Why is getting hired so hard?

Troy Rhodes wrote:Most HR departments are swamped with applicants.  Most jobs do not get awarded to the "best" resume.

Depending on the operation (big vs small), most jobs result from a good resume, and knowing somebody inside the operation that will vouch for you.

Good work ethic is surprisingly rare today, and it's expensive to hire somebody and then find out their work ethic is mediocre at best.

Plug in to your network and find out who is hiring.

If you're interested in a specific job at a specific company,  you're only 2 degrees of separation from somebody that matters that works at that corp.  Work the network and find out who knows who, so they could give -ANY- kind of personal reference.  That gets you to the top of the stack.  Without that your resume drops in value by 80 or 90%.  All the resumes claim great things about the applicant.

If all of that fails, offer to work a two week unpaid internship to demonstrate your amazing work ethic.  That will make you stick out in the pile.

It is worthwhile to read the old book, what color is your parachute.

Have you considered being self employed?

Name three areas of interest and we will think of 4 or 5 things you could start next week.

If you are as smart and motivated as you come across in your posts, you can make double or triple what an employer thinks you're worth of you find the right gig to be self employed.

Kyrt Ryder wrote:

Troy Rhodes wrote:Most HR departments are swamped with applicants.  Most jobs do not get awarded to the "best" resume.

Depending on the operation (big vs small), most jobs result from a good resume, and knowing somebody inside the operation that will vouch for you.

Good work ethic is surprisingly rare today, and it's expensive to hire somebody and then find out their work ethic is mediocre at best.

And traditional hiring selection actually helps sift this?

Plug in to your network and find out who is hiring.

That would require having a network. I never did learn the art of networking, though I've asked a few people [who basically looked at me like I was broken for not understanding how to make these connections and milk them.]


I would add a little nuance to your assessment.  Let's say you get to know 10 people pretty well, and another 10 people more than just saying hi.  In whatever context this happens, those 10-20 people that you know pretty well, those people will become your homies, if you let them.  This might be people you work with.  This might be people in your church.  School roommates, some shared hobby group, the context almost doesn't matter.  Once you get to know people at more than the superficial level, it is almost inevitable that you begin to care about them, and they begin to care about you.  Once that happens, you are most definitely not "milking' the network.  Your 10-20 homies are legitimately concerned about your unemployed status and will call in favors to get you an interview with that personal recommendation edge.

Of course, it's a double edged sword, if you don't get interested and involved in their lives, they won't do shit for you either.  It's never that cut and dried, but it illustrates the point.  These days it's fashionable to call that "social capital".  It's not money, but it definitely has value.

If you're interested in a specific job at a specific company,  you're only 2 degrees of separation from somebody that matters that works at that corp.  Work the network and find out who knows who, so they could give -ANY- kind of personal reference.  That gets you to the top of the stack.  Without that your resume drops in value by 80 or 90%.  All the resumes claim great things about the applicant.

I've never been in the position of actively seeking out work at a specific company as part of a long-term goal, my job searching typically amounts to looking for 'help wanted' ads in every resource I can find and then putting myself out there for them.


Join the big crowd.  One of the ideas in "What Color Is Your Parachute" is that most people just want a job.  If company XYZ is hiring, you'll work for them and do a nice job.  Your resume says so.  Let's say you wanted to be a machinest (I wanted that at one point.)  And let's say apprentice machinists positions were pretty rare within 100 miles of me.  But there was one company that had one or two slots that might open up.  They made chain hoists.  Columbus McKinnon.  I found out how long they'd been in that location, who sat on the board, how much they had grown, who their main competitors were, etc etc etc etc.  Everything I could scratch together about their current business model and their plan for the next 5 years.  Problems they've encountered, etc etc etc.  I shocked the pants off the guy who interviewed me and got an offer.  Nobody had EVER come through an interview knowing so much about their operation.  Guess why I got noticed...because I wasn't just another guy looking for some job.

If all of that fails, offer to work a two week unpaid internship to demonstrate your amazing work ethic.  That will make you stick out in the pile.

This is an excellent idea, though my instinct tells me there are legal challenges to actually doing this for many companies depending on how they're set up.



HR might very well turn you down stone cold on the unpaid internship because of the legal challenges you refer to.  Doesn't matter, you got noticed.

It is worthwhile to read the old book, what color is your parachute.

Thanks for the recommendation, if I can make the free time I will do so.

Have you considered being self employed?

Absolutely. I prefer the self-employed environment, but right now I have no capital.

Name three areas of interest and we will think of 4 or 5 things you could start next week.

'Areas of interest'... I have zero clue what sort of profitable interests I might have. Most of my interests have gone by the wayside in favor of Permacultural pursuits and job-hunting. In the long run I want an animal-product-focused multi-species Restoration Agriculture farm, but for the time being I need to build up the capital in order to actually buy the land. [I know land can be rented, that's not something I'm interested in.]



I'm just going to give you one example of thinking outside the box, and then throwing the box away.

As a group, farmers are getting old in a hurry.  It's not very sexy, and lots of farmer's kids really really don't want to run the farm.  I would bet you a steak dinner, there is a farmer withing 50 miles of you that is facing a dilemma.  He can't get dependable help, and his kids all moved to the city and have lives that have nothing to do with the farm.  If the right eager person showed up and asked the right questions, you could easily end up with a paying position on a farm.  Is it straight up permaculture?  Probably not.  Go watch all of Gabe Brown's youtube videos about broad scale, like so:

Your pitch might be, you have a lot of ideas about how to farm, but no practical experience.  I want to learn farming so bad, I'll be your best farm hand ever.  You will never find a more dependable farm hand.  And I'm sure you know who's looking for someone to buy or manage their farm, and that's my dream job five years down the road.  

I can assure you, that is not the typical offer a farmer gets from a potential farm hand.

Or maybe it's a landscape company, where you can show them how to "green" their image with permaculture....

If you are as smart and motivated as you come across in your posts, you can make double or triple what an employer thinks you're worth of you find the right gig to be self employed.

My motivation is boundless and my intellect is decent. If anyone wants to give advice I will give it serious consideration.

Thank you again for your participation in this conversation