How is interviewing for a job like dating? Nowadays, in just about every way, according to Vera H-C Chan at Yahoo News.
A surplus of potential employees and a shortage of jobs has put employers in the catbird seat in recent years. As a result, they’re acting much like sought-after prospective mates.
A few, er, lowlights of their recent behavior:
They’re inflexible. Peter Cappelli, author of the recent book “Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs,” says the problem isn’t your skills — it’s their inability to compromise.
“They want experienced candidates who can contribute immediately with no training or start-up time,” Cappelli says. “That’s certainly understandable, but the only people who can do that are those who have done virtually the same job before, and that often requires a skill set that, in a rapidly changing world, may die out soon after it is perfected.”
In other words, it’s not you. It’s them.
They’re codependent. Since you’re not good enough for them, employers are shuffling more and more of the workload onto current employees, overworking them as a reward for being good at their jobs. Because there aren’t a lot of jobs to go to, these overburdened folks stay on at jobs they would have quit in happier times. Turnover of employees slows, and employers deal with “perceived dead weight” with layoffs.
They’re “looking for a unicorn.” Nervous that a vague job description will lead to a bad hire, companies tailor their ads exactly to the person they’re looking for, unaware that these particular skills and credentials exist only in their own minds.
Really, all that remains is for them to give you a disappointing birthday present and accidentally insult your mom at the holidays. If this economy persists much longer, we’re sure they’ll find a way.
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(Photo Credit: Ed Yourdon/Flickr)
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