Posted on 11/12/2013 6:30:50 AM PST by Sir Napsalot
(snip) But no. The real reason? Young graduates don't have soft skills. A few years ago, they had a bunch of soft skills, but not anymore. White explains:
Overwhelmingly, [employers] want candidates who are team players, problem solvers and can plan, organize and prioritize their work. Technical and computer-related know-how placed much further down the list.Jobs are going unfilled as a result, which hurts companies and employees. The annual global Talent Shortage Survey from ManpowerGroup finds that nearly 1 in 5 employers worldwide can’t fill positions because they can’t find people with soft skills. Specifically, companies say candidates are lacking in motivation, interpersonal skills, appearance, punctuality and flexibility.
In a robust economy with sufficient aggregate demand that is operating at full capacity and full employment, you will not find employers turning people away on the claim that they lack team-playerness. If this is not totally made up (note: emphasis mine), it is a luxury of a period where there is a huge stock of surplus labor to draw upon.
(snip) A given failed job application may or may not be attributable to our macroeconomic malaise, but the broader question of why there are such a massive glut of failed job applications among young workers is. .....
(Excerpt) Read more at demos.org ...
But this 'lack team-playerness' excuse I think is just made-up.
. . . . but they are hiring foreign nationals as fast as they can get a green card.
Bullshit meter is pegged at 11. Not sure how much more she cant take captain!
Most of the yutes I see have have no social skills and very poor writing and grammatical abilities, but they can drink coffee and power drinks.
Hire Americans!
For crying out loud.
Bring back American jobs. Now.
When I was hired by a company as a sales engineer for a large IT company in the early part of the century, the hiring manager point blank told me he was hiring me for my soft skills. He said you can train anyone with an average IQ on the hard skills. But you can’t train soft skills. A candidate either has ‘em or he doesn’t.
It has been the biggest roadblock for my middle daughter, but time and hard work has worked to her favor. She’s aquiring them, and coupled with her CPA her career got turbocharged. It was almost overnight.
Most of the yutes I see have have no social skills and very poor writing and grammatical abilities, but they can drink coffee and power drinks.
Heck, we have a bunch of 30-somethings in our office who lack those skills! This has resulted in a myriad of problems because of their juvenile attitude. Meanwhile, companies aren't hiring people MY age because we're 'too old'! (I'm almost 59) Thanks goodness I have a job I love. I wouldn't be able to line up a good job at my age if I had to look now!
At least we're responsible and have a sense of professionalism!
It was a customer service job. They liked her so well that her 39.5 hours (later reduced to 29.5 hours to avoid ObaMaoCare) became a full time job with benefits by the end of the year. She looked at the long-term income and potential, then quit her part-time social work job to take the promotion.
In a way, she regrets not putting her social work degree to use. But in a "what benefits me the most?" sort of way, she already has.
I think that some are to quick to judge this ‘younger generation’. As with any group there are those who want to work and are willing to do the gritty part of it and there are those who don’t.
When I hear team player allI think of is yes man. I don’t have to like my fellow workers (and often times haven’t cared if they never showed up). What I have to do is get the job done. I try not to step on peoples toes. I try to be part of the ‘bugger vision’, but when something is wrong it is wrong. Whoever was a team player for the Ocare web site may have lots of work to do now but unless their purpose was sabotage (for which I applaud them) them being a yes man accomplishes nothing.
“. . . . but they are hiring foreign nationals as fast as they can get a green card.”
Yeah, those foreign guys, they show up for work on time, do the best job they can, and don’t complain the pay is too low and the work is boring. It’s not fair!
—— Specifically, companies say candidates are lacking in motivation, interpersonal skills, appearance, punctuality and flexibility.——
Which is why I believe that formal schooling is vastly overrated in terms of employability.
Formal schooling, more often than not, inculcates a soft skills deficit.
Generally, more can be learned operating a shoe shine stand than in four years of formal schooling.
This.
I dunno about "team player". One of my hiring requirements is that the person must at least look like they'll be able to work with the rest of the team. It's really easy to figure out at the on-site interview. But you're right, "Lack of team-playerness" sounds like touchy-feely PC crud. Might just have been poorly worded, though.
Some time ago, when hiring for an entry-level help desk position, my company had a long "wish list" of skills we'd like the candidates to have. After a lengthy search, we pared the list down to "Must show up on time and not curse at the clients".
Some of the people I spoke with were real doozies. I could bore you with stories, but won't. :-)
I will say, though, that the downturn in the economy has improved the candidate pool. I recently hired for another entry-level help desk position. Only two (out a dozen or so who made the first cut) blew off interviews. Out of the rest, none were horrible (no cursing, at least moderately presentable, etc etc) and two or three were likely hire-able.
I've always thought that a class on "How to get a job" would be good for college / Community College. "Interview comportment", "Resume Skills", "How to speak on a Telephone", "Written Communication" and so on. Goodness knows that the kids coming out of school could use it.
I tend to think it is not made up. I base this upon experience from the last decade of our younger off-spring generation. My daughter (not to brag) is probably one of the if not the smartest one in every class since first grade until now at college. Certain administrations over the years have promoted these “team projects” . . . well . . . guess what . . . one kid does all or 99% of the work. Fat lot of good that did for the 99%. And now, from a phone call I received from her this a.m. . . . it continues, in her Chemical Engineering class, they met for 3 hours last night and got NOTHING done, I think they are all guys, (sorry guys) and she said they were all dumb . . . and she is going to have to figure out what they have to do for their project and get the paper written on it. So yep, I tend to believe it. And I’m sure the Chem E students are all bright, but are they all motivated and “team players”? Maybe. Maybe not.
But then again, how would a potential employer KNOW this for certain until they were on the job? Hopefully in my daughters case, sophomore, co-op will make the difference. Co-op day last month, 5 interviews, max they could sign up for and 3 job offers in first 24 hours and one request for another addt’l. phone interview AFTER she had accepted another position and it was with Exxon-Mobil, which I was really hoping for, Chem E with E-M, that would have been quite an opportunity in JMHO but she had a deadline to accept the other(s).
These kids are completely unlike-able. I won’t hire them and I won’t work with them. Telling me I’m not allowed to feel that way doesn’t help.
I find that many of the young (teens +) don’t have the motivation to work. I hear them complain about wanting a car, an iphone and etc yet I can’t find any that will rack my leaves for $10./hour.
Am I just a grumpy old man (78 years old)?
Team player: someone who will take one for the team.
Let me put into this prospective.
We used to have college graduates arrive and get hired, then funneled into work-groups, and expected to develop quickly into the cohesive atmosphere. That doesn’t happen anymore.
You have people lounging around for four years, filling out the squares, and never developing any ability to see the cohesive nature of a team effort. Don’t even use sports as the nature solution.
These kids need to view the team-lead as the natural focus of the group and there’s a plan for the group to move through various projects and goals. As far as these kids are concerned...there’s a lack of respect for authority, no real trust in the vision given, and limited solution-building talents.
There was a point twenty years ago where you could still have mentoring going on and make up for this inherent weakness of American colleges. Well, mentoring at most business operations is now a lost-cause. Guys can’t mentor to any degree.
Go ask a division chief about his one hundred employees and how many of the newly hired ones show up at 9AM on time. Ask him just how flexible people tend to be. Ask him how many new graduates show up without a tie, no white shirt, or wearing flip-flops.
There’s a new question that HR folks ask....whats the connection between Plato and Play-Doh? It’s a stupid question that only requires a one-line answer....both require form to exist in their purpose of life. No kid in America studies Plato or Socrates today in college. No student graduates with a vision of taking on simple problems and developing creative solutions. We used to teach this a hundred years ago. Thinking is obsolete, and it’s now beginning to show as a national weakness.
HA!!! My boss laughed when I told him that I could tell within the first 15 seconds of an interview if I *wasn't* going to hire someone. (The decision *to hire* takes a little longer....)
But you're right.....lousy handshake, can't look me in the eye, can't greet me properly or speak above a mumble .... Unless there are extenuating circumstances, Forget it.
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