‘Congratulations! We’re delighted to inform you that you’ve made it through to the fifth stage.’ At this point, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. I’d done the HR screening call; completed the written task; got through the first-stage interview and then repeated myself in the second. So what, exactly, was left? A PowerPoint presentation? A half-marathon? Solving a Rubik’s cube underwater?  

Keir Starmer has one card left to play

Jess Phillips’s resignation will be particularly painful for Starmer

Experiences like this became a common feature of my life after I was made redundant from my job at a technology magazine in 2024. While I was fortunate enough to secure regular freelance and contract work, the lack of a fixed salary quickly created friction elsewhere. Mortgage lenders, for instance, tend to view freelance income with the same suspicion a nightclub bouncer might have for a teenager’s driving licence. Nor did I have paid holiday or sick leave. 

And so, for the better part of two years, I drifted in and out of job applications across journalism, copywriting, publishing and PR. Across all of them, I often encountered the same thing: an astonishing disregard for people’s time. 

Modern hiring practices have mutated from assessments into tests of endurance. What begins as a CV and cover letter (assuming either is read) now routinely swells into five stages, sometimes more. And one wonders: what exactly is being uncovered........

© The Spectator