OK, bit of a moan coming up..
Now, I've heard the phrase 'it's not about what you know, but who' but recently, I've seen that come true and it has been grating on me to the point it was affecting my thoughts today.
Three months ago, our organisation launched a recruitment process to hire an individual to review our reputation and awareness in the market. A week long advertisement (by advertisement, I mean a website page with social media posts regularly) began and an appointment was made. She was a nice girl, and intelligent and clearly during her three month stay offered some ideas that we will take forward.
Now consider that she had no interest in marketing and wasn't even doing her degree anything related to this subject, and she, like many students, had a summer break and as I can understand it's very difficult to find work as a student during the off periods. Now consider that her mother conveniently sits on our Board and low behold, the only application we received was the solitary one that turned out to be her daughter. Our whole staff felt the smell of nepotism hovering around when the process began, and ultimately, led to the appointment.
The two pieces of work she produced was what I'd expect (and probably what I may have completed at her age) but nothing that blew me away - it was all information we pretty much knew barring one or two areas. So, the money used on her employment could have been maximized by employing someone passionate in marketing or paid a tad more to experienced professionals to report back.
It just so fucking frustrates me. I know parents want their kids to succeed but giving her a jolly up in a role she's not massively interested in just to keep her busy, give her some money, is maddening. It's indictive, I feel, of our society when students from lesser backgrounds would kill for that work experience but wouldn't get it because they'd have to work damn hard to be considered. The other route is if your parents (and in this case, her mother has a vast experience in the field with many high position roles and has previously sorted out work experience roles for her daughter) can open the doors that in any other circumstance would be difficult, or would take a longer time, to open.
My journalism career never happened for many reasons but seeing things today that clearly show a prominent journalist father has helped his/her child into the industry by contacts is frustrating.
Anyway, it's off my chest now..