5 ms·

People need to stop reading 3 years of professional experience as 3 years of technical experience. So long as you've been in the work world for 3 years already,

People need to stop reading 3 years of professional experience as 3 years of technical experience. So long as you've been in the work world for 3 years already, doing contracts or whatever, then you have 3 years of experience. You can have 3 years at McDonalds. Also, a college grad should not shy away from applying to such positions. If a job appeals to you, you should apply and let them tell you you don't qualify. Mostly that clause is added to weed away wannabes.

superuser2 11y ago
>Mostly that clause is added to weed away wannabes. All applicants to a job are by definition "wannabe" holders of that job.
- vinceguidry 11y ago
  You don't seem to be understanding. Businesses generally get dozens to hundreds of applications for each job posting. These applicants largely range from completely unqualified to way overqualified. The main thing you're looking at when you read a job posting is 'spray-and-pray' ways of cutting down on the noise. If you can see through the filters, then you can start to tailor your applications to fit exactly what they're looking for. It's not an exact science, but paying a little attention can cut your miss rate by orders of magnitude.
  - jschwartzi 11y ago
    Would it be accurate, then, that if you don't see a massive laundry list of skills that the employer in question is having trouble finding people to fill the position?
    - vinceguidry 11y ago
      I wouldn't conclude that. There's a reason why everything on a posting was put there. There's not necessarily a reason why they would leave certain things off.
  - dennisgorelik 11y ago
    > Businesses generally get dozens to hundreds of applications for each job posting. Is it your typical experience as a hiring manager? My estimate is that on average, number of applications is about 10 per job posting. Occasionally number of applications could go above 100, but usually it is just a few. Especially if job posting is for skilled professionals, such as programmers.
    - superuser2 11y ago
      That is several orders of magnitude off for engineer positions at Bay Area tech companies with name recognition. At my last employer the interview rate was about 1%. Obviously some channels (like referral) had far better hit rates than others (like applications off the website).
kafkaesq 11y ago
You can have 3 years at McDonalds. No, that's clearly not what it means. "3+ years experience" always means "3+ years of relevant experience." Mostly that clause is added to weed away wannabes. No. It's specifically there to weed out anyone with 2.99726 years experience of, also. In other words, it's just nonsense filler. In more direct terms, what it's really trying to say is: "Shit, the bossman wants me to crank out 10 position reqs before the 4p meeting. But I'm so hungry I can't think straight, and all the good bagels in the kitchen have been taken... What am I gonna say... I know, lemme just mouse-grab from this other startup's jobsite over here..."
- vinceguidry 11y ago
  This attitude is counter-productive and will lead to only being able to get jobs precisely like the ones you describe, where you're over-worked and underpaid. Work is what you make of it. If you want to hate work, that thing you have to spend 40+ hours of your week doing, then nobody is going to stop you. One can make work into something that adds to your life instead of takes away from it. If you can figure out how to do this then you'll find that everything about your life changes utterly for the better.

superuser2 11y ago

>Mostly that clause is added to weed away wannabes. All applicants to a job are by definition "wannabe" holders of that job.

vinceguidry 11y ago
You don't seem to be understanding. Businesses generally get dozens to hundreds of applications for each job posting. These applicants largely range from completely unqualified to way overqualified. The main thing you're looking at when you read a job posting is 'spray-and-pray' ways of cutting down on the noise. If you can see through the filters, then you can start to tailor your applications to fit exactly what they're looking for. It's not an exact science, but paying a little attention can cut your miss rate by orders of magnitude.
- jschwartzi 11y ago
  Would it be accurate, then, that if you don't see a massive laundry list of skills that the employer in question is having trouble finding people to fill the position?
  - vinceguidry 11y ago
    I wouldn't conclude that. There's a reason why everything on a posting was put there. There's not necessarily a reason why they would leave certain things off.
- dennisgorelik 11y ago
  > Businesses generally get dozens to hundreds of applications for each job posting. Is it your typical experience as a hiring manager? My estimate is that on average, number of applications is about 10 per job posting. Occasionally number of applications could go above 100, but usually it is just a few. Especially if job posting is for skilled professionals, such as programmers.
  - superuser2 11y ago
    That is several orders of magnitude off for engineer positions at Bay Area tech companies with name recognition. At my last employer the interview rate was about 1%. Obviously some channels (like referral) had far better hit rates than others (like applications off the website).

kafkaesq 11y ago

You can have 3 years at McDonalds. No, that's clearly not what it means. "3+ years experience" always means "3+ years of relevant experience." Mostly that clause is added to weed away wannabes. No. It's specifically there to weed out anyone with 2.99726 years experience of, also. In other words, it's just nonsense filler. In more direct terms, what it's really trying to say is: "Shit, the bossman wants me to crank out 10 position reqs before the 4p meeting. But I'm so hungry I can't think straight, and all the good bagels in the kitchen have been taken... What am I gonna say... I know, lemme just mouse-grab from this other startup's jobsite over here..."

vinceguidry 11y ago
This attitude is counter-productive and will lead to only being able to get jobs precisely like the ones you describe, where you're over-worked and underpaid. Work is what you make of it. If you want to hate work, that thing you have to spend 40+ hours of your week doing, then nobody is going to stop you. One can make work into something that adds to your life instead of takes away from it. If you can figure out how to do this then you'll find that everything about your life changes utterly for the better.