Anyone hiring? How much time have you spent applying for jobs? Not just any random job but a career that you know in your heart you can fill? During this online age it seems the ability to present yourself outside of a resume seems dismal at best. Hundreds of resumes sent out into the ether.
The question that comes after months of this process is natural.
Is it me?
In short yes. You do not have 6 years of experience, 4 Olympic gold medals, 2 tours of military duty and at least 1 trip to the international space station. Your credentials do not match the job posting. Why? Because the job posting is put together by people who do not believe in investing in people.
We hear all the time that people are coming out of school without the skills to join the workforce. But since when did employers feel entitled that every employee that they hire be perfect? While the millennial generation be labeled as lazy or looking for quick fixes, we find quick solutions on job boards every day. Companies are always in flux, but I can see a direct correlation between lack of investment in people and struggles in growth.
When you hire only engineers with 10 years of experience you definitely have the ability to do the work. But what happens when you need to communicate your value to the world? You hire an agency who isn’t a part of you to explain it to the world. There is room for us all. While companies complain that the workforce isn’t prepared you forget that most of us learn the most on the job. Remember that the person you invest in today can keep the engine running far longer than picking up random mechanics along the way. Make people stakeholders rather than temp workers waiting for their contract to end.
All it takes is a little vision. In this abyss that we all keep applying to, is a wealth of talent that is ready to make a lasting impact. All it takes is a chance. Stop touting all you do for your customers. Create space in your organization for your customers and watch your product thrive. Hard times are just that, hard. But lasting changes can be made if a few insightful managers realize that people have value. May take a little more time. May take interviewing a few candidates who aren’t perfect. But those who put in that extra work are sure to find that extra reward.
We are tired of being overlooked.
Michael Marks
Thank you so much for this piece. It is says so much and succinctly. I write from Australia and am pretty sure it’s the same case here. In a couple of seconds glimpse of a resume, a person’s efforts in applying for a role (CV, cover letter and so forth) – and however spot on they may be, to fill the position – can be deleted in a flash by a short-sighted employer/recruiter. It’s like a lottery ticket. And thanks for drawing attention to the importance of experience, and learning on the job and so forth. Love the way you’ve written it. And sometimes, I think the employer/recruiter may not know exactly what sort of a person they are looking for regardless. And unfortunately, no-one these days seems prepared to take a chance on candidates that don’t fully match up to a rigid set of criteria.
Quiet informative article, it has a lot of educative stuff.