Sometimes I can pick shonky jobs but it’s not always easy to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

By shonky, I mean either the job doesn’t exist, the recruitment company is simply harvesting resumes or the position has already been filled by an inside candidate and the company is going through the motions to appear above board. Which it’s not.

Morton Bay Regional Council (Queensland) posted a job on Seek last month for a Senior Aerodrome Reporting Officer.

A client – who was a senior air traffic controller and a former RAAF Officer with 20 years of air traffic experience in NSW – used our services to update his resume to target this position.

We worked on the resume together, honing and polishing it. Making sure we hit every base.

After three drafts, his resume was pitch perfect. I have a professional idea when a client is going to be short-listed and this chap was prime interview material.

He didn’t even get an interview. No comments. No feedback. Thanks but no thanks.

Even if the Morton Bay Council had ‘God’s Gift’ of air traffic an controller waiting to be employed, our client should have been interviewed.

My grievance is, why post a job when the job has already been stitched up? This organisation has no integrity.

About 40 to 50 people across Australia would have spent maybe 200 hours putting an application together for that dodgy position.

It’s a criminal waste of time.