re: 45% of new grads who actually find jobs, are taking "no degree needed" jobs

It's not that he thinks it's the fault of the employer that you should take away from what he said. It's the difficulty of the job market. (Eta: in the past it was easier for lower experience candidates to get a start. This is an environmental factor, not a flaw of modern candidates as people like you like to imply.) The term "entry level" ostensibly means low experience level. You would think that means that they are looking for someone to train and develop within the company, but many employers seem to think that a candidate should have experience before he ever even started. Then again I think a lot of employers use experience requirements as a filter and don't actually need as much experience as they claim for the right candidate.

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You would think that means that they are looking for someone to train and develop within the company, but many employers seem to think that a candidate should have experience before he ever even started.

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Sometimes, if I need to train someone, I'll STILL hire someone with at least WORK experience over the person who is COMPLETELY entry level because I can use that work experience as a gauge of their general quality as an employee.

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Then again I think a lot of employers use experience requirements as a filter and don't actually need as much experience as they claim for the right candidate.

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Just because a job has a MINIMUM that an employer would take doesn't mean the employer WANTS to take that minimum. So of course, they filter trying to do better. As would any rational person.

But, here's a VERY important point that I tell people who I assist in their job hunt(I volunteer for this).

The NUMBER ONE thing an employer is looking for in the hiring process is neither education nor experience. Those are surely important but frankly, they aren't in short supply.

Nope. They are looking for comfort. As in, "am I comfortable hiring this person". To the person who was pissed he was being asked about experience IN AN INTERVIEW.

Let me break some news to ya. If you are in the interview, you've ALREADY GOTTEN PAST the "experience and education" problem. If your interviewer is harping on one or the other, it's because your interviewer is already starting to feel uncomfortable.

The interview is a BUYING process and you, the applicant, are the salesman. In the vast majority of cases, interviewers don't have time to interview 10 candidates. They have actual jobs to do.

I'm here to tell you that in at least 80% of cases, when you get an interview, you are going there to talk yourself OUT of a job. Unless you are highly specialized, this is pretty much universally the case.

Guess they should picked a better degree

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Just because a job has a MINIMUM that an employer would take doesn't mean the employer WANTS to take that minimum. So of course, they filter trying to do better. As would any rational person.

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You sound like a guy who gets 10 resumes on his desk every day but constantly complains about not being able to find any new employees.

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In the engineering world there's a gap between required skills and what is listed in a job description. This can lead to a large number of candidates removed from the job search with the use of hiring software and shitty hr departments.

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I'm not an engineer but I work with engineers. I know the issue.

Oh, and you're right. ATS(Applicant Tracking Systems) are the devil.

You know who else thinks ATSs are the devil? HIRING MANAGERS!

Now. Let me repeat my point about networking.

The job I'm currently in, I applied for electronically and never heard a damned thing.........yet, here I am..........NETWORKING!

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Why would anyone teach a potential employee to do a job if there were 10 other fully qualified people capable of doing that same job without being taught?

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That has not been the case in my experience

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I interviewed yesterday and we spent 20 minutes just talking about how the job description wasnt even close to accurate.

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It seems like 90% are just generic because the people posting them have no idea wtf they're talking about.

Those are also the companies that'll ask the same, basic, generic questions in an interview. frick, that's annoying. I feel like I should just bring a piece of paper to the interview with all of my answers already on it.

This shite has gotten so complicated over the past 10 years, it drives me bonkers. Why can't I just walk into your office, hand you my resume and talk for 5 minutes, set up an interview or not, and then go with it? Nope, after the computer vettes people, 800 real people need to look at the shite before I get to talk to anyone. Then, I've got to deal with someone who has absolutely no idea what the job entails

I think you could approach this topic from a variety of different angles. Some job descriptions for the most menial of jobs are absolutely ridiculous. For example, 2-3 years experience not just in whatever occupation (sales, retail, customer service, healthcare, engineering, etc), but specific industries like 2-3 years specifically in farm equipment sales or 2-3 years experience managing paint stores. Couple this with equivalent level of experience in whatever software applications the company uses to facilitate their work.

There are always exceptions, but in general, I'm not convinced that this level of specific expertise is literally a requirement the job. In my view, most job listings read out like someone from HR just threw a bunch of professional sounding words onto a template and posted it on the internet.

That said, if it's only a couple years of experience required, new grads shouldn't feel scared to apply. The blame does fall on the hiring manager though when the graduates aren't even considered in the face of a lack of more qualified candidates.

College students also need to realize that college is not job training. That's a whole other topic for another day, but there are only a handful of degrees that will actually prepare you for a specific occupation. A business degree, English degree, Finance degree etc does not mean you can waltz into a workplace and have a clue what you're doing. Working while in school, looking for internships, and majoring in something you're already passionate and/or knowledgeable about goes a long way in determining how well your degree is going to pay off.

Secondly, now I know everyone is different, but more often than not, no one at the company knows what the frick you do day-to-day so when you leave, everyone is in a panic because no one knows how to do your job. As a result, they can't train you because they don't know how to do it themselves.

Requiring 2-3 years experience for entry-level pay can be used as a weed out tactic. No one will blame a company for hiring the candidate with the most work experience, but not even considering an application based on lack of work experience can cause the company to miss out on some quality employees who, having no pre-conceived notions of what a job should be like, are highly trainable.

The job market sucks, so employers can afford to be as picky as ever when it comes to looking for new hires, but more often than not, what you see are companies eager to hire but extremely selective in terms of who they hire because they're holding out for the perfect candidate who can walk in and do the work day one often times dividing up the workload across all employees in the company or doing away with that role entirely when they should just be willing to take a bright young college graduate and train them into the role.

It doesn't take much to keep an updated policy manual nor does it take much to develop measurable objectives so that the new hire can know exactly where he/she stands each month during the 90 evaluation period (assuming there is one).

Often times there's not even that much.

What is your GPA in your major?

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But I'll say that my current position does not "need" a college degree. However, the odds of someone without a secondary degree much less an undergraduate degree getting the same job would be extremely high.

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A college degree is supposed to indicate that you are measurably intelligent and trainable. Sad to say that due to the curriculum becoming so watered down while they push more and more young people into college, it's no longer the barometer it once was.

I would strongly consider telling my kid to learn a trade versus pay for college unless there are some major changes in the coming years.