Against the backdrop of 75 million young unemployed, Rajeeb Dey, CEO of Enternships.com has spoken out against traditional recruitment methods in front of the world and business leaders at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. He shared his insights into the limitations of the traditional employment process, as well as introducing new concepts to break the endless cycle of rejection that most candidates face.
Rajeeb Dey
In a speech at the World Economic Forum on the 21st January, the Young Global Leader Rajeeb Dey said:
“For every person hired, an average of 80 are rejected. The Head of Recruitment is actually the Head of Rejection. Every rejection chips away at a candidate’s confidence, leaving them downtrodden and often depressed – not the best attitude with which to approach the next interview. This vicious circle has to be broken.
What we need to develop is a process that removes the innate structure of rejection seen in traditional recruitment and gives every applicant powerful development opportunities, regardless of whether they get a job. I call it UnRecruitment ; the removal of our current employment single-mindedness, in favour of exciting training possibilities for all.”
The UnRecruitment concept centres around the desire to put power back in the hands of those applying for positions; the idea that candidates should no longer feel like the only thing to be gained from job-seeking is the job itself.
“In between unemployment and employment there is a gap, and it’s one that should be filled with self-improvement, self-empowerment and genuine learning. Though only one person can get any given job, everyone applying for it should be able to benefit from the process.”
According to Dey, this concept of UnRecruitment comes from blurring the boundaries of recruitment and training – from schemes that give the tools for employment to young people, and from businesses who are willing to be more transparent, open and creative with the process of taking on new people. Rajeeb is currently trialling this model at Enternships with a number of selected employers, with training partners The Spring Project.
“Together, we can create systems of training, insight and feedback that ensure every candidate that applies for a position gains value from it, and that every employer has access to brilliant, ever-improving talent.”
About Rajeeb Dey
Award-winning entrepreneur and Young Global Leader, Rajeeb Dey, 27, founded Enternships.com in 2009 as a platform to connect young people to opportunities in startups and small businesses; an almost forgotten sector, particularly for graduates.
About Enternships
Founded by Rajeeb Dey, while he was president of Oxford Entrepreneurs
(one of the largest networks of student entrepreneurs in Europe), Enternships.com formally launched in 2009 and is growing rapidly. They have been trusted by more than 4,000 companies in over 20 countries, including organisations like Groupon, PayPal, Yelp and Huddle; and celebrities like Martha Lane Fox of lastminute.com, as well as James Caan and Peter Jones from BBC’s Dragons’ Den.
About The Spring Project
The Spring Project was set up in January 2010 by the founders of Elemental Practice LLP. The intent was to use the same expertise that Elemental Practice uses when working with the Boards and senior leaders of FTSE 100 companies and make it available for free to people at times in their lives when they most needed it and might most benefit from it. The Spring Project was devised to deliver ‘Radical Employability’ training to transform the situations that young unemployed people find themselves in. Over 2,500 people have been through the Spring Project’s ‘Radical Employability’ training so far. The Spring Project has pioneered the idea of unRecruitment over the last 3 years.
