Quick Thought on Recruiting and Jobs
Last week, I was part of an interesting discussion on the topic, "Are Jobs Obsolete?" This led to a conversation about the changing balance between how people earn a paycheck and how they identify themselves. Living in a city full of musicians who are also elementary school teachers, microbrewers who are also mail carriers, and sculptors who trade commodities, I am surrounded by this idea daily.
As far as research goes, it did make me question our usual screening practices. Often we ask people about their jobs in order to screen out folks who work for competitive companies or who might have more than usual expertise on a topic. If we're doing research for a beer company, and our postal worker answers that she's a postal worker, what have we missed?
I am heartened by the fact that people are identifying themselves by what matters to them, not what pays them. We need to start thinking about how this matters to us as researchers.
