Am I racist?

Or elitist.... or a grumpy and difficult old man?

We've just finished a period of recruiting, and thankfully have managed to fill all our vacancies now. It's not the first time we've done this and I'm sure it won't be the last, but there was something different about this occasion.

I've never seen so many applications from foreign nationals.

This post has been a long time brewing, prompted by a CV and application letter that landed on my desk about 3 weeks ago. It was from a young feller with an unpronounceable name living in India. He had good qualifications and some relevant experience, the covering letter was polite (although way too obsequious) and he seemed like a nice chap. What was special then - nothing! Or rather what wasn't special was the spelling, use of words and general inability to communicate in an appropriate manner. This letter was also typical of the applicants from other foreign nationals - we've had Russians and Poles for example.

Am I racist? I judged this application in exactly the same manner that I would one from someone born here - poor communication skills, inability to write well, inappropriate choice of words. It didn't get as far as the shortlist.

And BTW a general word of advice for those that are applying for jobs etc from school/university. Use spelling (and grammar) checkers if you aren't sure. Capitalise and punctuate. Learn to write in paragraphs. Do not punctuate frequently - you are not writing a blog. Ask someone difficult and crabby to proof-read your application before you send it. I have been dismayed that students of apparently graduate level produce job applications looking as if they were typed from a mobile phone. There are hundreds and thousands of people like me out there that will put your CV in the waste bin if you don't give them a reason not to.

There are quite a lot of potential employers that will also reject you if you don't wear a tie and jacket to an interview. I'm not one of them. Yet.

I am seriously considering changing my bank right now, because I HATE dealing with foreign call centres. We're with HSBC, and ALL calls MUST go through an Indian call centre. I have nothing against people from the Indian subcontinent, however I do find that a strong accent makes communication very hard. The same would be true if the call centre was full of Geordies exercising their accent to the best of its ability. When I am the customer, why should I have to struggle with someone who I cannot understand well and who in turn struggles with me? I took a call recently from the VISA card service of our bank, and the lady on the other end was very pleasant, but completely mis-communicated essential information to me. I also called them this week, and was barely able to communicate with the first person and utterly unable to communicate with a second.

This is unacceptable.

It isn't helped by another evil of modern communications - the IP telephone system - used to save money because it's cheaper to send call traffic through the internet than by conventional means. Call quality has gone to hell in a hangbasket, but that's another rant.