Catalyze August 2022

GETTING THE
JOB YOU
WANT
JANE OATES
PRESIDENT, WORKINGNATION
Everybody who is having a difficult time getting the job that they want is
somebody that we should concentrate on. But I think if I were to paint a
broad brush, I'd say the two extremes are the most stressed right now. For
those just entering the workforce, whether directly from high school, from a
two-year or four-year degree, or from a professional degree, it's a new world.
And they're having a very hard time getting started mainly because almost
every job listing that I see says three to five years experience. Well, if you did
your job as a student and studied hard and graduated you didn't have time
to have a full-time job while you were doing that. So where did you get that
work experience? Not everybody accepts the fact that you should get an
internship or it would be great to have some kind of work-based learning
experience. It just doesn't exist in every corner of the United States yet.
Maybe we'll correct that soon. And then when I say the book ends, older
workers are having a really hard time. And by older, I mean 50 and older.
Somebody who gets laid off at 50 and was in middle management is having
a really tough time finding a job that pays the same or has a similar job title.
They don't want to go back and start over again. They earned their position
with that old employer. And they want to find a position that's at least as
good in terms of both salary and status. So I think there's a little bit of
discrimination on both ends. When we have AI technology that sorts
resumes, they throw somebody out that could be a great, highly qualified
candidate because they don't have that three years work experience. And
quite frankly, with an older worker, they see that they've been around a long
time and they think, you know, that's not a good candidate because they're
going to come with preset views and maybe too high a salary demand.
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