The ICT Job Hunter Blog

With all the Christmas movies filling our screens and images of that dear old guy dressed in red just about everywhere you look, it’s hard not to think about Santa Claus and what he has to go through at this time of year.  When I started to think about his job though, there were a couple of things that really struck me.  The first was that I wondered whether he really did his research before he accepted the position, and the second was to do with career passion.

For us mere mortals, it’s easy to look at Santa’s job and see it as a cinch.  I mean, after all, it’s just one night’s work a year, right?  Wrong!  It might be the elves who spend all year making the toys for the children, but who do you think manages them?  Somebody has to organize their training and sort out the elf payroll, and of course elves have industrial relations issues too you know, so there has to be someone to sort them out.

Actually though, the elves are the least of Santa’s problems.  There are millions of letters to read and, let’s face it, the handwriting isn’t always up to scratch so they can be very hard to decipher.  Worse still is the fact that they don’t just trickle in during the course of the year, but all flood in during the final few weeks.  Some of the requests that they contain, while they might offer the right sentiments, are simply impossible for Santa to deliver on.  A new Barbie doll is one thing, but getting Mum and Dad back together again after their divorce is quite another, and so poor old Santa has some really tough judgment calls to make and his decision-making skills really have to be top notch.  Then, once he’s made up his mind who gets what, he has to arrange the production (according to some very precise specifications) and the packaging and the warehousing and, of course, the transportation schedules.  The administration and organization needed to get all the right presents to all the right children is, quite frankly, a logistical nightmare!

Talking of transport, that’s another area that’s down to Santa too.  Dancer, Prancer, Rudolph and the rest of the gang all have to be cared for throughout the year to make sure they’re in peak condition and ready for the big night, and somebody has to take care of the maintenance and repair of the sleigh.  Imagine being just about ready to take off on Christmas Eve and finding that one of the reindeers has got the sniffles, or that the sleigh has rusted up and developed a nasty squeak which would make coming and going silently in the dead of night an impossibility!

You see what I mean about Santa’s job?  If he took it on thinking that it was a one night a year gig, he must have got one huge shock, but actually, I for one think he probably did do his research.  There aren’t many of us who would have the patience to entertain endless streams of children and still keep smiling, every year without fail, after doing all that hard work behind the scenes.  He must have looked long and hard at where his innate talents lie and what really blows his beard back before he chose his career, and boy has this guy truly found his career passion!