A Humanoid Recruiter
Rising through the ranks
I was going through the emails between meetings when I noticed an email from Pete. It simply said, “Good news. Found a candidate for the Data Analyst position!” Feeling a rush of adrenaline the news gave me, I immediately replied, asking him to meet me in my office.
Being head of the HR department, I was under tremendous pressure for the past six months. Trying to fill all our open positions in a red-hot job market wasn’t easy. The Data Analyst position has been open for three full months. It wasn’t for lack of trying. Pete, a humanoid recruiter, worked round the clock to fill that position. I was skeptical when I purchased Pete last year. He was what the industry calls a “Humanoid Secretary”, so I wasn’t sure how he would perform as a humanoid recruiter. But he did the job admirably well. He did all the grunt work — posting the job on the internet, talking to the candidates, and scheduling the interviews. Encouraged by his success, I was going to purchase a few more humanoids to meet the…
There was a knock on the door and Pete entered. As he sat down, I said, “Well done, Pete. I know filling the Data Analyst position was very challenging. We have been trying for three months, right?”
“Yes, sir. We interviewed twenty-four candidates and made six offers. No one accepted.”
“So, how did you manage to get this candidate to accept our offer? The one you mentioned in your email?”
“Well, I didn’t have to give an offer, sir.”
“What do you mean?”
“The candidate is already working for us in the…”
I interrupted angrily, “Pete, we can’t poach our own employees to fill the positions…we talked about this before.” I stared at him in disbelief. How could a humanoid not follow a simple rule?
After a few seconds, he said, “Sir, as I was trying to fill this position, I got to know more about the job. I talked to a few Data Analysts and understood the required skills and how to acquire those skills. I took some training courses and I now believe I have those skills.”
I sat there dumbfounded. What the hell he was saying?
“Yes, sir. I am the candidate and I can do this job. Give me a chance.”
Was I imagining or did I detect a hint of optimism and hope in his eyes?
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