Recently, someone commented on one of my posts. In it, I said that in many instances, I was passed over for a job in favor of someone with less experience (which is really just a way of getting someone for a cheaper salary).
The person who commented, a recent college graduate, said that the opposite was true in her search for employment: People with more experience were getting the jobs she sought.
So whose job-hunting travails are more indicative of what the climate is for job seekers today? Well, both are.
Much depends on the field you are trying to get hired in. Some businesses want someone with years of experience, which does make it difficult for college grads to get hired.
Other industries, like journalism, are having a difficult time adjusting to the new realities of plummeting advertising sales, competition from online sources and how to mine revenues from the Internet and social media. Therefore, media companies want to hire someone who has as little experience as possible so they can pay them the lowest possible salary.
Think I’m making this up? Just today I got a rejection email saying, and this is a direct quote: “The budget for the position was considerably less than you requested.”
Now, just for the record, I requested $4,000 less than I was making at my previous job. My salary request—which I was willing to negotiate—is in line with what someone with my experience would make. (Yes, I checked this on the Internet.) The ad didn’t say it was an entry-level position.
To be fair, I’ve gone on a couple of interviews where my experience was an asset, not a detriment. But it’s pretty obvious many companies are eschewing experienced candidates in favor of recent college grads or interns so they can pay them low wages.
Also, where you live has a direct impact on how easily you can be hired in a particular field. A software engineer looking for a job in Seattle probably has more jobs to choose from but also faces more competition.
Plus, companies can be very, very picky. With so many applicants vying for each open position, they can choose only those that have the EXACT qualifications they are looking for. Managers do not want to train anyone new in a job.
What more proof of how picky employers can be? Read this article from the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/unemployed-job-applicants-discrimination_n_809010.html.
It details the code words and other nefarious methods companies use to weed out not only unemployed candidates, but other “undesirable” applicants as well. Yes, we know companies can hire—and fire—anyone they choose. But some of what they are doing is flat-out illegal. This has frightening implications for anyone—employed or not—looking for a job.
Still, I can sympathize with the commentator’s experience. When I started in journalism 20 years ago, I found it difficult to find work. My first job was as a news clerk, answering phones and writing obits.
Now, it appears media companies don’t want to hire anyone over the age of 35.
I’m not upset over this turn of events, even though it smacks of age discrimination. It’s just the way things are. When I was laid off, I was told it was because I was making too much money. It was obvious that the company kept only the younger, lower-paid staffers with much less experience than me. Hard not to think age discrimination isn’t at work in the job market. Isn’t that to the benefit of recent college grads?
But please don’t misunderstand me. I don’t want to see job seekers split along generational fault lines. It’s no more right for young people to resent older workers for the perception that they are taking jobs away from them (I’m Exhibit A that that is not the case) than it is for older workers to rail against college grads for possibly getting hired over them.
It’s just as disheartening to think a career I’ve spent two decades building may have come to a premature end as it is for a recent college grad to not get hired in the field of his or her choice.
Can’t we all just get along? We’re all in this together, and finding a job in any field, at any age, is extremely difficult now. Our lives are on hold until we find a job.
And until this country and its corporations start to put people—of any age—to work, then we, both young and old, are all going to be unemployed for a long, long time.
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