Posted on 01/11/2006 5:32:19 PM PST by Chi-townChief
Apparently, I'm *so* in the wrong line of business. :\ Systems Engineering *isn't* where it's at???? And I thought girls were good at this!
I've had some college classes, but no degree. Every job I've applied for since I returned from Vietnam in '67 has required a degree. Yet I'm able to bypass the HR idiots and get interviews with the hiring manager quite easily. The same with my daughters.
Since I've always been a consultant I've had hundreds of interviews. The degree thing never comes up with me, nor my daughters. The hiring manager wants to know if you can do the job, and if you will "fit in" to his team.
The sole purpose of requirements for a job, mortgage, club membership, including political clubs is to give the decision maker a face-saving way to reject the applicant that doesn't sound petty or discriminatory.
Affirmative Action comes in many forms. Some graduates think they deserve a job or mortgage or membership or whatever because of what they are, rather than what they can do.
But education can prepare people for the real world. In IT, the need is for people who can remember a complex set of combinations of criteria ... in other words, to think. Some teachers do teach a person how to think. When I switched careers to IT in the 80s I purposely attended Harper Community College because it had one of the top 10 IT faculties, not in the opinion of academics who would never give that to a 2 year college. But that was the opinion of employers, especially in the MidWest. I could go on an interview and say "I had Singleman, I had Longhurst, I had Mellenthin, etc. and was immediately hired. Singleman allegedly taught Assembler. But what he really taught was "how to think".
That group of good faculty retired and was replaced by people with much higher academic degrees and prestige. But all they can teach is "how to click a mouse".
A good K-12 can also teach how to think. But most of those schools are too busy teaching how to feel and what to feel and can't handle the thinking skills.
Hey, wait a minute... dats ... me... but I'm not afroamerican!
Training, not surprisingly, can be long and grueling and often irrelevant. One engineer I met, who works for General Dynamics, told me that 95 percent of what he learned in college–a prestigious one–was irrelevant to his work.
Especially if you end up working as a "Power Point" engineer.
What no accountants? Good. No competition! lol
Right...majored in looting, minored in beer.
I am current happily employed in the IT field, but did have a stint in 2001 where I could not get an interview (with 2 BS degrees). What is your secret for bypassing HR, just for future reference?
What a dumb premise for an article. An Excellent Career is ANYTHING you like doing!
But it seems to depend on area. I moved out here to Colorado eight months ago for a variety of reasons, but I'm finding that what Mr. Jeeves said up-thread is very true - I have to think HR is tossing resumes that don't include a degree, or I'd be at least getting more interviews. As it is, I got *one* temporary job (on a project that's now finished), primarily because one of the hiring folks was ex-Air Force himself and thought I'd be worth talking to. The interview (and my subsequent work) proved them right...but it's doesn't appear likely I'll get another shot. Sure, the company will give me great references and said straight out they wanted me back if they have another opening, but that doesn't help me now.
It's frustrating. I know what I can do, but in an area like this, I don't get a chance at it. Whether it's a rural vs city thing or being in a university town or just extra competition here, I couldn't say.
I'm a Leinenkugel's fan.
What I get a kick out of is that, occasionally, an inspector or supervisor will come to me with a fairly simple trigonometry and seem surprised when I tell them that people have done these kinds of calculations for hundreds of years.
This explains a certain Lutheran Minister in "A large city in Oklahoma" who turned out to be just a mean SOB.
LOL
All these sweet helping careers. Why not choose a career to make money and use your head instead of all these feminine nancy-nurse careers, and outlooks.
Comforting confines? Only if you are a liberal to barking moonbat.
Like spintreebob says, you've got to bypass HR Departments and get your resume into the hands of hiring managers. HR doesn't exist to recruit talent, but to enforce government regulations within the organization. All they do with resumes is throw them in the trash unless they match the exact set of capital letters called for in the job description - even if the candidate is one the hiring manager might have wanted to talk to. HR's function is to screen out candidates who are perceived to be unqualified, not to identify potential hires. Sad but true. ;)
Right now, I would take any job.
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