Posted on 02/04/2012 6:54:53 PM PST by george76
Most senior managers are unimpressed with the entry-level job applicants they're seeing, reports a new survey...
Note to recent college grads and the Class of 2012: You may not be as ready for the working world as you think you are...
a 65% majority of business leaders say young people applying for jobs at their companies right out of college are only "somewhat" prepared for success in business, with 40% of C-suite executives saying they are "not prepared at all." Not only that, but even those who get hired anyway may not rise very far. Almost half (47%) of C-suite executives believe that fewer than one-quarter (21%) of new grads have the skills they'll need to advance past entry-level jobs.
And what skills might those be? The most sought-after are problem-solving (49% ranked it No. 1), collaboration (43%), and critical thinking (36%). Also in demand is the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively in writing (31%).
...
And whose fault is it if most college grads haven't got what it takes to get ahead? The executives surveyed overwhelmingly believe that academia has failed to keep up with the breakneck pace of change in the business world: More than three-quarters (77%) blame educators for new grads' lack of readiness.
(Excerpt) Read more at management.fortune.cnn.com ...
There aren’t enough Xers to make up for the losses that are going to be seen in the workforce as Boomers retire or die (more likely the latter, thanks to Obama). That leaves the Millenials in an incredibly powerful position to exert leverage over the work environment. They WILL change it, simply because they will be so desperately needed and there won’t be anyone standing in their way. And from what I’m already seeing, the change won’t be good.
You have a good set of points there. And because the Graduates are really not all that good or capable explains why such an emphasis on automation is made by business.
And yet they will hire them and turn down or fire anyone over 40 or anyone who lacks a degree.
Stuff like this makes me glad I never wasted money on college. I know it’s extremely important to have skills in life, but that’s all higher education does. It doesn’t make people smarter.
I’m sure I can out-think any Ivy League graduate from ages 25-30, because that’s my age range. My mind is pretty powerful.
Offshoring. There's no way Corporate America is going to do as you say, as long as offshoring at a fraction of the cost is an option.
The fact is this: most of these college kids coming into the work force ARE NOT prepared to WORK for what they're being offered. They demand high salaries with ZERO work experience. Most of them don't know how to interview, they can't handle face to face communications due to the impersonal way in which they're used to communicating via constant texting.
I actually interviewed a 24 year old college graduate who's mommy was waiting for him out in the parking lot. (I could barely contain myself from laughing when he told me such.) I'm betting mommy dressed him for the interview too.
I've seen these kids coming out of college getting worse and worse at interviewing, and their work ethic getting less and less since 1995 when I became a hiring manager. This isn't a new phenomenon. And it's not just me saying these kids don't know how to interview, three local TV stations ran "series" on how parents could help prep their college graduate children to learn to interview for a job.
If I didn't know it to be true, I'd have called all three tv stations "series" complete bullshit.
Rock on Field Engineer.
Obamacare changes the corporate game a great deal. Now the problem is how to limit liability for compliance with socialist economic terrorism.
An older workforce is an expensive workforce to maintain.
Obamacare makes it far more economical to export that workload.
If Obama wins in November, look for unemployment to leap past 10%.
“Some places it seems like the whole friggin’ populace has their nose in a mobile phone.
What the hell are they doing?”
If it’s me on the road, I’m checking, answering, or creating an email, arranging schedules for meetings including telepresence or virtual meetings, straightening out travel itineraries, authorizing fund transfers, reading technical abstracts, skimming reports, looking for a restaurant, and seeing the latest episode of Questionable Content. And sometimes using GPS.
Believe it.
When I talk to employers, this is what I hear: The pool of young people applying for jobs broadly divides into two groups:
1. The kids who have gone to college, screwed around (and yes, that includes the “elite” universities) and then they come out, thinking the world owes them a living....
and
2. The young people who have served in the military, most of whom know how to show up on time, dressed for work and who know how to work as a team or take individual initiative.
Group #2 is in demand.
Group #1... there’s a whole lot of weeding-out that has to be done.
Your experience is consonant with what I’ve observed.
The type of parent that waits for their 24+ year old kid in the parking lot is called a “helicopter parent” - because they’re constantly hovering over their little precious darlings.
I’ve heard of instances where Junior was turned down by an employer and the *hiring manager* gets an irate phone call from Mommy. My only response was “WTF?! If the kid ever wanted a second chance, he sure doesn’t have one now!”
Consider the graduation rate of the top undergrad schools. Harvard is over 95%, Yale, Princeton and the rest not too far behind.
It used to be that it was hard to get through school, and not everyone made it. 30% or less for an engineering school used to get through with a degree.
With a graduation rate of over 90, where does the winnowing occur? Now, in the first job, that’s where.
I see young people who refuse to use a phone, they’ll text me or email, but call? And when I’m called in somewhere to do a brief, EVERYONE is stuck in a laptop, eyes peering over the top of the screen, if at all. I can babble for an hour then ask, any questions? And get none! No people skills, and that makes it difficult to pull a team together to actually DO something.
From what I've seen, most of them aren't qualified either.
I didn't get the phone call, but I got a nasty 3 page letter from someone's mommy bestowing little junior's "qualities" and that I blew my chance in hiring mommy's little darling.
After making a copy to send off to our HR Department (to cover my ass) I posted all three pages on the wall outside my office with a note "don't let this happen to you!"
We all got a good laugh out of it.
This is the first generation that was raised in day care as opposed to being raised primarily with family. The first generation that went through afterschool day care. The first generation that grew up in group think environments and group planned activities. The first generation of kids who let themselves in to their homes and fended for themselves until parents came home - if they were lucky enough to have both parents.
Maybe it’s having an effect.
“C-suite executive”? WTH is that?
Cubicle, 4’ x 4’, No Window, 1500 ft. from restroom, Oldest computer in the company, no phone.
What they really want is people who will work for free, who don't need medical benefits, accept meaningless commissions prizes and phony incentives in lieu of real raises....The CEO's make 350+++ a month, and they pay the help 1992 wages of 50k per year......After taxes maybe 37k.
Who's kidding who?
C-Level means the floor/wing/building where all the chief (abbreviated c) officers are. What VP’s aspire to.
Makes me all the happier I spent my life studying science.
Here in Oklahoma newly minted petroleum engineering graduates are pulling down $100k per year and petroleum land management graduates are getting $85k per year. So you are right; college is such a waste of money.
“Well then get off your lazy duffs and train employees the way you want them.”
This is the big lie behind companies saying, “We can’t find people with the right skill sets”.
What they are really saying is that they can’t find someone who can immediately fill the position left behind by some person who quit (or retired) without spending significant money on training.
You see it all the time in the tech world. They aren’t looking for someone with solid basic skills that can be trained in a few weeks/months to be productive. No, they are asking for such specific criteria that almost no on can meet it.
The execs don’t want to invest a nickel in training anyone and the grads think they are God’s gift to the working world. They both have that “It’s all about me” problem.
Nah, they aren’t going to make an effort to “train” anyone. See, they’ve got those 50+ questionnaire (psych tests) they want job applicants to go thru before they’ll even consider: a phone call or an interview. If you don’t answer precisely the way they want you to, then forget any contact at all.
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