By Mark A. Leon

That is a bold statement to make coming from a former recruitment professional turned employment branding and marketing strategist. So how can job boards, who are bending over backwards to make the application step easier and easier actually destroying the candidate experience?

Simple, they are making it harder for recruitment professionals to find the “right fit” by burdening them with more administrative duty and reducing the available time to engage, network and build relationships with quality talent.

Many job boards, led by the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Indeed have implemented easy or one click application options. How incredible is that. I can click ten blue buttons on LinkedIn or Facebook in 60 seconds and become a formal applicant for 10 different jobs. That provides more time for Words with Friends and Netflix. That seems like a victory for the candidate.

Now I just have to wait for the offers to role in.

Wait, I have an email asking me to complete and application? But I already did by clicking that one button.

Why do I need to spend 30 minutes on an ATS application page when I already took 5 seconds to apply yesterday?

Look what has just happened!  Candidates are now being told, by dumbing down the process, they still have to apply and recruiters have to sift through more resumes than ever increasing the unproductive time and reducing the time spent engaging and building relationships with the strong candidates.

Case Study:

I posted a role for a client last week on Facebook Jobs. This role had 101 Facebook Job submits.  I reached out to each one personally, asking them to complete a formal application and provided the direct link. A total of 12 followed up and took that next step. I had to send 101 emails to get 12 leads, because Facebook allows a single click to express interest, leading many to believe that is enough to formally apply.

What have the job boards done?

• Enhanced the generational perception that each newer generation is lazier than the last
• Created a blind sense of ease in the job seeking process
• Boggled down recruitment professions with endless administrative tasks
• Confused candidates who now have additional steps to take to get through a job seeking process
• Given a platform for candidates to post and pray, eliminating the need for targeted research and career thought and planning

All for what?

• Data
• Volume
• Justification of ad revenue
• A false sense of community partnership to help people find jobs

Quite simply, job boards, by simplifying the candidate experience on the front end are destroying the recruitment process and causing more confusion and distrust between candidate and recruiter.

By Mark A. Leon

Silent Night
Small town snowfall
All is right, all is quiet
A soft kiss under the glimmer of a sparkling moon
Two lovers, honest and sincere
Together
Hope, faith and love
All that we need
All we can spare

A sincere tear falls upon this chilly cheek
In your eyes, I see a glimmer of forever

These familiar streets are a dream to me
The same faces, the same feeling
A sentimental place
I want nothing else

I can smell the coffee from our café
Those empty booths are warm just for you and me

Our first kiss on the corner
It’s where I fell for you
A stumble on the curb, a moment for all time
I was the tough kid, but in a heartbeat I surrendered to you

I our little town I got lost in forever with you
I believed we are watched from up above
Protected from all the dangers

From the time we rode our bikes to the park to the quiet nights with nothing but the stars to entertain us

Every day, an angel by my side
Every night in the darkness, the sunshine on my shoulder

This small town is a blessing because it brought me here to you
In an intimate mist, I found salvation

Shhhhh
Can you hear it now
Can you hear the sounds of everything whispering
Hello crickets, hello birds, hello love

By Mark A. Leon

Little Gracie
The vine of a fine wine
Silly and free
Wild and full of glee

Little Gracie
Sunlight in a sky of grey
Shelter from the rain
You made all the clouds just go away

In a foreign land, a sense of home
A tower of love defying gravity

A toast to you for all you be
A second glass because that is how it has to be

Times were short but full of spirited warmth
Overflowing with possibility of a world meant to be free

Little Gracie
The apple in our eyes
A freshness so alive
A truth no one can deny

It was you that glued the puzzle
You that made it all complete

A room of strangers now complete as one
Worlds apart so far, yet so close
Shared experiences shared
A safe place
You promised us that
Speak in words; resolve in hugs
Walk with passion
Believe in the possibility

It was you all along
Little Gracie
So proud, so strong

By Mark A. Leon

That last night on the beach; Labor Day weekend
The final sunset
The final embrace; the final goodbye
We walked the quiet streets plagued with wandering souls longing for one more last call
Tomorrow, we pack the tan and leave the sunblock for the next generation

To us, a final toast
A ritual it seems
One that would never end
Rustic summer home
A drinking game, cards and off to the bar to be showered by beautiful women and tough guys
Billy Joel on the front porch; a beer in hand; a weekend that we thought would never end
“Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue” would sneak into the tape
We stared
So much truth without a word spoken
So much time with so little to spare

The weekend was ours
The beach, the sun, the drinks, the meaningless love
Monday morning didn’t matter
It did
It always did

But at the shore, everything is alright
We learned that from the Boss
We learned everything from the Boss
Coolness, toughness and how to love in a time that tried the concept

Once again, it had to end
The song, the paradise, the youth

So many nights lying by your side
I can’t hold back, I thought
But silly awkward adolescence plagued me from the start
The disease of the young
Cure found too late

Ten people, two rooms, fifty pillows
It was a mansion
Intimate and lustful
Strangers on Friday, lovers and friends by Sunday

Closing time and I don’t want to go home
One last walk on the sand
Under the moonlight
Maybe a skinny dip
Maybe a kiss
It will be our little secret as we embrace our final goodbye
Sing me away to another place
Maybe someday, we will sing together again

By Mark A. Leon

How long will it take before I can be with you?
Before I wash away these blues
Before you resuscitate this lifeless body

How long will I bear another cold winter?
Lonely nights
Racing heart beat
Diming fire

It is a tale full of fury
Lingering in quiet despair

Through the clouds you go
The scent of another man every night
A line by your side
A glass every night

A star to all that bow to your calling
The voice of an angel
A heart cold and shunned
Famed to billboards and streamed for the world

How long will I see this empty bed?
Clothes lined in perfect color
Jewelry dangling off the counter
Your perfume permanently embedded into the nature scent of the air

Why does this weakened soul wait?
The road calls
I hang up
The road leaves messages
Mailbox full

All the color has faded to black
A dark world even numb to the force of sunlight

It’s safe though
Comfortably defeated
Swimming in circles only to return to where we used to be

How long will I hold onto a youth that is long gone?
Gone to everyone around me
Gone to my reality
Still alive in my dreams
How long can we stay together in this silly fantasy I have scripted?

You are the star in my blackened sky
Following the light, leaving the darkness behind

How long
Not long enough

By Mark A. Leon

Deep inside you is all I want to feel
One night exposed to the warmth of your touch
Vulnerable in this betrayal of innocence
Crippled by this lust
Motionless to your touch
Tortured by adolescent dreams; not reality
Subtle, soft and empowering

A night of passion tattooed with drops of sweat glistening off your skin
Darkness ensures with the last dim reflection of moonlight
Staring at the ceiling rested between your breasts
The world safe and at rest
A fantasy between the sheets now laid to rest welcoming a new dream
My reflection so clear
See inside you, shedding a tear

Only when I let you go does the flame burn out
This fire still ignites by the dawning of a new light
Eyes grow heavy; subconscious begins to awaken

Warmth between your legs shivers my inner thigh
Friction magnetizes our senses in this erotic fantasy
As strong as the eagle soars in the sky

Inside that warm safe place, I will hibernate
A gift of perfection beside me
So peaceful; so tempting
A morsel of skin
A scorching tingle of hot wax

Love me to tears
Love me til I fall
Love me til the end of time
I can’t explain
I don’t want to know why
I just want you

I’m going to dance with you in your dreams
High in the clouds of our love
Until I awake and see that pretty smile, those soft eyes I’ll be deep inside you

By Mark A. Leon

You are the most romantic ending I have ever known
The rain falling on our wet lips clenched in a moment of endless passion
The music orchestrated to our every move
The natural light of sun warming your skin
The conflict that heats the passion
The letters, the regret, the pain, the times that were almost so right

You are the romantic ending that will be studied for generations

A cure for the broken heart
So many lost moments earlier in the film
What almost was
So many times
Drown by meaningless affairs of the heart
With every passionless night; so many faceless beauties, you were always in the shadows
Lingering at the edge of my unfulfilled heart

The benchmark of this existence
My reason for being
A helpless soul, I was, always searching for what I already found

A wonderful misadventure this has been
Still
After all this time
I know
You are the most romantic ending to this story

I see now, with this dried up pen, there is no more to write
It is now time to live in the moment after the credits have run their course
The part that is just meant for you and I
Our sequel
A continuation
Bury the mistakes
Close our eyes to what might have been

See me for the first time once again
Feel the glimmer that began so long ago
Raise your beauty to the sun and hear the music intensify

Because this is now
This is the most romantic ending I have ever known