I’ve now been looking for employment for 8 months, after 4 month of unemployment last year and an unsuccessful stint at a job I had not applied for but been offered by the manager in charge, which turned out to be a complete shit show. So, I’ve come to know a lot about how companies hire — or, more exactly, DON’T hire — candidates at this time in history.

Along the way I’ve come across a number of sus “recruiters” who take it on themselves to string candidates along, promising jobs that pay a little too well, and try to sell you on “resume reviews” costing hundreds of dollars, while not really having any access or say in hiring decisions and probably not even being recruiters. Now, the thing about scams is that they tend to follow patterns. This is not a field of creative geniuses, and they have a number of tells.

So today I went to LinkedIn, posted a video entitled “Yes, You ARE Getting Auto-Rejected” which is apparently causing a whole lot of controversy in the HR community. A mere minutes later I was contacted by FOUR people claiming to be recruiters who have a job for me. One of them was for a job I had already applied for at the target company, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes from that. Two more advertised a job I had seen in my local job searches but was not a good fit for me for certain specific reasons.

Well, I decided to take the bait and send all four of them my resume, which has already been optimized by Claude AI for ATS performance. As things progress I’ll make follow-ups to track  the progress of these “applications”. So, stay tuned.

The post An experiment in hiring in 2026 first appeared on The Clever Shark.

I live next to the Palais des Congres, basically ground zero for homelessness in Montreal because it’s a public space so unless someone gets violent or annoying to the public they’re left in peace. For the most part the homeless don’t bother the residents, and vice-versa.

But it’s really depressing. Once you see someone new hang out here, you get to see them grow old really quickly. The general population thinks that “they messed up their lives with drugs”, which is true in some cases, but in most cases it’s the reverse — imagine that you have nothing to do all day (who’s going to hire the homeless?) and nowhere private to go to, ever. Well then, drugs quickly become the cheapest ticket to feeling good, no matter in how limited a capacity. They don’t have any “entertainment options”. Even assuming that a lot of them go to the Old Brewery Mission at night, the mission closes during the day, so they come right back. There are 2-3 distinct groups, overall they seem to respect each other’s “turf”.

Thing is, the general population — “normies” — really have no idea how close they are to being in this situation themselves. Yeah, we all dream of being millionaires or whatever, but we’re all infinitely closer to being out in the street than we are to owning a big yacht. One illness, one screw-up at work, one mistake in behavior, and that can be it. Much as people like to lie to themselves about this type of utter destitution being due to moral failings, unless you’re born into old money you’re probably teetering on the edge of that existence.

Yes, there are government programs. But we need to recognize that every year those programs are less funded than the previous year. Since the 1970s the percentage of the tax burden assumed by corporations and rich people has been on a steady decline, and that of “normies” has been rising. That started in the USA, but Canada quickly followed suit, because “we must be competitive”.

Well, “being competitive” sounds great as long as you’re on the side of the “winners”. But it necessarily also means that every year, there are more and more people on the “losing” side of the equation. It’s a sad reality.

That’s capitalism for ya.

The post On Homelessness in Montreal first appeared on The Clever Shark.