by Blog Boss
2. November 2009 14:43
If you're one of the ones that believes experience will get you by...then you might want to check that logic twice. Sounds like good rationale right? Maybe so, but the reality is that the job market is flooded with qualified job applicants that are struggling despite having many years experience in their career fields.
So what is the profile of the job seeker in question? For the most part, senior job seekers or those having more than 20 years experience in their profession. At least from one perspective, the problem is centered around the fact that so much experience leads to sense of complacency whereas experienced job applicants have not or simply don't want to acquire the skills and training required to be marketable in today's economy.
Sure there may be a few cases of that here and there, but I'm not sure that Sandra Timmermann's perspective speaks to the majority of qualified job applicants looking to leverage their skills with a new employer. Take the mortgage industry for example, with 30 years experience in the mortgage industry, why would one be unemployed for any period of time. After all, how much has the mortgage industry changed in the last two years. Of course, I'm not referring to the housing market burst itself, I'm simply saying how much has the mortgage industry changed in the last two years, whereas a given job seeker's skills are not longer relevant today as they were two years ago? The fact of the matter is that it hasn't changed much if at all to render qualified experienced applicants unmarketable. Needless to say, but it's this kind of situations why experienced job seekers are growing tired of dead end job leads.
As for senior job seekers, what is being downplayed is that senior workers are being passed over for younger entry level job applicants. Why? Why else, the money. Entry level job candidates work for less and expect less whereas experience comes with a price tag. The problem is - when did being qualified or very knowledgeable at what you do become a crime? It's almost like qualified applicants are being punished for being amongst the best. Isn't that the American way to capitalize off of your talents and skills? Maybe we missed something, in which case the plethora of well qualified job applicants struggling to land a job despite years of experience would love to know just what exactly they are missing. Is is capitalism for some or capitalism for all? 