Monday, September 7, 2009

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Happy Labor Day. Labor Day is a day set aside to honor the workers of America. For those who are working it's another day to celebrate the fact that you are working. For those, like me, it's another day to scour the online job sources looking for a new career. Thinking back over the years and the amount of times I have looked for a new job, not many thankfully, I can't help but be amazed at how the process has changed.

1. Whatever happened to getting the local paper and seeing pages upon pages of new job postings? Now I scour Monster Jobs, Hcareers, Careerbuilder, Jobs.com to find the perfect job. Hell, it may not even be the perfect job, any job that can support me will do.

2. Sending in the resume and expecting a response? In most cases, that just isn't going to happen. I remember a time that when a resume was sent to a company and said company would be gracious enough to respond with a letter thanking the applicant for their interest. Personally, I think it's good business to send a thank you letter. I may not be a future employee, but I do have a strong possibility of being a future or current customer. So, the way I see it, if you can't have the courtesy of sending a response, what does that tell me about your customer service skills.

3. This has become a near and dear to me fact; American companies do not appreciate the skills of mature workers. I have applied for numerous jobs that I know I was perfectly qualified for only to be rejected. The only reason I could comprehend is that the company hired someone much younger than me. And in most cases, that turned out to be the cold hard fact. What they never took the time to learn is that I am very flexible, very easy going, and very dedicated and loyal. I am not the type of guy to job hop, and I can say this with confidence, most people my generation have the same dedication and loyalty as I.

4. On the whole I have noticed American companies have become very shallow, money driven, and less interested in employee and customer satisfaction. Especially in today's job market companies have the upper hand when it comes to choosing from the labor pool. For most it's no longer about who is the most qualified, but who has the least expense tag.

5. What ever happened to the personalization of the job experience? Let's face facts, corporations have never been employee driven. They do a wonderful song and dance about how they are concerned, but we all know it's just that, a song and dance. How many times have you called a company to get stuck in the endless loop of a recorded answering device. Press 1, press 9, press 2, so on and so forth. What really cracks me up, is when I finally do reach a human voice, they don't speak English. That is because the job Americans could and should be doing is now being sent overseas.

So, Happy Labor Day. For all of you whom are working, kudos, for those who aren't, keep up the faith.