I will be the first to say that this game SUCKS! I could say more but it would be crude. The whole job search deal sucks! Trust me, it sucks for everyone! Just think about it in terms of dating… what if there was an easy way to find that the person that is RIGHT for you. You know, THE ONE, your soul mate. You would pay big money for that, right? Companies are wanting and willing to do the same, sometimes. They are always looking to build a better mousetrap.
The wrong hire costs a company anywhere from 30% to 120% of the first income. Don’t believe me? How about the effect the person you are dating has on your friends? If the person you are dating is NOT the right person they may make your friends angry, drive them away, make you sad, all of this can lead to your life being negatively affected. We have all been there.
Plus, let’s look at it from your side. Do you REALLY want a company to hire you if you are not a good match? I read news all the time about how employees are not happy at work. Forbes just did an article about it last year stating that over 50% of Americans are unhappy at work. Not to mention all the people that piss and moan about how unfulfilling their work is. But time and time again I get candidates who get mad when we don’t hire them. I know that sometimes you just need a job, any job, to pay the bills. But here is the bottom line… companies are not cool with that.
Let’s look at another analogy. What if you only believed that sex should be withing a marriage or at least in a committed relationship. You are single so you are hosed. Would it be fair to the other person if you found someone that you knew you could date, woo and then marry, all just to have sex with them? All this knowing that you didn’t really like the person that much, but what the heck, they have a nice body, right?
So, what do companies do to try and find THE right person. Well, they do a lot. I am not going to mention the requirements THE MAH (the government) puts on companies here but I will in a future post. Here is a partial list of the mousetraps:
- Use headhunters and agencies to find candidates.
- Online application processes that are arduous – Only people that REALLY want the position will stick it out. (I do not think this is a good thing all the time.)
- Testing – If tests REALLY worked then your GPA in school would better predict success in your career.
- Multiple interviews with multiple people.
- Different styles of interviewing – hypothetical/situational, behavioral, traditional, case, puzzle, task oriented, stress, and presentation.
- Different types of interviews: lunch/dinner, phone, face to face, video-conference, panel, round-robin, group, job shadowing, and career fairs.
So what does all of this leave us with? One in three new hires will not last more than 18 months in their job. But we keep trying and you, the mouse, keep getting caught by all these mousetraps. I know it hurts, sorry.
THE Man
One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.
Arthur Ashe