You won’t believe the disruption the legal recruitment sector is facing!

Two years ago I posted a blog under the title Soft free kicks in the media continue for ‘internet recruitment entrepreneurs’ in which I bemoaned the incredibly soft journalism being offered up by the ‘broadsheet’ media with respect to the reporting of supposed technology-based recruitment disruptors.

Last week they were back to their old habits when AFR journalist; Misa Han, published a story on the latest shiny new thing (Route 1) in the world of legal recruitment. I know how excited you will be to hear what it is. I am sure every legal recruiter will be close to wetting their pants about this enormous advancement in legal recruitment that’s on the verge of sending their recruitment career to the wall.

Wait for it……..

Wait for it……..

It’s a ……..

It’s a job board!

Aren’t you terrified?

It’s not just any job board; it’s an app!

Wow, and get this piece of disruption; it’s an app that shows you jobs for which you are qualified because you enter your location, years of experience and specific area of expertise. Amazing, hey?

Golly, gosh, whatever will these ‘recruitment disruptors’ come up with next? I don’t know about you but this app sounds, like, a real bad boy.

And what does this bad boy do for lawyers and legal firms that is going to cause such massive ‘disruption’?

Well, according to Route 1 founder, Paul Simos, as reported by Misa Han in her AFR puff piece:

“It’s for busy lawyers who have got a lot on their plate,” Mr Simos said, adding that the app would allow employers to bypass the traditional legal recruitment process, whereby recruiters screened and interviewed candidates before they introduced them.

Route1 streamlines the process for candidates by allowing them to apply for jobs directly, also bypassing the recruitment interview.

Aren’t they annoying; those pesky interviews where a recruiter has to make an accurate assessment of your skills and motivation to enable them to provide a suitable job recommendation to you and, then, an introduction to a law firm on your behalf?

Firms must be really frustrated that agency recruitment consultants feel the need to actually interview a candidate before recommending them. How the hell does that help anyone? It’s baffling, I tell you, simply baffling.

Let’s disrupt the legal recruitment industry by cutting out recruiter interviews; now why the hell didn’t I think of that?

The AFR piece goes on:

Mr Simos said the app would offer a broad cross-section of lawyers, compared to traditional recruiters who only have a limited pool because they relied on their professional networks for candidate searching. 

“Our network is everyone who downloads the app, so it should help law firms find better-qualified candidates more quickly,” he said. 

Wow, that’s just, like, amazing!

I mean agency recruiters proactively searching the market for the best candidates; versus an app that sends job descriptions on request (as long as they have downloaded the app, of course). I am sure all legal recruiters are searching for new jobs right now because they are so demoralised by this threat to their livelihood.

Well, I don’t know about you good folks but I‘ve had about as much disruption in our industry as I can cope with (for this week, at least).

For starters I’m going to avoid the AFR from now on; their cutting edge stories about recruitment industry disruptors are just too demoralising for me.

And once I’ve talked to the owners of the major legal recruitment agencies I’ll let you know when, and where, the wake for the legal recruitment sector will be held.