Even today, we enjoy hearing Johnny’s music and that is why, even after all these years, I mentioned him in my introduction – he was a memorable part of my formative recruitment advertising years. Melville was a very popular spot for lunches and coffee breaks at the time and potential clients and other business associates were always happy to meet there. Robin, then an ad. executive at the Sunday Times, and I met there regularly and in fact I still have the Question Mark t-shirt we treated ourselves to over a good and rather extended lunch.

Robin and I as a team were, I believe, two of the pioneers as regards professionalising recruitment advertising, not only as to how it was done, but also the role that newsprint played in improving the value and visibility, and thereby the response to recruitment advertising. Top right-hand positioning of an ad on an advertising page was considered premium and one had to pay a loading for it. The front page of the careers section was also prime and, believe it or not, alongside the comics in the classified section of The Star I found brought results. In fact, as the volumes of advertising I placed in The Star grew, I placed my clients’ advertisements in a vertical half page format alongside the comic section in a similar format (send me a mail if you would like a reminder of what that looked like). This all sounds a bit old fashioned in this modern era, but it all played a role in ensuring that I stayed ahead of the game in recruitment advertising.

It wasn’t all work and no play I must admit as, being a keen golfer, which Robin was too, he agreed to sponsor t-shirts in a round of golf for a small group of clients at Sun City. Marcia did an excellent job of organising things and we all took off from Johannesburg early in the morning and stopped enroute for a libation in readiness to attack the Gary Player Country Club with gusto. I digress to tell you that that was the first of 27 consecutive annual golf trips to Sun City, and you will hear more about them in future blogs.

That first trip set the tone for future tournaments. Start out early, get in the mood for golf on the way, renew old acquaintances and make new friends. There were 8 players in that first tournament and fortunately no one took a camera. Eventually the tournament grew to 32 players and a couple of hangers-on, plus some debatable traditions, as well as very memorable kit provided by the Sunday Times, which I know is still worn by some to this day. Although you will hear more about memorable happenings at these tournaments, I am able to tell you that during the entire duration of the tournaments, not a single hole in one was scored, only once was a caddie cart driven into a dam and there wasn’t a single rainy day to wash out a tournament.

BREAKING NEWS: I have just read on an international news site the suggestion that companies are placing recruitment advertisements on LinkedIn where in fact no vacancy exists – it is merely a ruse either to attract names into a database for future use, or to incorrectly reflect that the advertiser is experiencing solid growth. In reality of course, no vacancies exists. I will keep in touch on this one but rest assured that all JobsWorld ads will reflect real vacancies.  We might just make things legitimate by stating “This is not a ghost ad” in future placements.

Let me sign off this particular blog by saying that the first tournament was so successful that it started a tradition that enabled many new friendships, some really good recruitment advertising ideas, some really lousy golf, a variety of debatable behaviour and importantly, that a rum and coke before teeing off works wonders for self-confidence off the first tee.