The Unmasked Recruiter

George Eliot provides the quotes here this week - and this is a great one to remember if you’re feeling down on a Monday morning!

mistresscurvy:

I saw this tweet on my feed yesterday, and I just have to get a few things off my chest. 

Now, before I start, I would like to state for the record that I really admire Dr. Tyson, and I think that he is a great public advocate for the role of science in policy making and an influential teacher who has inspired many young people to explore science. He is also not the first, nor will he be the last, person to espouse such “follow your passion!” career advice. It’s a perfectly understandable impulse to try to guide students in that way, especially when you yourself are working in your field of choice and have had great success. 

It is also, in my opinion, completely misguided. 

The first reaction I had to this tweet was what is at this point the fairly standard response from anyone born after about 1977 to such pithy career advice: Are you fucking kidding me? The idea of finding a job at all in our chosen field of study, let alone one that pays enough to cover both rent and our student loan payments and that we actually enjoy, is a pipe dream for I would say 90% of the people under 35 I know. There’s this idea that if we each just try hard enough as individuals that we can all overcome the realities of our current job market, statistics be damned. And advice like this also assumes that each of us even has an interest or a passion or a focus that translates easily into a career path. Not all of us want to be scientists, and a lot of us who did always want to spend our lives in the lab get partway through grad school and discover that it’s not all rainbows and kittens pursuing your dream. 

If I sound bitter, I don’t actually mean to. I’ve been far less broken down by what the job market looks like for people under 35 than many of my friends. I just get really tired of hearing this same old piece of advice, because it also ignores something really important: not everyone in the world can get to have a job that’s their life passion. 

This part is just simple math. There are a lot of jobs out there, jobs that are important and necessary to making our society work, that are in no way sexy or interesting or fun, for most people. It’s lovely to imagine a world in which every waitress or car mechanic or lawyer or customer service representative wakes up each morning and can’t wait to go to work, but it’s not at all realistic, and that is okay. It is OKAY to have a job that is not your life passion, that hopefully pays your bills and gives you benefits and enough time off so that you can do something cool once or twice a year, without fulfilling some greater need or desire. For some people, work is called that because that’s all it is, an agreement you make with an employer that in exchange for X number of hours of work every week, they’ll pay you Y number of dollars so you can provide for the rest of your life. 

I’m not advocating that people go into careers that they know will make them unhappy, or that they settle for whatever first job they can get. I think that every person is better suited for some occupations than others, and exploring the options available to find a good match is absolutely a good idea. One job does not fit all. But not every person needs to adore their occupation. While I like my job just fine 90% of the time, I also cherish every minute of time off I am granted by my employer, and that doesn’t mean I’m wasting my life. 

That’s the last thing I have a problem with in this statement. The idea that everyone’s goal for their employment should be to do something that they never want to take a break from is both ridiculous and fits in dangerously well with the U.S.’s already negative opinion of people who want “too much” time off. I am not claiming that Tyson doesn’t think employees should be granted vacation time. But this idea that work should be so all-consuming that we never want to stop to do something else for a short time is not romantic to me, or appealing. People deserve to have a good life balance between their jobs and the rest of their lives, even if that job actually is something that makes their heart sing when they wake up in the morning. Wanting to have enough time off every year so that you can travel or see family or just sit around in your home in your underwear and not do anything is not an unworthy goal. Wanting to be able to take sick time when you’re sick and not have your employer think less of you, or dock your pay, is not unreasonable. 

On a societal level, this sort of advice supports the idea that every individual, rather than the labor system as a whole, is solely responsible for their own work happiness, and fuck the unfortunate souls who aren’t privileged enough, or smart enough, or lucky enough, to get a job that actually values them because they’re doing something few other people can do. There are a lot of jobs out there that I would never want to do, but that I recognize as being vital to our society functioning well, and I want those employees to be able to provide for their families and take time off. This idea that we should all follow our dreams doesn’t just fail on a personal level, but it fails society as a whole. 

This is a great blog post …

Final Muhammad Ali quote this week … on self - belief - which will get you a long way in your career, or search for work. How to get that self belief, if you don’t already have it, or have lost it? That’s for another time / or another post.

workingconceptsinc:

When The Employer Requires Experience And You Have None

It’s tough for new grads to find a good job right now—but the very fact that they’re new grads makes it even worse. You’ll find yourself asking, “How am I supposed to gain experience if I’m constantly turned down for not having any?” Career experts Lynn Taylor, Dr. Katharine Brooks and Nicole Williams have some ideas for how you can avoid or overcome this catch-22, which almost all new college grads face.

Volunteer.
LinkedIn found that one in five hiring managers consider volunteer work experience a valuable asset when considering candidates. “For a lot of employers, it’s one part the initiative and one part skill development,” Williams says. “One of the major things that has been happening in the world of volunteering is that with limited funding, many organizations are expecting their volunteers to contribute real skill-intensive talents.”Most people think of volunteering in terms of providing services to individuals, such as tutoring a child or visiting an elderly person, Brooks explains. But that’s just part of the picture. If you want experience in accounting, see if any local nonprofit agencies would let you volunteer with their accounting staff. Want to learn marketing? Offer to create a Twitter feed, write brochures, or call prospective donors, she suggests.

Find an internship or temporary work. - Forbes.com
Internships aren’t just for students. In this day and age, they are considered the new entry-level job, Williams says. “You need to think about how you are going to turn this experience into an income-generating opportunity, and there are three parts to this equation: passion, skills and relationships.” Find something you’re genuinely interested in and ensure that the opportunity will allow you to develop the skills you need to get the job you want. Also use the opportunity to network. “It’s all about the people you meet,” Williams says. “I promise that the majority of jobs come through the relationships you develop.”

Don’t discount your college experiences. - Forbes.com
Williams says the biggest issue she sees with college students is that they underestimate their accomplishments and experiences from college. Fund raising for the sorority auction, developing a social media strategy for getting the word out about a campus event, writing for the school paper, and even organizing the yearly alumni gala can all be considered work experience, she says. “Make a list of all the activities you were involved with over the course of your college career. Consider all of the tasks that you performed and translate them into real work experience.” Brooks suggests thinking back on classes that required more than reading, listening and taking tests. “Did you have to conduct research, compile data, survey individuals, write an extensive research paper, conduct laboratory experiments, or present a report to a class? You can write up your classroom experience in the same way you would write up a job in your resume, with bullet points for the active skills you used or learned in the class.”

Use social media. - Forbes.com
Taylor suggests using social media and LinkedIn groups to spread the word that you’re looking for a job. She also recommends visiting online career boards and temporary agency listings.Williams agrees. “I’m also a big proponent of using LinkedIn to connect with people you may not have the opportunity to come across in your everyday life. Build a profile and connect with people you admire with a personal but professional connection request that indicates that you’ve done your research and would like to connect with them. The combination of research and initiative is a great way into a job.”

Highlight any entrepreneurial activities. - Forbes.com
What projects or activities have you taken on yourself? How have you made some money on the side? Do you mow neighbors’ lawns in the summer, babysit or nanny children, privately tutor students, place items on eBay for your friends, program or fix your neighbors’ computers, create your own greeting cards, or fix up your car or your parents’ car? All these activities have potential for the formation of a small entrepreneurial operation. Even better if you can get recommendations from people you have helped, Brooks says.

Network as much as possible. - Forbes.com
When you don’t have a ton of experience to rely on, the key is to build relationships with people who can vouch for the fact that you’re the kind of person who an employer should take a chance on, Williams says. “I’m all about making connections with people in and around your everyday life.” Try to initiate conversations when you’re walking the dog, riding the bus, or standing in line at the coffee shop. This can lead to a conversation about what they do for work, and what you’re looking for. “Who knows who they know and if they have an opportunity for you?”

Ask your professors for help. - Forbes.com
If you’ve never had a job before, you’ve never had a boss—which can pose a problem when it comes to providing references on a job application. If you did research for a professor in college or had a particularly good relationship with one, ask if you can list him or her as a reference.

Take on a leadership role. - Forbes.com
If you belong to any groups or organizations, take on a leadership role by offering to organize an event or spearhead a project. Leadership activities are viewed positively by employers, particularly if your role has substance, Brooks says.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/05/10/when-the-employer-requires-experience-and-you-have-none/

Some useful advice here for college graduates looking for work