Posted on 02/11/2011 7:39:33 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Its a situation facing many people: even though you have experience, youre still struggling to get a job, let alone a single interview.
Even though the economy is improving and there are increased job openings, gone are the days when simply submitting your cover letter and resume will result in HR knocking on your door for an interview.
Job seekers need to be a lot more proactive and strategic with who and how they network to ensure they stay top-of-mind to not only hiring managers, but also to people within their own personal networks who can lend a job-filled hand.
Below are five reasons why youre probably not getting noticed along with suggestions on how to not only improve your chances, but also connect you to the job you actually want.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
mark
Ah, but that’s what Indians and illegal aliens are for. Isn’t globalism great?
6. You blog for the “business insider” and have no real talent.
I'd agree with that, to a point.
In "big" corporate America, you're absolutely right. The last Fortune-500 company I worked at, has replaced most of its IT staff with H1B workers and outsourced consultants. They keep (or try to keep) a skeleton crew of full-time (American) workers to retain and transfer the knowledge base.
Other Depts in the company were trying the same tactic, to varying degrees.
How's that working out for them? Well, they're still in business. When I was there, they had 6B in revenue yearly, with a "planned target" of 9B, over the next five years. Now, more than five years later, they're at around 5 Billion, I think. I've not looked at a balance sheet for them in a long time(I'm no longer a stockholder), but their stock price is off considerably from when I was there. (20% or so, last time I bothered to look).
Anyway, that's BIG corporate America. Here in the weeds, in small business (where I am now), I'm fairly certain that my employer would be perfectly happy if I did exactly what I'm doing right now, to the same level of competence, and happily accepting my 2-3% COLA raises each year ... Until I'm 100, or the company folds, whichever comes first.
Do I want that? I dunno, trying to decide on it right now.
Anyway, my point is that work for older people is out there, you just need to look for it a little harder. I do a little hiring, and I typically prefer people with more experience. Younger people tend to be more aggressive in working IT problems (actually, having that issue right this minute with a new hire that was forced on me).
Aggressive is OK, except when you're dealing with things that have a company-wide impact. THEN (keeping in mind that most IT systems have a significant impact) ....then, I prefer someone with more experience who isn't afraid to step back and say "Let's think about this for a bit and get it right the first time." I'll take that attitude, every single time.
/rant off. thanks for listening
“Female” is also a protected class.
I am thinking that the middle aged white guys ought to form their own companies together, and be able to get customers because they can get the job done well and competitively.
I know in my and my wife’s professions we are having a terrible time finding good candidates so we have positions opened for months at a time. Of course there have been the stacks and stacks of resumes from the MBA types with no experience other than thinking “manager” is a profession, but there have been very few qualified candidates.
Thank God, someone besides me feels this way. I'll panhandle on the street first.
In the case that I talked about, 5 years ago they were happy with hiring HS grads with "some" phone and people skills (read, show up on time and don't curse at customers).
The tight job market has bumped the bar (currently) up to MBA's or an equivalent. I'm sure it will correct back down again as job prospects improve; working the phones is a lousy job. Better than no job at all....but not very lucrative, or fun.
We recently went through the motions of hiring an entry level IT guy - everyone knew who was going to get the job, but we still needed to look at a few resumes and talk to a few people "for purposes of comparison". Whatever, top mgmt already had their guy tabbed, but I digress.... It still never ceases to amaze me the low standard that's set by entry level, or low-experience employees. Resumes that are barely literate, poor phone skills (don't take a phone interview from a sports bar!), poor interview skills (show up on time, wear a clean shirt, at least!).
I see an awful lot of people here on FR complaining about a lack of positions. From my own experience, I just need to wonder how much is talk, and how much is real. Good people are *hard* to find, always.
I totally agree with you. I have been surprised by the lack of interest in any professional presentation by candidates. I actually had a guy show up in shorts and a camp shirt and say, I kid you not, “Sorry I’m late dood but this bitching bar downtown just opened and I gotta get back there. They got smoking sweet chicks and I think I can bag one.” The job was for a $100k+ hardware engineer. I hope he got the “chick” ‘cause he didn’t get the job.
The author of this is clearly a graduate of the Tokyo Rose school of propaganda.
I'm sure that we could swap plenty of horror stories.
Fact is the new American work place is all about having a never ending line of ignorant young people, the employers can pull around by the nose as they demand full time work at part time pay....It's all about phony unobtainable commissions, and cheap prizes in lieu of deserved raises, as those left in the work places watch their actual salaries, benefits and hours get slashed and reduced, while the employers expects more work for less pay.
Another fact is employers now see ALL employees as a liability they are required to pay. They opt for younger ones who don't demand a livable wage, where medical benefits are not yet a big concern...
Today's American workplace, for the most part is a punitive greed pit where the employer basically wants people that will work for little or nothing.
“And the government has the gall to make you work till youre 66 today for you to get your Social Security !! “
Same should apply for pensions of all elected officials including the president.
Call me close-minded. Call me a curmudgeon. Call me an old fart. All of which would be false. Because I don't feel my age or think my age and I work in IT for a Fortune 100 company. I listen to Alter Bridge for cryin' out loud.
But...I have little regard for anyone I hear saying, "You should see my Facebook page." Or, "My Facebook account got hacked." Or even, "I can't believe I got ripped of on Craig's List."
Morons. All of them.
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