It is easier to get a job if you are already working

One of the natural laws of employment is that it is always easier to get a job if you have a job. And it doesn’t really matter that much at what level you get on. For example, I know of a young college graduate that wanted to find a job in his home town. He applied for several jobs that required a degree in business which he just happened to have. No luck. After several fruitless months of sending out resumes, filling out applications and getting interviews that never resulted in a call back, he ran out of money. He just had to do something. So he took a job working in the warehouse of a national service company headquartered in his town. Four years of college and he got a job moving boxes in a warehouse. This doesn’t sound like an inspirational story except he didn’t stop there. Over the next ten years he progressed from that lowly warehouse position to several different positions in the company and is now the manager of the training division for that same company.

Companies have lots of choices today. They can take a chance on a complete unknown with a decent resume or they can offer that opportunity to someone who has already demonstrated that they have a good work ethic and a willingness to learn. These are both top of the list items when thinking about hiring a new employee. Who do you think is favored in that choice?

This is just one example. Before we became so enamored with degrees and credentials this was the rule, not the exception. Young men and women worked their way up after starting at the bottom. Today we have created an expectation that we can start in the middle. If you have a bachelors or masters degree you are going to come in and immediately be a productive team member. Maybe, maybe not. Many large companies today spend a year or more training their new employees to get them to a level where they can pay for themselves. This is important. Companies do not hire out of some noble desire to give people meaningful work. They hire people because they believe that your efforts as a new employee will increase the amount of money they make, above and beyond the cost they incur in hiring you.

That’s it.