Advice to jobseekers

Do you want to know why I'm at work on a Saturday?

I'm applying to my own job.

With experience in large organizations, I've come to learn that they have extensive and virtuous hiring policies that stress transparencies and equal opportunity. I've also learned that these policies are seldom implemented the way you would expect it.

The best indicator is the hiring process, the competition for a position. Yes, the job is advertised in websites and wherever else the policy says it has to be posted. Yes, employers call some people for interviews. But often, they have a very good idea of who's gonna have the job: the person who is already employed under a different title. Often, it's someone with no social benefits, a lower salary, but the same responsibility or almost. The employer decides that this person is well-qualified and offers him/her the be "staffed". But this means going with the official procedure mentioned above.

In my particular case, I can't take the job for granted. My boss will seriously review all candidates and will even interview a few of them. But seriously, who doesn't think that I'm a better candidate than average with months of experience in the job and a good name internally?

The problem is not so much the hiring of the consultant for the staff position. It's how you pick the consultant in the first place. That's where the policy's really ignored.