I was looking in my e-mail box today and, as usual, I have more people following me on Twitter. Most of the people who are following me now are the so-called “Internet entrepreneurs” that most of us see popping up in our mailboxes these days. I usually follow them back because I want to promote this site to as many people as possible and it wouldn’t hurt to get more traffic. There was on that caught my eye because it had a link for a blog entry over at Jobing.com that was written by Michael Hayes who works for Momentum Specialized Staffing. Here is the entirety of that post:
Have you seen the lines to job fairs? Have you seen the people in line? One person has a suit and the other guy has a “I’m with stupid’ t-shirt. Some other random observations:
-News coverage after the event always focuses on how job seekers were disappointed in the results.
-A lot of companies are not really hiring. Is this being verified before they come to the event?
-Are job seekers going to get a fair interview with 2000 people wandering around during the interview?
-As a person working for clients to find quality candidates, will I find them in this environment? …Probably not
-You have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting a job at these fairs.
Your time would be better spent networking with friends and calling past customers, vendors etc. for advice and council. If you still want to go to these fairs, GO…but lower your expectations and don’t expect a miracle.
Hmmm, agenda much?
Now considering that this is coming from someone who works for a staffing agency that is my first reaction. My second is that he might be trying to steer people away from job fairs and he is trying to drum up some business for himself. Nothing wrong with that you understand, but my question is “are you any better off going to a staffing service rather than a job fair?”
My own experiences with staffing services have not been, shall we say, “productive” so I’m sort of biased when it comes to making use of their “services”. I am also skeptical myself when it comes to job fairs as all of the ones I have been to have not yielded any employment fruit, just some literature and some disappointed looks when they find out my sales record is not very good. So what wouldn’t be a waste of our time when it comes to ending the siege that is our period of unemployment and underutilization? If we go to the job fair the staffing services say “nah, don’t waste your time with those boneheads. Come and sign up with us and we will find you a position – provided we feel that you are a good fit for one of our clients.” Then the job boards say “the staffing services will sign you up and do nothing for you. Come post your resume at our site and you will be able to get job offers from companies worldwide, assuming you have what they’re looking for.” And the Baby Boomers say: “Stop wasting your time on that silly-ass computer! If you really want a job you have to go out there and waste some shoe leather! So why don’t get up off of your lazy, fat ass and HIT THE BRICKS?!?!?”
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa…are these the same Baby Boomers that are now themselves being laid off and are discovering that job hunting has changed since they’ve last entered the work force?
Yup, according to Forbes.com they are. Tara Weiss writes a revealing article which starts out with:
Most baby boomers didn’t expect to find themselves hunting for a job at this point in their careers. But millions of them are doing exactly that right now–and finding it very, very hard.
With unemployment at 8.5% in March, up from 5.1% a year earlier, it’s difficult for anyone to land a new position. But older employees–and ex-employees–are up against stereotypes that paint them as undesirable: They are reluctant to learn new skills and technology; they have one foot out the door; they’re overqualified; they demand higher salaries than their younger colleagues.
“We’re always given lip service with the idea that experience is valued, but I don’t know if we’ve ever really seen it,” says Laurie McCann, a senior attorney for the American Association of Retired Persons. “We’ve done surveys where employers say they value experience, but they also hold many stereotypes about them. That’s the driving force behind discrimination–stereotypes.”
Now I know a lot of us who have been doing this for a while now will tell you that it’s not easy for us children of Baby Boomers either – Generation X. On top of that it has even effected our children – Generation Y – in that they are also being penalized for a lack of experience.
It doesn’t matter who you are, I don’t care if you are a Baby Boomer, Gen-Xer or Gen-Yer, being turned down for a job sucks. Not knowing why you didn’t get that job makes it even worse! Now I know that in the past I have taken the Baby Boomers to task for their attitudes concerning us Gen-Xers and how they feel we have completely botched our job search, or even worse - that we don’t want jobs at all! Now that the Boomers are finding themselves in the same situation the last thing I am going to do is gloat. I have been in this situation long enough to know how it feels to put somebody down because of misfortune so I am not going to add to the pain.
So I say to all of my fellow Gen-Xers out there – don’t you add to their pain either. You know how they feel right now, how would you want someone to treat you in that position? Yeah, thought so. “Do unto others” is a good rule to live by.
So see if you can help each other out, get on Twitter and LinkedIn and network together, do some “job interview role-playing”, do some research on companies together, update your resumes and cover letters and while you’re at it, get your kids in on this too. If our parents are a little behind on the tech department then maybe the Grand-kids will be able to help.
Now that would be a productive use of every-body’s time, wouldn’t it?
