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I work in Human Resources and much of my day is spent looking at resumes, calling applicants and talking to people in screening interviews. At the company I work for most of our openings are for highly skilled positions. We hire financial people, management analysts, IT Professionals, and Engineers. Most jobs require a college degree and years of experience.
What really shocks me is how poor the majority of applicants resume and cover letter is. These documents come to us full of spelling errors, terrible grammar, punctuation, confusing layout and full of needless information. My own writing skills could be improved but I get my husband, the English teacher, to help me with workplace communication.
The interviewing skills of the typical applicant is not so good either. Many do not understand that the key to business is personal relationships and many people are going to be hired partially on their personality. They are rude to the receptionist and never smile during the interview. They also do not understand that they need to develop talking points to explain their background and prepare for common questions.
Why are so many highly skilled and educated workers so poor when it comes to job hunting skills?
If you're talking about the 20-somethings (the "millenials") I think they've been taught all their life that they're wonderful just the way they are. They feel entitled to the job and shocked that everyone doesn't agree.
They got trophies even when their team didn't win. They got on the team even if they stunk. They didn't get red marks on their school work because it would have offended their fragile psyche. Their idea of good writing skill is texting while driving. Now they're looking for jobs and expect us to accomodate them.
If the candidates you're talking about are older, then, well, they're probably just idiots.
IT, engineering, numbers people don't have social skills? I'm shocked.
Most of us don't have the greatest people skills but those that do seem to stand out.....It was once thought that companies would just have to deal w/those employees because they needed their skill set but now you must have both....you have to have good service skills in addition to being technically sharp.
I have seen the same thing, having been responsible for reviewing job apps for my department. Absolutely ridiculous. I wrote an entire rant about this on another forum once. The position I reviewed resumes for involved typesetting, proofing, and a high level of accuracy to process jobs that go to the printing press. The crap I got was unbelievable - most of applicants totally ignored the job posting and sent non-qualifying resumes, not the right skills for the job at all. Or they had a similar job 20 years ago when current technologies didn't even exist.
But the resumes...ugh. Misspellings, typos, submitting their resume from an email address like hot4u6969@hotmail... this is for a professional job! Sending a link to their "myspace" page...why do I want to see that?! On one resume the word "typesetting" was misspelled (typeseting). Endless resumes from "graphic designers" that were the plainest, MS Word template. No creativity, no effort.
And I have to agree about the younger generation (I'm a Gen X'er, so just a footstep ahead of the 20-somethings). In some ways, I'm glad. Less competition, and I have had no problem finding work for the past ten years. Most of my employers have hired me on the spot - probably because they were exasperated from all the crap resumes they got and mine stands out as a gem.
I never act the way as you have described. I bleach my teeth so I can show off my smile at interviews. I dress professionally and try to be as respectful to everybody I come into contact with at the place of business.
I've met more rude and nasty hiring people though, one was a fat plain woman too. Yuck she was a complete liar and showed up over 30 minutes LATE to the interview.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat_plain_woman
I work in Human Resources and much of my day is spent looking at resumes, calling applicants and talking to people in screening interviews. At the company I work for most of our openings are for highly skilled positions. We hire financial people, management analysts, IT Professionals, and Engineers. Most jobs require a college degree and years of experience.
What really shocks me is how poor the majority of applicants resume and cover letter is. These documents come to us full of spelling errors, terrible grammar, punctuation, confusing layout and full of needless information. My own writing skills could be improved but I get my husband, the English teacher, to help me with workplace communication.
The interviewing skills of the typical applicant is not so good either. Many do not understand that the key to business is personal relationships and many people are going to be hired partially on their personality. They are rude to the receptionist and never smile during the interview. They also do not understand that they need to develop talking points to explain their background and prepare for common questions.
Why are so many highly skilled and educated workers so poor when it comes to job hunting skills?
If you're talking about the 20-somethings (the "millenials") I think they've been taught all their life that they're wonderful just the way they are. They feel entitled to the job and shocked that everyone doesn't agree.
They got trophies even when their team didn't win. They got on the team even if they stunk. They didn't get red marks on their school work because it would have offended their fragile psyche. Their idea of good writing skill is texting while driving. Now they're looking for jobs and expect us to accomodate them.
If the candidates you're talking about are older, then, well, they're probably just idiots.
Hey I'm 20-something and was never taught to celebrate mediocrity or that I was perfect. I don't have a sense of entitlement and I work hard for everything I have and want. I don't have mommy and daddy to fall back on or to get me out of debt, pay back student loans, or give me a down payment for a house or car. Not all 20-somethings are spoiled brats or act like the girls from "the Hills" on MTV. It's sad that we are represented that way.
Wow! I can't believe there are that many errors in paperwork turned in for jobs. My husband is a Sr. Level IT Manager and he is absolutely anal about how it flows and looks and is spelled. How can you miss when you have spell check?
What he has been challenged with....and maybe you can share some thoughts....is he has a strong resume with over 25 years of experience, both in perm positions and in consulting. When drawing up a resume or re-editing a resume for the millionth time, it is hard to convey to a HR person exactly what all he has had experience with. In fact, in alot of cases when he talks with HR people he is amazed how many don't even understand all the different positions within an IT department and don't really understand what he does. When he is interviewing he spends alot of time bringing the person up to speed on what his expertise is.
His challenge, being IT and not Marketing is HOW to convey his many talents and experience, his strengths in a resume so at first glance people know what he can do. He is told he has a strong resume but I know he is torn alot on how to re-market or re-write his resume to show he is ready for the next or bigger challenge.
Re: errors.....we are anal about it in our house, even our teen who is going to college is...so I am not sure where the problem comes in, except for lack of training and expectation in high school and college. Maybe if that was reinforced in our educational system and our bar was raised then the younger generation would be more professional with their presentation.
Please let me know if you have any input that you could share.
If you're talking about the 20-somethings (the "millenials") I think they've been taught all their life that they're wonderful just the way they are. They feel entitled to the job and shocked that everyone doesn't agree.
They got trophies even when their team didn't win. They got on the team even if they stunk. They didn't get red marks on their school work because it would have offended their fragile psyche.
Are these things their fault, or the fault of the inept Baby Boomer parents that raised them? Maybe if the Baby Boomers had raised Generation Y in much the same way the WW2 Generation raised the Baby Boomers, it wouldn't be such a weak generation. I'm actually a bit ashamed to have been born in the 80s; I would have rather been born in the 50s, 60s, or even 70s.
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