Unemployment

[Rick]

My wife and I just recently moved and she had to quit her job after teaching for 6 years at the same school. She had returned to school after our children got older and completed her teaching degree while working 30+ hours a week. Now that we have moved and the schools are shrinking more than adding teachers she has looked for other positions. She applied at a bank and was told she was not qualified to be a teller even though she has the El Ed degree plus two years of Accounting. My son is two years out of college and graduated with a business degree and finance minor. He is looking for some supplemental income to help him while he gets started on a commission job. He applied at Wal Mart and was told he not competitive and could not be hired. Now, we have millions of people out of jobs who are looking for work. What does it take to be qualified for these jobs? I keep seeing people on TV saying they are looking but cant find a job and I wonder if they are in the same boat as my wife and son? Maybe the reason some of these people are out of work is because they cant get hired for jobs they are qualified for but not even being offered an interview. I know there has to be some HR people on here who might be able to shed some light on the application process and even on how people are qualified for positions.
Any thing similar out there with others? I was always cynical figuring someone out of work couldnt be looking to hard but I am thinking maybe the qualification matricies are keeping people home.

 

[dtclones]

I'm no HR guru, but there is such thing as being overqualified, which I would say your son would be for a job at Wal-Mart.

 

[marothisu]

My wife and I just recently moved and she had to quit her job after teaching for 6 years at the same school. She had returned to school after our children got older and completed her teaching degree while working 30+ hours a week. Now that we have moved and the schools are shrinking more than adding teachers she has looked for other positions. She applied at a bank and was told she was not qualified to be a teller even though she has the El Ed degree plus two years of Accounting. My son is two years out of college and graduated with a business degree and finance minor. He is looking for some supplemental income to help him while he gets started on a commission job. He applied at Wal Mart and was told he not competitive and could not be hired. Now, we have millions of people out of jobs who are looking for work. What does it take to be qualified for these jobs? I keep seeing people on TV saying they are looking but cant find a job and I wonder if they are in the same boat as my wife and son? Maybe the reason some of these people are out of work is because they cant get hired for jobs they are qualified for but not even being offered an interview. I know there has to be some HR people on here who might be able to shed some light on the application process and even on how people are qualified for positions.
Any thing similar out there with others? I was always cynical figuring someone out of work couldnt be looking to hard but I am thinking maybe the qualification matricies are keeping people home.

I am not HR, although have been on the inside of some hirings before for work..your son is overqualified for the Wal-mart job for sure. They are looking for people with only HS diploma/GED most likely and most likely think your son could be "stealing" one of their jobs, so they tell him no.

I think a lot of people who hire are confused. who knows. We just turned away a kid who had almost a 4.0 double major and was involved in some stuff, and good communicator. Now THAT one really made me wonder what the **** is going on. It made absolutely no sense. It's almost as if we were actually testing who was interested in the position without having one available but giving hope to someone.

 

[ZJohnson]

I am not HR, although have been on the inside of some hirings before for work..your son is overqualified for the Wal-mart job for sure. They are looking for people with only HS diploma/GED most likely and most likely think your son could be "stealing" one of their jobs, so they tell him no.

I think a lot of people who hire are confused. who knows. We just turned away a kid who had almost a 4.0 double major and was involved in some stuff. Now THAT one really made me wonder what the **** is going on.

What were the circumstances?

 

[marothisu]

What were the circumstances?

Circumstances for what? Why we didn't hire him? I have no idea..he was basically a perfect fit. I'm still ****** off at the guy who is doing all of this and my opinion of him went way down after this.

 

[ZJohnson]

As in what was the job? What were his majors?

 

[marothisu]

As in what was the job? What were his majors?

It was for a consultancy job and his majors were Business and Computer Science

 

[IowaStateClones]

african american studies and hotel management

 

[Rick]

I just wonder what it takes get a part time job to help yourself. Being over qualified but wanting to work shouldnt be a disqualification. If the person wants to work and is motivated to do a good job why not get some good use out of them. I understand they dont want to invest time training someone and have them quit but to disqualify before even having a face to face interview and getting a feel for what they are looking for is a waste of talent.

 

[marothisu]

I just wonder what it takes get a part time job to help yourself. Being over qualified but wanting to work shouldnt be a disqualification. If the person wants to work and is motivated to do a good job why not get some good use out of them. I understand they dont want to invest time training someone and have them quit but to disqualify before even having a face to face interview and getting a feel for what they are looking for is a waste of talent.

People are strange. What metro area does your son work in? Quad cities or...?

 

[dtclones]

I just wonder what it takes get a part time job to help yourself. Being over qualified but wanting to work shouldnt be a disqualification. If the person wants to work and is motivated to do a good job why not get some good use out of them. I understand they dont want to invest time training someone and have them quit but to disqualify before even having a face to face interview and getting a feel for what they are looking for is a waste of talent.

I agree. I wonder what would happen if you just didn't tell the employer you have a college degree and just include your high school education on your resume. Can you even do that? It's not really lying, just not including all the details.

 

[CyFever]

I understand the position totally. I'm looking to restart a career in IT after spending the last 15 years as a civil engineer in water/wastewater. I'm having a tough time finding a job even though I went back to school (information systems security) and I have a few certifications. Actually had an interview to unbox/install new desktops on a contract for 6 months (4200 total stations). I missed out and I know it's because they thought I was overqualified. Just doesn't seem right.

 

[Rick]

People are strange. What metro area does your son work in? Quad cities or...?

No he is actually in southeastern Iowa. Not exactly a hot bed for jobs so they are few are far between. You would just think that if someone is looking in this economy and they were over qualified it might be time to up grade the talent. I am being self serving on this I know but it just seems weird that there are people out there who want jobs but cant get them due to being over qualified.

 

[marothisu]

No he is actually in southeastern Iowa. Not exactly a hot bed for jobs so they are few are far between. You would just think that if someone is looking in this economy and they were over qualified it might be time to up grade the talent. I am being self serving on this I know but it just seems weird that there are people out there who want jobs but cant get them due to being over qualified.

I 100% agree with you, which is why I brought up the thing about us not hiring the one guy. I firmly believe a lot of people in business shouldn't be making decisions and this is one of them.

The only way it makes sense to me is that "your son is stealing jobs from another person who can barely get any," but you know, it should be on merit right? Plus, they should be more worried with their client relations and how good someone who wants the job might be at it instead of "you're stealing jobs!"

 

[nklotz85]

I have been in the same situation. All I was looking for was a job to hold me over but that prooved to be harder than it sounded. I was able to get a job through friends. No one is going to hire a person that can eventually take their job from them. Plus there is a lot of people with experience out there so it's pick of the litter or help a friend out and hire them. So basically social networking is probably helping more than ever.

 

[iowaboy]

There is many factors going on right now as to why common sense doesn't seem to be a part of our game plan anymore. But for this short discussion I will address the HR phenomena.

Years ago if you had any sort of speed the owners would have their finger on the pulse of their companies and would know so. Either they interviewed you themselves or they had their confidant who knew what he was doing interview you and filter out the riff-raff for him. Then the owners decided to hire what is called a HR person. It stands for Human Resourse. There is nothing human about what they do or resourceful for that matter.


The first thing these vipers do is disqualify any applicants who might have the least bit of common sense and intellect that might challenge their BS decisions down the road. Then they give their stamp of approval on people who don't know if they are walking or riding a horse. Failure is imminent and within a short period of time they repeat the process which enables them to have job security.

I was commanding over 80,000 per year in the mid-80's and had relationships with many owners. But after they went to a HR person many of these owners were no longer in command of their troops. Here I am making those kind of monies and yet a 7.50 per hour scatter-head is deciding whether or not I should be able to work there. Attempts to see the owner were for naught and businesses lost the edge to better themselves by hiring less than appropriate people with little talent and border-line skills. The HR person embedded themselves like a tick on a dog's *** and the owners settled for less profit . As long as the business survives and the owner doesn't miss his golf outing things trudge along like a turtle in mud.

Bear in mind that a few of these HR personnel are easy to look at and that may be their claim to fame but as soon as they open their mouths you wonder how somebody so stupid can actually function. IF you want to land a good job, get in front of the owner without the HR person screwing things up, or get a photo showing the owners romancing a goat. Either one of those choices will be highly successful. Good Luck! IB

 

[Cyclonepride]

Just my opinion, while there are circumstances where people are "overqualified" and companies have legitimate reasons not to hire you as such (probably won't stay long term), another important factor is that some managers are afraid of hiring someone like that because they may eventually take their (the manager's) job.

 

[tec71]

There is many factors going on right now as to why common sense doesn't seem to be a part of our game plan anymore. But for this short discussion I will address the HR phenomena.

Years ago if you had any sort of speed the owners would have their finger on the pulse of their companies and would know so. Either they interviewed you themselves or they had their confidant who knew what he was doing interview you and filter out the riff-raff for him. Then the owners decided to hire what is called a HR person. It stands for Human Resourse. There is nothing human about what they do or resourceful for that matter.


The first thing these vipers do is disqualify any applicants who might have the least bit of common sense and intellect that might challenge their BS decisions down the road. Then they give their stamp of approval on people who don't know if they are walking or riding a horse. Failure is imminent and within a short period of time they repeat the process which enables them to have job security.

I was commanding over 80,000 per year in the mid-80's and had relationships with many owners. But after they went to a HR person many of these owners were no longer in command of their troops. Here I am making those kind of monies and yet a 7.50 per hour scatter-head is deciding whether or not I should be able to work there. Attempts to see the owner were for naught and businesses lost the edge to better themselves by hiring less than appropriate people with little talent and border-line skills. The HR person embedded themselves like a tick on a dog's *** and the owners settled for less profit . As long as the business survives and the owner doesn't miss his golf outing things trudge along like a turtle in mud.

Bear in mind that a few of these HR personnel are easy to look at and that may be their claim to fame but as soon as they open their mouths you wonder how somebody so stupid can actually function. IF you want to land a good job, get in front of the owner without the HR person screwing things up, or get a photo showing the owners romancing a goat. Either one of those choices will be highly successful. Good Luck! IB

Wow. That's just the rambling of a lunatic hijacking a thread.

 

[tec71]

Just my opinion, while there are circumstances where people are "overqualified" and companies have legitimate reasons not to hire you as such (probably won't stay long term), another important factor is that some managers are afraid of hiring someone like that because they may eventually take their (the manager's) job.

This is very true.

But seriously the point of the original post is simply put that companies (even Wal Mart) have a vested interest in hiring people who will stay as long as possible. My guess is that for the most part they see these applicants has not long term fits, no matter how qualified they are. In this economy they will be more picky about hiring "over qualified" people. When unemployment was less than 4% you could find a job "just to get by" because they didn't have a lot of options. Now they do. I recently had four payroll processor jobs open. I had over 200 applicants, more than probably 20 with advanced degrees and/or certifications completely unrelated to payroll (accounting or finance etc). No way I hire one of them unless I'm setting myself up to be doing a search in 6 months or less. Recruiting is expensive and time consuming. No one wants to do it twice.

 

[Cyclonepride]

This is very true.

But seriously the point of the original post is simply put that companies (even Wal Mart) have a vested interest in hiring people who will stay as long as possible. My guess is that for the most part they see these applicants has not long term fits, no matter how qualified they are. In this economy they will be more picky about hiring "over qualified" people. When unemployment was less than 4% you could find a job "just to get by" because they didn't have a lot of options. Now they do. I recently had four payroll processor jobs open. I had over 200 applicants, more than probably 20 with advanced degrees and/or certifications completely unrelated to payroll (accounting or finance etc). No way I hire one of them unless I'm setting myself up to be doing a search in 6 months or less. Recruiting is expensive and time consuming. No one wants to do it twice.

Good points. I have had a ton of highly qualified applicants for a sales position, but many of them do not have established, successful sales experience.