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Greek
Mythology holds that Zeus commanded two eagles to find
the center of the Earth. One eagle flew east, the other
west. They bumped heads in Delphi. Eventually, the
spirit of Apollo came to reside in Delphi, which,
according to the eagles, was the center of the Universe,
at the juncture of heaven and Earth. A boom in tourism
soon followed.
The big
attraction was the storehouse of information possessed
by Apollo, who was not averse to sharing his godly
wisdom with mere mortals. When queried through an
intermediary, called the “Oracle,” supplicants would
have their most important, profound and vexing questions
answered by the god himself, speaking through the
Oracle. It was a big business, and Delphi thrived. No
doubt, the Oracle made a few bucks herself.
Unfortunately, the Oracle’s pronouncements often proved
difficult to fathom, and highly subject to
interpretation. When King Croesus of Lydia consulted the
Oracle to determine whether he might successfully wage
war against the Persian Empire, the Oracle accurately
predicted that if Croesus attacked, a mighty empire
would fall. Thus encouraged, Croesus happily trotted off
to crush Persia. Alas, Oracular infallibility was
overestimated. The empire that fell was (of course) not
Persia, but Lydia.
As a rule,
recruiters have their own agendas, which tend to color
their objectivity. A recruiter’s agenda, which
fortunately is open and not hidden, does not involve
improving your marketability or polishing your résumé
until it sparkles like a flawless diamond. Recruiters
work for their client companies, and not for you. Their
advice should be considered in that context.
Certainly,
it would be unwise to dismiss out of hand any
recruiter’s evaluation of your resume. However, like
those of the Oracle, the pronouncements of recruiters
may also prove to be difficult to fathom and highly
subject to interpretation. And contrary to common
wisdom, recruiters generally lack godlike powers and do
not reside at the center of the Universe.
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