Earlier this week I came across a certain job post on LinkedIn by a seemingly but not so famously known ad agency.
The position they had asked for was somewhere along the lines of a Video Creator / Content Creator role.
However I was instantly confused when I read through the post as they had asked for someone who had a degree in Mass Communications, knows how to deal with Analytics, had experience with Cinema 4D, 3D software, Toonboom and on top of that a can-do attitude. This is all aside from the fact that they also want video creation related pre-production + production + post production and everything in between.
This role alone has the skillset of at least 5 very different professions – Public Relations/Journalism/Concept Artist/Video Editor/3D Artist/MoGraph Artist/Cartoonist/Illustrator/Visualizer/Digital Marketer/Paid Media Specialist/Content Creator/Social Media Marketer/Creative Designer….
And if 5 wasn’t enough I’ve listed 15, and that was from what I took off the advert briefly – it was way too long and probably that list could have been longer.
The ad copy itself was longer than your average resume, and to make matters worse, companies like won’t even be able to pay 1/3rd of the expected salary of a candidate who is actually competent and talented enough to do so.
I like how these guys just bake in the actual job requirement’s under the interests section which is ideally falls under the optional but advantageous to have category of things.
Not to throw a shade, but I genuinely think that the person who wrote that was high on some different form of crack, or the tea that they were drinking was really strong with no sugar. and yes, not gonna lie that was the gist of an actual job posts that is still live atm.
And the thing is, they aren’t the only ones. Many other companies now have jumped on that same trend – where they search for people who supposedly have these insane mulitopotentalite capabilities (yes its a word, you should google it :3) for roles that make no sense in what they ask for.
And this is the same thing that used to happen with Creative Designer adverts initially – but I guess content creator suddenly became a cooler word for them.
What ends up happening is that all the working late-millennial and gen-z era creatives in the industry will turn out to be a bunch of Jacks of all trades and masters of none.
These companies on their hunt for Unicorns, ultimately end up with Leprechauns; and these guys end up taking responsibilities and key roles in those creative departments – and then further nurture those unhealthy hiring practices.
To all you creatives and creators, signing up to be a Unicorn and ending up as a Leprechaun inside an agency, happens with your own choice.
Its a natural thing that as you upskill on your interests, you end up chasing that unicorn in terms of your abilities, but allowing a company to extort your creative interests for their own gain and at no compensation to you is something you will have to think about as you apply,
Here’s me rooting for you to keep trusting your process and to trusting your right decisions this season.
