There’s another possible reason for small numbers of applicants for jobs mentioned in the last post. People may simply not know the possibilities.
I’ve told this story before but I think it bears repeating. For most of her career my mom taught the very poorest of the poor in the very toughest of inner city schools in St. Louis (that was before she took the most thankless job in the St. Louis school system—a story for another time). As a sort of experiment she’d ask her students to name all of the jobs they could think of. She was appalled at how few they could name. Sure, they knew about teachers, nurses, doctors, policemen, sales clerks, and other occupations they encountered every day. And they knew about rock stars and professional sports players. One of the “jobs” most often mentioned was “cat”. A cat was somebody (usually a man) who mostly just hung out, maybe picking up a little money, typically by not precisely legal or expressly illegal means, e.g. pimping, fencing, dealing drugs, and so on. Very, very few of these jobs (other than cat) were thought of as actual possibilities.
But the range of jobs they knew about was very limited. Nobody ever mentioned engineer, mathematician, college professor, accountant, bookkeeper, insurance claim adjuster, tool and die maker, electrician, actuary, forest ranger, or any of the thousands of other jobs that people take. They just didn’t know the possibilities.
It wouldn’t surprise me. That’s a huge part of the difficulty of trying to find a job: locating real openings so you can apply.
But the range of jobs they knew about was very limited. Nobody ever mentioned engineer, mathematician, college professor, accountant, bookkeeper, insurance claim adjuster, tool and die maker, electrician, actuary, forest ranger, or any of the thousands of other jobs that people take. They just didn’t know the possibilities.
I remember back when I was in graduate school studying mathemantics with the intent of getting my PhD and becoming a professor. I remember the two events that made me think I needed to get out of there.
One night several of us were working in the graduate student lounge preparing for some grueling exam or another. Around one in the morning we decided to break for dinner. One of the PhD students happened to be working late that night as well, and he joined us in our trip to a local sub shop. When we got there the PhD student started talking to the employee behind the counter – it was clear they knew each other well. When we left we teased the PhD student – he did so much late night work that he knew all the folks working the grave-yard shift around campus, that sort of thing. His reply was, “No, I know that guy because we came into graduate school together. He got his Masters in Mathematics two years ago.” Apparently the grave-yard shift at Subway in a college town was the only work he could find. We were all kind of sick after that – I bet it cost us all a half letter grade on the test.
The other incident was hearing a newly minted PhD exult about getting a contract position (meaning semester-to-semester work only, no guarantees after the current semester – I have long since forgotten the technical term for it) at some small liberal arts college that we had never heard of. She was one of the better students, too, with a lot of support from the department.
Now mind you, this was an AAU university with well know mathematicians (one of the greatest algebraists of all-time was there) and a top 40 to top 50 program in mathematics. This was also during the boom years of the late 1990s. Of course, if one got a PhD in the right specialty of numerical analysis (for example) one could end up driving a hundred thousand dollar sports car around town for the consulting work one did on the side. But PhD students generally all come into meaning to pursue their dream study – and esoteric topics in functional analysis or algebraic topology don’t always pay the bills.
After those two incidents I started looking for outs. I needn’t have bothered – now I have skills in financial analysis, actuarial analysis, and IT – and I’ve been out of work for 28 months now with no end in sight. No one is hiring for any job unless you have exactly the right set of skills. I remember one job I kept getting recruited for – the company in question had headquarters nearby and my resume was two-thirds perfect. But the company wasn’t interested even in interviewing me. They were looking for someone with advanced skills in accounting, hardcore financial analysis skills and a thorough knowledge of HR and employee benefits. Oh, and they wanted someone with no more than two years work experience. (I lacked the formal accounting and I had eight years of experience.) It got to the point where I would get calls from recruiters from California telling me, “I saw your resume and I have a perfect job for you….” and I would cut them off.
Me: “You mean the job with ******* in Lakeland, correct?”
Recruiter: “I can’t really tell you the company name….”
M: “Then let me describe the position and you can tell me if this sounds correct. [Describe the position in minute detail.]”
R: “Uh, yeah, that’s it….”
M: “Well, I’ve already had calls from [insert number – eventually it got up to nine or ten] different recruiters trying to pitch me for that job. I didn’t even get an interview because I don’t have a CPA to go with my financial analysis and benefits experience. Plus I have six years more experience than they’re willing to pay for – even if I offer to take a pay cut.”
R: ” But no one can get all that experience in just two years. I’ve never seen anyone with that resume and I’ve been a head hunter for 30 years!”
M: “Exactly. But now you know to not waste your time.”
That went one for six or seven months.
Right now ‘cat’ is about the only job left, and only because one mostly works as an independent contractor. And even they’re hurting. (Most of them really don’t make anything anyway.) So it doesn’t really matter if you know the names of all the different jobs, ’cause no one is hiring.
Signed,
Just Another Bitter 99er
I grew up in a large family headed by a carpenter and a housewife in the fifties and sixties in the city of Dallas. I didn’t know much about what was available either.
Over the years I’ve observed one job that has continuity over time, and thats CPA. Tire guys do okay, too.