Hey you, business owners
Are you so blinded by short term profits that you can’t make a long term recruiting plan? Or have you given up on the future already and are just trying to live the life before it’s all over? Why are you asking me for 1 year of experience and mastery of 8 different technologies on your entry level pre-employment listing? I’ve already got a degree, does that mean anything to you? Are degrees useless now? I’m willing to take any salary at this point just to get out of my room and do something with my life
Why do they call it a job market? A job is the only real source of income for the majority of the world population, are we trading people’s lives now? Why is it that if I stay unemployed I’m treated as if I have an expired sticker on my face?
And you, state
Are you so pathetic to publish a document with all sorts of legal jargon for just one position? One position that will get you a 6 page list of candidates just so they can all move to the capital twice to pass your oral and written exams? For one position? Are you not ashamed in the slightest?
I’m so tired of you all
I feel you. It’s infuriating.
I know this won’t help everyone, but there is a knack to job applications and interviews. There’s still no guarantee even if you get the knack right. And you may already be following something like this advice.
But… You’ve got to come across as super confident and respond exactly to the questions in the application and then in the interview.
I’ve been on the panels that sift applications and sat on interview panels. We get so many that as soon as there’s one thing on an application that does not respond to what was asked or what was looking for, it goes to the reserve pile.
If a job asks for XYX and is to do ABC, the application needs to confidently tell the panel that the candidate can do XYZ and will competently perform ABC. Sometimes if a candidate can explain why their otherwise irrelevant experience is in fact relevant and a good indication that they will do this job really well, they will score more than a candidate who has done the same job before but doesn’t respond to the application.
And brevity is a virtue here. No repetition. If the application says 300 words or max 2 pages and someone submits 320 words or 2.5 pages, it might go on the reserve pile, but will likely not be considered again even if the candidate was otherwise great.
Every application at my place will get graded to say whether it meets the requirements. At some places this is done by an external company. Those that meet a certain score will get an interview.
I did not mean to write any of this to suggest that it is your fault. It absolutely is not. And the idea that someone’s livelihood should depend on this modern Crystal Maze is horrendous. The whole process is bullshit, whatever the industry.
The jobs with an ‘assessment day’ or other shite are the fucking worst. What an absolute waste of everyone’s time. Especially for jobs that require a degree. What makes them think they’re better able to assess someone than a university?
I hope this helps someone, though. The process was not obvious to me until I sat on the other side of it.
That’s my weakness, I don’t have a strong personality
I’ve always followed school expecting everything to be ready in the end, but the moment I graduated the education ministry just tosses me out into the jungle
There’s no plan at all, the state just produces graduates and stops there, to hell with anything else
It’s a predatory system, it doesn’t matter if you went to school, you just need to be a liar and talker
You deserve it as much as anyone else.
The bragging is only for the interview, if that helps. Once you’ve got the job, you can be you again.
In fact, once you’ve got the job you can be stubborn about being you and insisting that even if you’re not the loud braggart-type, your contribution is as valuable as the loud braggarts’.
(You may find, in the job, that once you advocate for different approaches to working/speaking/etc, and encourage other people to be themselves, those others who also feel the imposter syndrome will thank you and see you as a leader (e.g. encouraging colleagues to use written messages or turn off their cameras, etc, in virtual meetings if it makes them more comfortable). The problem is getting the job in the first place, still. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been through it.)