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Great story; great writing. I feel like the Container Store would reject anyone who seemed overqualified. If only because they know they'd bolt if something bet

by gdilla 12y ago

Great story; great writing. I feel like the Container Store would reject anyone who seemed overqualified. If only because they know they'd bolt if something better came up. Of course, that's not a given, but you can understand where they're coming from.

checker 12y ago
You make an interesting point. It seems like it might be a scenario where one might actually need to tone down the resume to get the job.
jldugger 12y ago
It's seasonal help. People bolting is a Best Case Scenario.
- justathrow2k 12y ago
  That's pretty close to the truth - people bolting after the seasonal rush is over is the best case scenario - they still want the people do they end up hiring for the period to stay on through the entire period.
georgemcbay 12y ago
While I think you're probably right about their motivation, I think a lot of companies seem to apply the "overqualified" classification in stupid scenarios. For example, this is a job for a seasonal door greeter at retail, by definition it is temporary. Even if it wasn't meant to be temporary, is someone who is "overqualified" really more of a statistically significant "flight risk" than some high school kid, an elderly retiree, or someone who somehow has made a career of being a seasonal door greeter? I suspect all classes of potential hires would be very nearly equally incredibly unreliable in the long-term for a job of this ilk, if you actually hired from all groups and did a study on job longevity.
VLM 12y ago
Google for "retail turnover rate". A quarter century ago when I was working retail it was about 100%, and according to google it remains around 100%. What you're worried about has been BAU for more than a quarter century. Training varies from an hour or so, up to maybe 10 hours for the most demanding cashiering jobs, although those are often hired from within. Its a little different from skilled trades or silicon valley programming.
- gdilla 12y ago
  turnover is always 100% given enough time. I think the more overqualified you are, the more they think you can bolt quicker than usual.
  - VLM 12y ago
    That stat is almost always expressed annually. So the average employment length is a year, but more realistically the "old" first shift people work there about four years and the kids and seasonal work there about ten or so weeks at most, its not a smooth bell curve.

by gdilla 12y ago

checker 12y ago

You make an interesting point. It seems like it might be a scenario where one might actually need to tone down the resume to get the job.

jldugger 12y ago

It's seasonal help. People bolting is a Best Case Scenario.

justathrow2k 12y ago
That's pretty close to the truth - people bolting after the seasonal rush is over is the best case scenario - they still want the people do they end up hiring for the period to stay on through the entire period.

georgemcbay 12y ago

While I think you're probably right about their motivation, I think a lot of companies seem to apply the "overqualified" classification in stupid scenarios. For example, this is a job for a seasonal door greeter at retail, by definition it is temporary. Even if it wasn't meant to be temporary, is someone who is "overqualified" really more of a statistically significant "flight risk" than some high school kid, an elderly retiree, or someone who somehow has made a career of being a seasonal door greeter? I suspect all classes of potential hires would be very nearly equally incredibly unreliable in the long-term for a job of this ilk, if you actually hired from all groups and did a study on job longevity.

VLM 12y ago

Google for "retail turnover rate". A quarter century ago when I was working retail it was about 100%, and according to google it remains around 100%. What you're worried about has been BAU for more than a quarter century. Training varies from an hour or so, up to maybe 10 hours for the most demanding cashiering jobs, although those are often hired from within. Its a little different from skilled trades or silicon valley programming.

gdilla 12y ago
turnover is always 100% given enough time. I think the more overqualified you are, the more they think you can bolt quicker than usual.
- VLM 12y ago
  That stat is almost always expressed annually. So the average employment length is a year, but more realistically the "old" first shift people work there about four years and the kids and seasonal work there about ten or so weeks at most, its not a smooth bell curve.