When was the last time a major federal policy was enacted that WASNT a massive handout to corporations and the rich? The Johnson administration?
Nixon starting the EPA I think counts
If we don’t give the handouts, er, I mean stimulus, to the rich and large corporations then it won’t be used in the optimally efficient way that all private sector resources are used.
I’m not sure if you’d consider the WRDA bills to be major policy, but they get passed every two years more or less and they fund a ton of natural resource restoration projects.
Just got rejected from the 6th job I’ve applied to in the last few months.
Fun facts about these jobs:
- I would have no problem doing any of them competently.
- For all of the jobs, I had 100% of the minimum qualifications and between 70% and 100% of the desirable qualifications.
- None of these jobs was a pay increase from what I’m making now. 3 jobs paid the same; 2 were 5% lower; 1 was 10% lower.
- None of the 6 jobs gave me a 2nd interview, even the one where I was a 2nd interview finalist 7 years ago for an identical position.
I’m still doing fine, as I don’t hate the job I have now and it still has about another year or so of funding.
Now, I’m not even saying that I was obviously the best candidate for these positions. It’s certainly possible that I wasn’t.
But if they had the luxury not to offer me the position, then by definition none of these positions were hard to fill, so I kinda want to just take everyone who is saying stuff like “it’s so hard to find people” or “no one wants to work” or even “labor shortage” and punch them in the dick.
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I’m pretty much convinced that every position that’s “hard to fill” falls into at least 1 of 4 categories:
- The pay sucks
- The hours are too erratic or infrequent
- The working conditions are shitty
- There are governmental licensure requirements (teacher, bus driver, nurse, etc).
If you go 0 for 4 on that list, finding an employee seems to fall between “easy” and “really fucking easy”. Even if you go 1 for 4, it probably falls to between “not that hard” and “pretty easy” unless the one part is egregious.
I’ve had a bit of the same luck. I’m not actively looking for a job, but a job came across my email where if I could write a job description using my skillset, I would have written this. It was basically a system admin job with a focus on physical security (access control/cameras). I just got done with 7 years as an IT manager and physical security designer and project manager. It’s a perfect fit, and a rare skillset that there won’t be many qualified cadidates.
Result? Crickets. And it’s a state agency, and I work for the state. So extra painful to not get a call for interview.
This. White collar competition is actually still quite high right now. Businesses complaining about not being able to find people are not offering desk jobs
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Often the initial screening function is done by some idiot in HR with no idea what’s actually required, or even worse by a resume sorting bot. It is infuriating.
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You’re not just competing against other applicants, I think equally tough is convincing the employer that you’re so awesome that hiring you is better than leaving the position unfilled. The recent phenomenon of “not settling” isn’t just jobseekers, it’s everyone.,
I don’t doubt that these are problems, but they aren’t what I’ve experienced. I’ve gotten interviews for 5/6 applications and they are definitely filling the positions, just not with me.
I guess what I’m saying is, even if you can escape this bullshit, it’s still a goddamn nightmare out there.
You’re in academia, right? (Apologies if I’ve got you confused with someone else.) I vaguely remember hearing a few years ago that a lot of academic positions were getting filled by overqualified people because the market was so tough. Is that still the case? Am I completely misremembering everything (high likely)?
Yes. I work in a biochemistry research lab.
It must be. Either that I live in bizarro world here. I know one of the positions I applied for was filled by a PhD, even though it only required a bachelor’s degree.
Was it entry level?
The industry is very relationship based. The one job I blind applied for I ended up getting because a former employee of mine had worked there and they took her out and she recommended me. Everything else was by being recruited by people I had worked with in the past.
Minimum qualifications were bachelor’s degree plus 3+ years in an academic/science setting.
I have a master’s degree and 20 years. Plus I had worked with a few of the people before.
Yeah, I was just making a joke of some of the job postings:
Entry level position
Requirements:
5 years experience
Bachelors degree
List of certifications
And then the usual bullshit of self starter, good communicator, and a team player!
ETA: Forgot ‘great opportunity to grow with the company’ which translates to we’re going to pay you virtually nothing but you have the opportunity to make slightly more than nothing if you bleed for the company for 4 or 5 years. Also:
PTO: 1 week to start, 2 weeks at your 10 year anniversary!
Speaking of PTO, I forgot this tidbit from my last job. 2 weeks PTO to start, 3 weeks at 5 years.
I got a notice for possible jury duty. While talking it over with one of the owners, it was stated that the policy is that you burn through your PTO if you’re on jury duty. So if you end up with a 2 week case, sorry, no more PTO, go fuck yourself.
I started looking for a job after that conversation, but it took a few years to find one.
Thankfully I didn’t get put on a jury.
Is that legal?
I’m not on the academic side. I know one issue you may have is a glut of fresh PhDs taking jobs as post docs in place of dedicated bs/ms level
Folks.
I got lucky and went up the industrial micro career ladder at a time before there were 8 million chemEs specializing in fermentation.