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There's also seemingly an increase of malicious people in the modern job scene, those hiring managers who know that the employer has the employee by the balls these days, and now's the time to get their rocks off by mistreating and displaying their newfound arrogance to the vulnerable and desperate interviewee, especially the freshly graduated interviewee. Couple this with the increase in callousness and crassness of society at large, and the result isn't a pretty one. So it's now the time for the belated and repressed bully to rule the roost and treat the confused and helpless interviewee as a buffoon or a lazy bum, even if the struggling candidate was laid off and not succeeding in finding a job shortly thereafter, even if to no fault of one's own. And I've realized there's no reasoning with bullies and other malicious people. They just don't give a damn about the raw plight of another and will ignore their efforts or past successes, even if one is going through a rough time in life.
It is also the bully's time to show off to the world just how difficult his or her job is and just how smart and sophisticated s/he is. Hence one hears dumb sh-t like "technology is changing at an alarming rate EVERYDAY", so people have to "brush up their skills constantly", and "we're looking for the right fit", and other pompous and petty junk.
Then there are the disingenuous, asinine, canned questions, my favorite being, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?", as if anyone should state their weaknesses on a damn interview and wouldn't know better than to suppress quirks and bad tendencies while on a job.
I think there is a perception that the chronically unemployed contribute to their own situation. A contributing factor is reflected in the axiom: "The best time to look for a job is while you have one." The long-term unemployed tend to lose their sense of confidence that another company 'should' want to hire them. They gradually morph into a sense of desperation and embrace the probability that they will not get the job ... and communicate that to the potential employer.
Some simply make-up their minds that they will not take any job that pays less or is a lower position than the one they left. They live on savings and unemployment until they are forced to re-think their situation -- and by then, their sense of resentment and cynicism shows through their surface veneer.
Frankly, I have a difficult time understanding how anyone who is really committed to working, can remain unemployed for a full 2-year unemployment compensation period. Plus, folks who have been on unemployment multiple times may just be 'unfortunate', ... OR, they may simply be looking for a way NOT to work. Obviously there are exceptions, but, there is also a plethora of candidates for most jobs without these perceived downsides.
Statistically a person that is unemployed have for a longer period of one year has just zero to a few percentage call-backs. If it is a college graduate without experience (just some McJobs and one or a few internships) the call back rate is next to zero. A common complain among under-unemployed and unemployed college graduates is that they cannot get their first experience and so they have nothing to say on their interview. Others end up doing “McJobs” and some have done it for years. It took me two years to land my first white-color job after graduate school. It took a friend of mine, with a very competitive graduate degree from an impressive university years to get his first white color job. He spent a year looking for work. No one wanted to hire him because he “lacked experience”. He was then hired as a taxi-driver and worked with it for four long years. He was than unemployed for a year if we not counting a useless internship until he went back to graduate school and earned another degree (also a very good one) but from a lesser university. He was hired the same day he graduated. His first white color job (and an impressive one at that) where he still remains. His career is now going very strong and he will soon be the youngest assistant manager they have ever had. For him it was just about to get that first chance of opportunity and so he took it.
I have met so many idiots or mediocre people that have done great careers. A friend of my brother would be perfect. She left college with a BA in liberal arts. She looked for work for six months and worked a “McJob”. Her mother pulled some strings and she was given her first entry-level first white color job in the financial services and at an impressive company at that - making 50K a year. She was set to do qualitative business analysis. She stayed there for three years and they in turn gave her a lot of training. She then applied for a better position and with over three years experience it was more than she needed to get an 80K a year job. This young woman was in the later middle of her twenties when she got the 80K job doing the same thing as she did before but at another firm. She is still there. Is she smart? No she is not. She is just average with a normal intelligence. She simply delivers simple tasks fast and has gotten some right training and encourage.
I do not like to give personal example but the truth is that most people are average or stupid. I work in a government research project and I’m the only one with just a MA. I’m surrounded by people with P.HD and fancy titles. Most of them are not smarter than me, even though some are brilliant minds, most are just more experienced than me and so simple tasks for them can sometimes be a bit difficult for me but with training and experience things is getting much simplified. It is about getting your first chance for college and university graduates – but these 100K a year executives that have been fired since the financial crisis have just no clue about what unemployment means. Young people are mobile – they always change their jobs and always stay alert of getting a new job even when they have a good one. Old workers whom have been didn’t get it when they were working nor do they understand when their houses are foreclosed. I hate to listen to these old rants (hear it sometimes from my co-workers) that young people are lazy and not driven enough. That is complete bull ****. We all know (including me) that most of us drones are all replaceable and that should old people start to understand. When they graduated from college or graduate school they had at least an entry-level white color job waiting for them. If you are not among the top 30 percent in your class from a very good school, have the best internships and some connection you may end up living in your parent’s basement for a long period of time.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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When it's corporate policy, there's nothing the hiring manager can do about it. We have no restrictions. I will hire someone that's unemployed if it hasn't been so long that their skills are stale, or if they demonstrate in the interview that they have kept up with the changes in technology and laws affecting their work.
Also, if they have worked, gained experience, and were unemployed while going back for additional certification or advanced degree, if appropriate to the position. My last hire was unemployed 3 months after graduate school and moving from another state, but had the required 3 years experience from before going to graduate school for his MBA, and has worked out great.
There are more people looking for jobs then there are jobs available to them. That's why people wind up unemployed for so long. There are not enough jobs. It does not mean that there is anything wrong with them, it's just the simple fact that there are not enough jobs to go around.
exactly, I know several people who are finally back in the work force after years without a job. Even my own work place have hired a few people this year who have been out of work for awhile and they are doing a great job. What about people with no work experience, are they better candidates to hire.
There's also seemingly an increase of malicious people in the modern job scene, those hiring managers who know that the employer has the employee by the balls these days, and now's the time to get their rocks off by mistreating and displaying their newfound arrogance to the vulnerable and desperate interviewee, especially the freshly graduated interviewee. Couple this with the increase in callousness and crassness of society at large, and the result isn't a pretty one. So it's now the time for the belated and repressed bully to rule the roost and treat the confused and helpless interviewee as a buffoon or a lazy bum, even if the struggling candidate was laid off and not succeeding in finding a job shortly thereafter, even if to no fault of one's own. And I've realized there's no reasoning with bullies and other malicious people. They just don't give a damn about the raw plight of another and will ignore their efforts or past successes, even if one is going through a rough time in life.
It is also the bully's time to show off to the world just how difficult his or her job is and just how smart and sophisticated s/he is. Hence one hears dumb sh-t like "technology is changing at an alarming rate EVERYDAY", so people have to "brush up their skills constantly", and "we're looking for the right fit", and other pompous and petty junk.
Then there are the disingenuous, asinine, canned questions, my favorite being, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?", as if anyone should state their weaknesses on a damn interview and wouldn't know better than to suppress quirks and bad tendencies while on a job.
I could go further, but I will stop here.
Speak that truth. Wow, you wrote exactly what I was thinking.
Can someone give me some examples of "skills going bad"? This seems to be something that comes up all the time. I'm a little flummoxed; are all of these companies performing brain surgery or building rockets that go to the moon. Most companies I've worked for have you do menial tasks that I could have done when I was 18 years old before I went to college. These companies required advanced degrees, in some cases. What are these skills everyone is talking about?
There's also seemingly an increase of malicious people in the modern job scene, those hiring managers who know that the employer has the employee by the balls these days, and now's the time to get their rocks off by mistreating and displaying their newfound arrogance to the vulnerable and desperate interviewee, especially the freshly graduated interviewee. Couple this with the increase in callousness and crassness of society at large, and the result isn't a pretty one. So it's now the time for the belated and repressed bully to rule the roost and treat the confused and helpless interviewee as a buffoon or a lazy bum, even if the struggling candidate was laid off and not succeeding in finding a job shortly thereafter, even if to no fault of one's own. And I've realized there's no reasoning with bullies and other malicious people. They just don't give a damn about the raw plight of another and will ignore their efforts or past successes, even if one is going through a rough time in life.
It is also the bully's time to show off to the world just how difficult his or her job is and just how smart and sophisticated s/he is. Hence one hears dumb sh-t like "technology is changing at an alarming rate EVERYDAY", so people have to "brush up their skills constantly", and "we're looking for the right fit", and other pompous and petty junk.
Then there are the disingenuous, asinine, canned questions, my favorite being, "What are your strengths and weaknesses?", as if anyone should state their weaknesses on a damn interview and wouldn't know better than to suppress quirks and bad tendencies while on a job.
I could go further, but I will stop here.
Well anyone should not that they are supposed to mention a "pretend weakness" which is really a strength and explain how that "pretend weakness" would help their company once you improve that so called weakness.
It never meant "tell me what you can't do" instead it means "what are some of your some strengths you feel needs improvement?
Well anyone should not that they are supposed to mention a "pretend weakness" which is really a strength and explain how that "pretend weakness" would help their company once you improve that so called weakness.
It never meant "tell me what you can't do" instead it means "what are some of your some strengths you feel needs improvement?
Well here are my ACTUAL weaknesses. I have a lousy temper and am prone to anger. HOWEVER, in my first ten years of professional work, I have lost my temper at work a grand total of two times, one time because someone decided to slam her fist on a desk and yell at me after I POLITELY asked her to offer criticism in private, and second, because a woman I managed was flat out refusing to do necessary work on a near daily basis (we were aiming to fire this woman but she resigned before we could).
And believe me, in healthcare, with all of its incoherent, barking and bellowing, and insubordinate foreigners who often can't even be understood in the spoken word or have to be commanded in an aggressive manner, it is tough to maintain one's composure.
So because such a weakness can't be conveyed, I have made sh-t up like, "I'm a perfectionist," which I'm far from, or, "I am very energetic, and I understand not everyone else has my level of motivation."
I am also a tender person who is very considerate about the feelings of others, and even in cases in which I was a bit curt, I have caught myself and apologized or calmed down.
As I've said several times on this board, I am on the side of the interviewee, the unemployed, and the newly graduated. Twice I have hired new graduates BECAUSE they were new graduates who showed they know how to do the job, and in both cases it worked out just fine and they did a far, FAR better job than the lazy but experienced people we had before they took the positions. We will likely be hiring someone new this August, and once again, I will state in the job posting, "New graduates welcome."
I even flat out told an employee once, "I wouldn't care if you fibbed on your resume and whatever you need me to fib about in a reference, I'll be glad to do it."
The modern job scene is war, and all is fair in love and war.
And we have to understand that the trait of empathy has been either bred out or culled out of the masses, which is why, as I said, there is an increase in sociopaths in charge who for the life of them, can't feel the pain or plight of others, and no amount of education other than a good scare would straighten out their thinking and behavior.
Sometimes justice is rendered in the workplace, as is the case of the example above who unnecessarily scolded me, but later on met her match and was subsequently FIRED.
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