APPLYING FOR JOBS 2014

Back in the day, we were concerned about the amount of words we used to advertise a position.  We were paying by the word after all!  Back then, we read contracts all the way through, no matter how long it took, and dotted our  I’s and crossed our T’s.  We didn't skim or rely on someone else to tell us what the contract said, we actually READ it…every word and understood it or we didn't sign it! Reading something thoroughly, due to technology, has become a thing of the past.  I don’t even seem to read texts thoroughly.

Now, our attention span has been reduced significantly by the multi-tasking we have done for so many decades.  When it comes to job advertising now, companies are posting their job descriptions and expecting people to actually read those things.  They are long, tedious and frankly, BORING!  Companies put crazy things in those job descriptions…asking for proficiency in software that may have existed for a short period of time, but only 10 people (all professors that don’t want another job) became proficient in it.  This really means the company has not invested their profits back into the company.  Oh, and they do the disclaimer on the job description saying that it is not meant to be an exhaustive list of job duties…even though it is, whether it is meant to be or not.

The hiring process is just as crazy.  Generally, the people they call for an interview look good on paper but certainly 50% of the time, the person doesn’t walk the walk.  The company wants someone to be a super hero and do all the things they can’t get the other employees to do PLUS the lengthy list of things on their own job description.  This means the conscientious person will become burned out quickly and move on as soon as someone agrees to help them go through this exercise again.

For some companies, the qualifications have little to do with the person that gets hired for the position.  The person that is hired, is the one that the interviewer liked (sometimes a mirror image of themselves) and not really the one that is qualified for the position or read that crazy job description all the way through and put those same bullet points in their cover letter.  As if the cover letter gets read by someone in the company.

We have all been there at one time of another, or will be.  Life, love and work don’t make any sense really. Life is only fun when you have a sense of humor about everything.