Two posts in one day?! Maybe the world is coming to end. I'm interested in hearing your job search stories. What is driving you crazy? What have you appreciated? It's definitely still an employer's market and I just want to check in to make sure that potential employees are still being treated well.
2 comments:
I suspect you have now found your job. I must say, this is years later and the economy is not as bad, but the job-hunting process is still as ugly as it ever was. Me? I have a job - I've had it since last May but I think I got it for all the wrong reasons. You would think, for example, that the time you spent on your resume, the research you did about the job position and requirements, your qualifications, your references, your previous work experience and your phone interview performance would all really help you to get a job, right? I don't think so. I think the reason I got my job was because my current boss was reminded of himself when he was a young guy and that I was qualified enough without being potentially threatening to him. That was probably only half of it. The other half was probably just bizzarre personal stuff - he maybe just liked the hat I was wearing, perhaps. Whatever it was, it was NOT my qualifications. Believe me, I wanted to believe it was but after I heard him commenting on interviews he'd had with other applicants - some I'd even recommended - for other roles, I realized he just picks people he thinks he likes fairly irregardless of qualifications. Moreover, I think he passed up people who were beautifully qualified for some jobs because he was a little afraid of them. I think he actually hires people who are a little unqualified for thier jobs, who will actually maybe screw up a bit and make him look better. He likes people who are poor, have families are likely to have debt and will work hard - and gratefully - for peanuts.
Where I am from, my generation is better educated than the subsequent ones. The problem with being well-educated and young is that you come up against these older hiring guys who are evaluating you as a threat. The truth is, a lot of jobs out there held by senior staff could be given to a bright high school graduate if you supervised and mentored them for a month or two. So when you get this kid with a great degree (that maybe you don't have) and a lot of great experience applying for a job junior to you, you get a bit concerned for your own role. You don't want somebody smarter than you working for you, at the end of the day. You want somebody dumber, who is hard working, shows up on time, will make you laugh from time to time and will screwup often enough for you to feel like there is a need for you to be nearby.
Now, suppose you get a kid you think will be like that and then they turn out to be really fast-learning and hard working and they start doing reports that look better than you? Well, then, you sabotage them a bit. You feed them bad information/advice or you straight up withhold information that could benefit them. I go to work and it feels like Goya's "Saturn eating his sons". It's brutal, so you just have to laugh at it. All the same, I am grateful as hell to have the job I've got, so I don't mind working 20 extra hours of unpaid overtime to keep it. And, at the end of the day, I might wear out and get replaced by another young guy, or I'll be the old guy and sabotage the hell out of the young guy. We'll see. But I DO wish the job market was good enough that I could easily get at least a comparable or slightly better job somewhere else. If that door was open, maybe work wouldn't suck so much. But, as it is, I draw comfort from the fact that it's the same for everybody who is working and even worse for those who aren't. We are eating this shit sandwich together, friend. Be strong.
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