What is the future of recruiting as a profession

What is the future of recruiting as a profession Attention recruiters- are you feeling a bit of existential despair when it comes to your profession? If so, you’re not alone. Most of us go through inflection periods at various points in our careers and begin to wonder if we’re stuck in a dead-end profession, merely punching a clock and wasting time that would be better spent doing something- anything- else.These moments of professional introspection can be scary but they can also be really beneficial- they can help you take stock of your current levels of career happiness and fulfillment, and possibly plan for a change if needed. Or, they can help you think through a potentially incomplete way of thinking and make you reappreciate your current field or position. Both of these can be positive and beneficial steps, despite the fact that they can feel overwhelming or scary in the moment.If you’re a recruiter and are starting to feel as if you’re in a dead end job, first acknowledge that it’s a questi on many of us ask about our careers these days, as technology and innovation rapidly change and reshape the ways in which we think, work, and live our lives in fundamental ways. In addition, the more time we spend doing a specific set of tasks, the more likely it is that fatigue will set in- which is perfectly normal. This fatigue might make it temporarily feel as if you’re in a dead-end job, or it might be an indication that you’re ready to consider the possibility of a career change. Before you make up your mind about whether or not being a recruiter is truly a â€Å"road to nowhere,† let’s dig a little deeper.How the role of recruiters is changing- and what it meansPerhaps you’ve reached the conclusion that being a recruiter is a dead-end job because of all the ways in which new technological advances, such as the rise of Artificial Intelligence,   are changing the industry, and are starting to wonder if it’s only a matter of time befor e human recruiters are no longer even needed. The following key aspects of the human recruitment process can indeed be replaced by automation including:Resume screening: Software is being utilized (and becoming more sophisticated) that can capably â€Å"learn† the requirements and skills needed for a particular job and identify qualified candidates accordingly. Increasingly sophisticated software is able to analyze historical performance data to determine those candidates who are most likely to be successful employees, using such information as experience, background, skills, and other qualifications to grade and rank potential candidates.Prequalification tasks: Automated processes can now streamline the â€Å"job candidate experience.† Everything from keeping candidates updated on the status of a position to answering questions, providing feedback, and offering helpful suggestions can help make potential candidates feel more connected during the job application proces s, a key benefit to attract top talent in today’s candidate-driven job market.Interviewing: AI and automated interviewing tools can make the interview process easier and more effective. Interviewing software is becoming so sophisticated that it can analyze a myriad of key factors- from facial expressions to speech patterns and word choices among others, alongside such metrics as job requirements and company culture- to determine potential quality of hire.Bottom line: Although technology is making certain facets of the recruitment process easier than ever before, rest assured that human recruiting is not dead! In fact, according to Digitalist Magazine, innovation will serve as tools to improve the performance of human recruiters, not eradicate it: â€Å"By streamlining some aspects of the recruiting workflow, experts predict recruitment automation will enhance a human recruiter’s capabilities†¦ Industry experts predict  that by reducing time to fill and improvin g quality of hire, technology will enable recruiters to become more strategic by spending more time on  proactive hiring and workplace planning.† So, if your fears about recruitment being a dead end were rooted in the thought that human recruiters were on their way towards becoming as extinct as dinosaurs, think again.hbspt.cta.load(2785852, '9e52c197-5b5b-45e6-af34-d56403f973c5', {});Why recruiters are vitalIt’s no secret in the professional world- regardless of industry- that securing top talent is a primary concern and key ingredient for a company’s success. According to  Auren Offman, SafeGraph, CEO and former LiveRamp CEO, â€Å"The best companies are obsessed with recruiting over almost everything else.  That means the CEO and the other leaders of the best companies are constantly thinking about recruiting all the time.  Usually it is because it is a real problem area.  Rarely have I ever heard a company say ‘we are meeting all our recruiti ng goals.’†¦ Because recruiting is so important, it gets the attention of the senior leaders of the company.  And if you are a star, you will quickly get noticed.†Kristina Martic, Head of Marketing and Employer Branding at TalentLyft, echoes the positive industry sentiments of Auren Offman: â€Å"†¦ recruiting is NOT a dead-end job! Recruiting and Talent Acquisition related positions are becoming the most important and most valuable positions in every firm. This is because talent has become so scarce and the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"War for talent†Ã‚  is getting more and more intense. Talented people have so many options to choose from, and if your firm is not able to attract them, you won’t be able to beat your competitors and survive. Talent is the biggest driver of every company’s success, and that makes recruiting one of the most important positions company can have.†A bridge to somewhereOne of the great parts about working as a recruiter is that it doesn’t have to be the final stop on your career path. In addition to the wealth of valuable transferrable skills that recruiters typically acquire during their tenures (management skills, organizational skills, people skills- the list is endless), there are options for next steps- if and when you’re ready to move on. Some options include moving from recruitment to HR, or moving from an agency to a position as an in-house recruiter for a specific company. You can also look to segue into management- as a recruiter you have picked up the traits necessary to lead a variety of personality types. Think outside the box, and use the skills you’ve gained so far in your career!Is recruiting a dead-end job? Ultimately, the answer to this question will be up to you, but clearly there are several folks in the know who feel strongly that this is not the case. As companies across industries increasingly recognize the importance of having the best candidates possible o n their teams, the more valued recruiters will be.

The Plague in Athens - Thucydides Peloponnesian War

The Plague in Athens - Thucydides' Peloponnesian War During wartime, Plague was the worst enemy.... The Plague - Thucydides Peloponnesian War Book II Chapter VII Second Year of the War - The Plague of Athens - Position and Policy of Pericles - Fall of Potidaea From Internet Classics Archive Such was the funeral that took place during this winter, with which the first year of the war came to an end. In the first days of summer the Lacedaemonians and their allies, with two-thirds of their forces as before, invaded Attica, under the command of Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, King of Lacedaemon, and sat down and laid waste the country. Not many days after their arrival in Attica the plague first began to show itself among the Athenians. It was said that it had broken out in many places previously in the neighbourhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a pestilence of such extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they visited the sick most often; nor did any human art succeed any better. Supplications in the temples, divinations, and so forth were found equally futile, till the overwhelming nature of the disaster at last put a s top to them altogether. It first began, it is said, in the parts of Ethiopia above Egypt, and thence descended into Egypt and Libya and into most of the Kings country. Suddenly falling upon Athens, it first attacked the population in Piraeus- which was the occasion of their saying that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the reservoirs, there being as yet no wells there- and afterwards appeared in the upper city, when the deaths became much more frequent. All speculation as to its origin and its causes, if causes can be found adequate to produce so great a disturbance, I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again. This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and watched its operation in the case of others. That year then is admitted to have been otherwise unprecedentedly free from sickness; and such few cases as occurred all determined in this. As a rule, however, there was no ostensible cause; but people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But inter nally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. What they would have liked best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its height, but held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when they succumbed, as in most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the internal inflammation, they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. For the disorder first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and, even where it did not prove mortal, it s till left its mark on the extremities; for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Others again were seized with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or their friends. But while the nature of the distemper was such as to baffle all description, and its attacks almost too grievous for human nature to endure, it was still in the following circumstance that its difference from all ordinary disorders was most clearly shown. All the birds and beasts that prey upon human bodies, either abstained from touching them (though there were many lying unburied), or died after tasting them. In proof of this, it was noticed that birds of this kind actually disappeared; they were not about the bodies, or indeed to be seen at all. But of course the effects which I have mentioned could best be studied in a domestic animal like the dog. Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper. Meanwhile the town enjoyed an immunity from all the ordinary disorders; or if any case occurred, it ended in this. Some died in neglect, others in the midst of every attention. No remedy was found that could be used as a specific; for what did good in one case, did harm in another. Strong and weak constitutions proved equally incapable of resistance, all alike being swept away, although dieted with the utmost precaution. By far the most terrible feature in the malady was the dejection which ensued when any one felt himself sickening, for the despair into which they instantly fell took away their power of resistance, and left them a much easier prey to the disorder; besides which, there was the awful spectacle of men dying like sheep, through having caught the infection in nursing each other. This caused the greatest mortality. On the one hand, if they were afraid to visit each other, they perished from neglect; indeed many houses were emptied of their inmates for want of a nurse: on the other, if they ventured to do so, death was the consequence. This was especially the case with such as made any pretensions to goodness: honour made them unsparing of themselves in their attendance in their friends houses, where even the members of the family were at last worn out by the moans of the dying, and succumbed to the force of the disaster. Yet it was with those who had recovered from the disease that the sick and the dying found most compassion. These knew what it was from experience, and had now no fear for themselves; for the same man was never attacked twice- never at least fatally. And such persons not only received the congratulations of others, but themselves also, in the elation of the moment, half entertained the vain hope that they were for the future safe from any disease whatsoever. An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died there, just as they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred or profane. All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures: sometimes gett ing the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own dead body upon the strangers pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so went off. Nor was this the only form of lawless extravagance which owed its origin to the plague. Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner, and not just as they pleased, seeing the rapid transitions produced by persons in prosperity suddenly dying and those who before had nothing succeeding to their property. So they resolved to spend quickly and enjoy themselves, regarding their lives and riches as alike things of a day. Perseverance in what men called honour was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honourable and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there was none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing; and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his offences, but each felt that a far severer sentence had been already passed upon them all and hung ever over their heads, and before this fell it was only reasonable to enjoy life a little. Such was the nature of the calamity, and heavily did it weigh on the Athenians; death raging within the city and devastation without. Among other things which they remembered in their distress was, very naturally, the following verse which the old men said had long ago been uttered: A Dorian war shall come and with it death. So a dispute arose as to whether dearth and not death had not been the word in the verse; but at the present juncture, it was of course decided in favour of the latter; for the people made their recollection fit in with their sufferings. I fancy, however, that if another Dorian war should ever afterwards come upon us, and a dearth should happen to accompany it, the verse will probably be read accordingly. The oracle also which had been given to the Lacedaemonians was now remembered by those who knew of it. When the god was asked whether they should go to war, he answered that if they put their might into it, victory would be theirs, and that he would himself be with them. With this oracle events were supposed to tally. For the plague broke out as soon as the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, and never entering Peloponnese (not at least to an extent worth noticing), committed its worst ravages at Athens, and next to Athens, at the most populous of the other towns. Such was the history of the plague. For more from Thucydides, see Pericles Funeral Oration. Also see resources on ancient medicine, including:Â   Types of Greek MedicineThe Four HumorsThe Hippocratic OathThe Hippocratic Writings