffed up your arse.

Secondly, this is where the emotive propositions are. Fight fires! Save children! Spy on baddies! Operate on orphans! And so on. (Although these emotive propositions only work when attracting people from outside of the job role. Firefighters don't want to hear about saving people: they know all about that already. They want to know about shifts, money and how long the slidey pole is.)

Anyway, myjobscotland should brush up its profiles.

Incidentally, regular readers may like to note that Innocent won the NORA award.

Who'd have thought.

Comments

[Alex Hens]

LOL

very good review :)

[Steven Haworth]

Well, Andrew, I laughed. And, as you know, I work in recruitment advertising so I needed a laugh.

"Perhaps he allows himself a go at the crossword occasionally, but only when his shoes are polished and he's finished at the Presbytery." This was particularly amusing. Of course, I was raised a Presbyterian.