Is It Time for New Rules?

One of my rules that I have lived by for several decades as a recruiter, career services director, and career coach during parts of my life is that there is a job for everyone and that everyone is place-able. While working at a proprietary trade school, I came across students with various challenges and obstacles to overcome and somehow managed to help most of them find jobs using at least some of the skills they were taught. As a recruiter, there have been numerous times when the candidate I submitted with the least experience was selected over more seasoned options. In my experience as a coach, I usually find qualities in a client that they do not even know they possess!

The past few months have made me wonder if perhaps my rule book needs updating. Could we really be at a stage where there are people who simply do not have any marketable skills? Have we run out of employers willing to take a shot on a career changer fresh out of trade school but with no hands=on related work experience? Are there people out there who have become so frustrated they have sadly given up all hope of finding a job in their field and are looking for alternatives sources of income? Is it realistic to say that folks out of work more than two years due to forced layoffs are of little value to employers because there skills have become outdated?

Honestly, my answer to these questions and similar ones is that my opinion is still taking shape. One thing quite apparent to me is that anyone who walks away from their search process for any significant length of time is setting themselves back dramatically. Your comments and opinions are very welcomed as I need to decide if my rule book needs some tweaking. Ideally, I hope you will convince me that my rule still applies but your thoughts will all received and taken under consideration!

Entry Level Work

Quite often, a graduate of a local college or trade school will call me looking for their first job. Typically, I explain that most employers come to fee paid recruiters looking for people with some level of work history in their desired field of work. As a former Director of Career Services, I know that most institutions maintain records of employers who have hired their graduates in the past, usually for about five years or so. There is no reason why a past graduate should not approach the proper person at the school they graduate from and ask to see a copy of that list. Naturally, they can not guarantee that everyone on that list will be interested in hiring but they are places who are familiar with the background of typical graduates of that particular school. To me, that is eliminating the first part of the cold call because the candidate will likely not need to go into great detail talking about the program they were part of as the employer should have a general idea. From personal experience, only a small percentage of graduates actually take advantage of the resources their Career Services office has available to them!