Being a futurologist has always struck me as an odd job, like a professional daydreamer or fantasist. Personal feelings aside, their musing makes for good copy in the tabloids. Recently I read a piece discussing the future of tablet computers, phones and social media suggesting that all of these would be combined into a single headset with a drop down visor over one of our eyes, which displays information about the person you are looking at based on the their social network profile.
The 'vision' was that you would be able to see people who have similar hobbies or pastimes, their relationship status so on. I'm not heavy on social networking but this whole thing just sounds strange to me. This said, it did occur to me that in the same way you could display your personal availability and other details, you could use your social network profile it to find a new job.
Maybe you could indicate your current role and willingness to be approached about new work in a floating bubble above your head, possibly even with a salary attached. For example: ‘Java Developer, Available, no less than £350 per day’. You might be doing your weekly shop and you get a tap on the shoulder from an IT Director on his weekly shop who then gives you his card and asks you to get in touch (perfect!); although there would probably be no such thing as business cards. Maybe you'd have to bump heads or something. Finding a job would be so easy.
At this point I am giving up attempting to be a Recruitment Futurologist myself. Whilst technology certainly plays a role in recruitment, for the immediate future I can't see any better way of finding a new role than building a long-term relationship with a recruiter who is an expert in your field and takes the time to understand exactly what you want.
Andy Bristow started his career in recruitment in 1999, before moving to specialise in the IT sector. He joined Hays IT in 2002 and is now responsible for developing Hays IT’s delivery into the software development market.
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