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A while back, my Millennial daughter had a conversation about finding jobs and building careers today with her Boomer grandfather. At some point, he stopped and
by beat 11y ago
A while back, my Millennial daughter had a conversation about finding jobs and building careers today with her Boomer grandfather. At some point, he stopped and said that he had no useful advice for her, because he'd only had two job interviews in his entire life. He went straight from college into a career, and he retired from that one job.
It's been interesting watching her deal with her career (in cooking) with her GenX mother too. Her mother can't quite imagine that you do something other than go to college for a four year degree and then get a corporate job. The idea of a career based on experience and networking is rather alien.
- magic_beans 11y ago"The idea of a career based on experience and networking is rather alien." It's been that way since the before Industry, and it'll stay that way after.
- beat 11y agoTrue. But for her mother, the college -> career in something you didn't study path is "normal". Jobs are found via resumes, not networking. Interestingly, my spouse found herself unemployed for the first time in 13 years recently. She's since become much more understanding of my dream of creating a startup, and our daughter's dream of becoming a chef. She's realizing just how much she hated her old job, how hard it was on her soul.
- stephengillie 11y agoEvery single job I've ever gotten has been from: 1. Cold applications - find a job posting (usually on Craigslist) that you could fit, send cover letter as email body + resume attached. 2. Cold recruiting - Recruiter contacts me by email with a job that looks like a good fit. I've never got a job from knowing someone. Everyone who has ever worked with me has done so without knowing me beforehand. My experience helps me get jobs, but then, doesn't experience help everyone? I've got 6 jobs this way since 1998.
- beat 11y agoDepends on your career. Want to be a short order cook? That might work. Want to be a chef at a great restaurant? Then you need to know people.
- Gibbon1 11y agoDepends on where you are in your career. If you're young and fresh getting entry level jobs then yeah. Older with more experience, networking is everything. One will find it increasingly difficult to find jobs via cold calling. Even if you are, and especially if you are rolling around hopping jobs inside a large corporation networking will be everything. BTW: A lot of companies try and work things to keep their employees from interacting outside of narrowly defined corporate controlled channels. Don't let them do that to you.
- jdbernard 11y agoTo offer the counterpoint: I am in my 5th position since 2004. All of my jobs have been from knowing someone. This latest position is the closest to a cold lead in: I knew someone who knew a contracting firm which was looking to fill a position. For every other position I've either been approached personally by the hiring manager whom I knew or by someone one link away in the org chart from the hiring manager.
- mcv 11y agoI once got a freelance job from knowing someone, and it sucked. It was a tiny company that I worked for at a lower rate than usual, and they refused to pay my invoice after a few months. I have had experiences from friends at various companies influence my decisions, though. I work for a big bank now because a friend gave some Angular training here and said they were doing cool stuff.
- magic_beans 11y ago"The idea of a career based on experience and networking is rather alien." It's been that way since the before Industry, and it'll stay that way after.