I'm a bit of a sad case. I like American Idol. There, I've said it. I prefer it to the UK version of The X Factor, largely because it hasn't got that buffoon Louis Walsh on it but also because I feel that the singing talent in America is better than in Britain. And I vaguely fancy Jennifer Lopez. That said, I quite like Simon Cowell, in fact the TV giant and 'talent guru' we love to hate. But the thing that's wrong with most of these shows, and Cowell is in no small way responsible for this, because he puts people through who are simply good telly; is that the best people don't always win. Or, in employment terms, the best candidate doesn't get the job. See where this is going?
If you've been watching American Idol, you'll know that the miniscule Jessica Sanchez almost got voted off a couple of weeks ago. She's 16 years old and has one of the best pop voices I've ever heard. There is every chance she'll be as big as Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston, whose vocal power and prowess she can emulate at such a remarkably tender age. The only downside is that she is a bit of a one-trick pony: it's power ballads and not much else which keep her in the competition each week. But still, she's darn good at them. Luckily, the judges get one 'save' per season, so they used it on her, telling off the American voters direct to camera for their idiocy at the same time.
Last week, arguably the most versatile musician on the programme was voted off: Colton Dixon. A rock star with dreamboat eyes, a killer smile, a massive vocal range and his own unique style, he could take Billy Joel's megalithic Piano Man, change the chord structure, mix it up a bit and make it sound like he wrote it. Karaoke it most certainly ain't. Then another week he could sing the hell out of some glam rock, or rework a bit of Lady Gaga. He was, as people might say, the complete package.
So why on earth didn't he 'get the job', so to speak, of being the American Idol? For my money, the final should have been a sing-off between Jessica and Colton, but Colton should have won. Instead, among the top five, we currently have one girl who can barely stay in tune but is moderately cute in a Barbie sort of way, one girl who can only sing country music, and one guy who constantly wears grey and is a blatant Dave Matthews rip-off. I guess the gospel-singing Joshua is talented enough, but he can't play an instrument as far as we can tell, and he's a bit screechy.
One reason why Colton didn't 'get the job' may have been, dare I say, because he didn't need it. With the exposure he has received from being watched by over 50 million people in America alone (let's not forget the programme is shown in a plethora of other countries too), there is little doubt that he'll be snapped up by a record label and will go on to have a very successful career. The same is true of the very gifted vocalist Adam Lambert, who came second in the same competition a few years ago. After touring with the show Wicked for 18 months and getting turned away at other auditions, he hesitated to enter because he knew all too well that being on American Idol 'wasn't cool'. But he needed the exposure to catapult him to stardom so he bit the bullet. Sure enough, he is now the lead singer for one of the biggest bands in the world, Queen, having been hand picked for the job by Brian May and Roger Taylor. Doesn't get much bigger than that.
Had Adam Lambert or Colton Dixon won American Idol, it wouldn't really have changed their path; they'd have found a way to be successful in their respective careers. Everyone knew they could have (and maybe should have) won. In my experience, the same may well be true in the employment world.
Last week, I went for a well-paid copywriting job. The bracket of £38-48k is not insubstantial; unless you're going to work for a really top agency, you'd be lucky to get more than that without the word 'senior' in front of it – and even then, you may only reach the early 40s. So, given that this was a top-end copywriting role, I took a little more time over my covering letter than I usually would. I went through the job spec and made sure I ticked every box for every requirement. Not nice-to-haves; REQUIREMENTS. The end result was a covering letter which shouted,'I can do this job. You want ME.'
I chatted to the recruiter about the salary bracket and we agreed not to put myself in right at the very top end, leaving a little room for manoeuvre. A few days later, I received an answer.
You have too much experience.
Pardon?
You have too much experience.
So hang on, hang on. They put together a job spec, they listed the REQUIREMENTS and then turned me away on the basis that I actually met them? I would apparently get bored reporting in to the lead writer, was the other assumption.
Jeez, I really can't win.
When I've applied for other jobs in the past, for which I can do MOST of what is required, and have shown an interest or cursory knowledge about a lesser aspect of the role without being an expert, (but showed an interest in growing with the role and the company) I've been told that there are other candidates who are currently doing the same job elsewhere or who have more direct experience than me in XYZ. So what the bejaysus am I meant to do, then? Play up the parts of my experience where I'm slightly lacking and then play down the directly relevant experience? As the classical art critic said, what a load of Jackson Pollocks.
Might it also be assumed that because I'm 'that good', I'll obviously find something else anyway, so better to give the job to someone who isn't as good who'd be really grateful for it? I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there.
If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I have a stammer. So in the past, I've also applied for jobs which have been ring-fenced for applicants with disabilities. And stammering is a disability, by the way. You don't need to watch The King's Speech to know that – that's also according to the description of what a disability is in the Equality Act 2010. Anyway, having been shortlisted for a role for disabled applicants, I was then told by the interviewer that I could probably have got a similar job anyway by mainstream application methods. I didn't get the job. So...you're discriminating against me for not being disabled enough? Give me a b-b-b-break.
You may come to the end of this blog and think, ah, now Ashley's going to tell us the answer to this riddle: why didn't Colton Dixon get to the final and win American Idol, and why didn't Ashley even get an interview for a job for which he clearly should have been shortlisted. No, I'm not. Over to you and your worldly wisdom and thoughts!
by Ashley Morrison
Ashley is a blogger, copywriter and editor.
Follow me on Twitter @Ashley_Morrison
[email protected]
www.creativepool.co.uk/ashleymorrison
