--On Wednesday, January 28, 2009 11:22:25 PM -0500 Rion D'Luz
<[email protected]> wrote:
> A friend of mine applied for over 120 jobs in 2006
> and received 6 denials, 1 calls, and 1 interview. Unfortunately its
par for
> the course --
Which is not an excuse! I realize that's the way it is. I accept that,
but if a company is
going to advertise to fill a job then they should allocate the resources
necessary to
respond in a timely fashion to all respondents; even those who fail the
pre-screening filter.
So to add my 2 cents in here, and potentially ignite things more than they
are, let me give a couple perspectives here. I'm probably a bit younger
than some of you who are complaining, rightly, that age discrimination is
rampant in IT hiring. I'm only 45. But, I've been in IT for 26 years now,
in fact I've never had another career. I've been both on the applicant
side, and the search-team side.
For the age thing, check out an older (90's) book titled "Seven Lean Years"
by Tom Nadeau (an avid OS2 supporter). See his site at
<http://www.os2hq.com/articles/seven.htm> in fact. He's right. Age
discrimination is common in the IT industry, and hasn't gone down since he
wrote the book. I am lucky to work for an organization where that doesn't
seem to be true, in fact I'm at the middle of the spectrum on our team's
age, with at least half the department, all hired after me, above my age,
sometimes by a fair amount. But that's the exception, not the rule. And
one thing we've learned from the laissez-faire economic strategy is that
the corporate world does not indulge in what's right or fair unless a) it
makes them more money than being unfair, or (often *and*) b) they are
dragged kicking and screaming, fighting all the way, into some tiny bit of
fairness by laws and regulations. Not so true in general of small firms,
but it still applies depending on the owners. For really big corporations,
the bigger they are, the more true it is.
That said, putting on my search-team member hat, there are a lot of reasons
why people don't get replies and don't get interviews. It's not *all* age
discrimination. We've had times where we'll advertise an entry level
position and get 150 resumes, some of which clearly didn't even bother to
read any of the description we put in the paper. Frankly, if they can't
bother to read the description and are going to apply for something they're
totally not qualified for, then I don't think the employer is under any
obligation to even acknowledge receipt. Some come in with no cover letter,
just a vague resume. Some come in with a cover letter that has spelling
errors, grammatical errors, etc. Some have come in with cover letters that
include a complaint about some aspect of the institution or the application
process (maybe one should wait until *after* getting the job and making it
through the probationary period before dissing the place one is applying
to?).
Frankly if people want a job they do have to at least come across as
professional and positive about the place they're applying to. Another
thing that will shoot down a candidate is if they've had 25 jobs in the
last 5 years or something. Or big unexplained gaps of employment in their
resume. If you're consulting and you have 25 different short-term
contracts, list one consulting job with 25 contracts, not 25 jobs and hope
the employer assumes you're doing independent consulting or contract work.
If you've been out of work and supplementing with consulting, show it that
way. If out of work due to injury, family situation, etc., then include
some explanation of that so people know. And finally we've had people who
apply who are clearly over qualified for the job at hand, just got laid off
from somewhere, and would be driving an hour to work at a much lower-paying
job. To the employer, that says you're desperate and that the first chance
you get at something closer to home that's more like what you were doing
and pays better, you're outta there. Nobody wants to be doing another
search 3 months after hiring someone.
I am not saying anyone on this list doesn't know all this already. But I
figured after reading all the comments here about applying for jobs, it
might be good to throw in the other side.
Flame retardant suit is now in place, fingers are firmly in the ears, and
I'm humming. So I make no promises to respond to any explosions this rant
might generate.
--
Tony Harris
Assistant CTO
Community College of Vermont
[email protected]
(802) 241-3535
Dwirze ski, evarre kolex.
(One by one droplets, eventually an ocean.)
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