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?
I have personally been through both and let me tell you both have kind of left me soured on the subject. For one thing the fairs were looking for certain types of people and I guess I wasn’t one of them. They wanted sales people, who work on commission. That doesn’t go well with me. Agencies, at least here, hire only temporary, and even though, they may tell you they will keep you but once a contract runs out or someone comes back from an illness or they hire someone else permenantly, well, you get walking papers or told thanks for your time but the position is being resumed by so and so. I knew it going in, and was lucky enough to find something else right away. At the time, I didn’t need to work so it didn’t really bother me then. But now I do. I guess my feelings for both just don’t mix right. I need stability, I need to work, and if I am to pay the bills that have gotten out of hand due to lay-offs, I need money to do so. Like so many, people are in need of finances and the economy could use a boost in funding to keep our lifestyles afloat. It doesn’t matter if people are young, middleaged, old or what generation. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Well, maybe not everyone, since there are those that have abused bailouts and such. One month in our shoes and they might make a difference on how they have treated their employees. That is another story and another time.
Baby boomers who use to put our generation down, are finding themselves in our boat, and finding what use to be is no longer. It isn’t easy bounding the pavement,it certainly easy finding that perfect job. They just are available. And the pay is nowhere near the inflational rates of today society. Taking what you can get, providing you can qualify and do the job in the first place, is worth the effort, and worth sticking with. Of course, it is lucky one does fine a job that isn’t downsizing, cutting hours, thus pay, and one that isn’t soon to go out of business. I wish everyone luck but times like this, it makes one feet tired, one weary, and depression becomes the norm when unemployment is still rising. But still one must keep trucking on and hopefully, things will start turning around and people can afford to feed their families, keep the roof over their heads and the wolves at bay. Until then, it is a dog eat dog world and we do what we can to get by.
Yeah I’ve been to some job fairs myself and you’re right, for the most part a lot of what they are looking for is the second coming of Zig Zigler. In all my time at job fairs I think I’ve made contact with a handful of companies that were not looking for salesmen. The unfortunate thing is that in my experience they generally go nowhere. So at the end of the day you feel like you’ve walked around a carnival trying to dodge all the carnies who want to take you for a ride, had nothing to eat but stale bagles and warm water, and you’ve handed out all but three resumes for an admission fee of $15.00!!!
The placement agencies aren’t that much better as they place deceptive ads in the newspaper or online making it seem like they are a company that’s hiring. Then when you get there you find out they are a placement agency that wants to sign you up. You fill out an app, take some tests and then finally get to talk with someone about the position. Only to find out that they have you in mind for something else and that they’ll call you when something comes up. After hering this from the last six or seven agencies that never called you and in fact won’t take your phone calls you walk out of there thinking “well that’s three hours of my life that I’ll never get back.”
The Baby Boomers are starting to figure out just what it is that we’ve been going through, and I’m starting to hear stories about how they are now apologizing to their kids for being so rough with them. They didn’t get it before but now that they are in the trenches with Gen-X, they do get it now.
Pounding the pavement where I am is not easy nor is it recommended because we are in a rural area. Sure there are businesses around us but they are far-flung where we are, so that means burning some gas. However nowadays businesses don’t want you just walking in applying for a job if they are not hiring at the moment. They would much rather advertise an opening and let the applications come in over the internet, that way they don’t have to deal with someone upset in the lobby because the’ve been told there are no openings.
But hopefully things will change sooner rather than later. You can almost feel the mood of the country lightening as we get more good news about the economy stabilizing. Hopefully the two of us will be back at work before long.
Sure hope so! I have to travel 8 miles to the nearest town where I live and no one is hiring here. The nearest city is almost an hour and a half away! But I am hearing things are stabilizing and maybe will be somewhat better by the end of the year. Here is hoping, anyway. I think it is a start. Afterall the Market has been pretty steady, with small jolts every now and then but hey, we can expect everything to be up over night. Little steps but this could mean things are about to change and not so many people are laying off. Most are trying to keep their employees and even though, might be cutting hours, not everyone is getting the pink slip. A good sign!
As for the baby boomers. I still get some that think it is easy. Of course, they usually have family businesses around here so if they need to work, they just go the business owed by family and make a few bucks. Unfortunately, not anyone is able to just walk in with such previlages…
Exactly, not everyone has the same “connections” as they do so it is a little harder for some of us to network. If they have those connections and they can make it work for them then I say that’s great, wonderful. Just don’t assume that everyone has the same connections though.
I was reading in the paper this morning about a software company here in Boise that is starting to come back after having to cut some of it’s people back. I think I’ll look them up and see what they are hiring for. I’m not a software programmer as I don’t know how to write code, but I’ll see if they need any clerical help.
Hey, that is a good idea. The more you get out there, the more you might find those connections. If I were computer suavvy, I would try things like that but I can only microsoft, and the like, word, and of course, the occassional boot. Ha. But what I don’t know, I ask my husband or son. They are computer brains. My husband loves them but could never handle an office job. He says it is too confining for him. I like offices. Ha. (They say opposite’s attract and we are as opposite as one can get.)
Seriously, i know enough to get by but nothing like them. And if you can handle it, go for it. I wish you the best of luck. Can’t hurt to get your resume out there. Hey, you might have several jobs to choose from~!!! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!
Doing some online checking and saw your post on my post…thanks for reading