Posted by
whoyg2967 on Thursday, November 12, 2009 9:15:51 PM
The current job market reminds me of a story about a church committee
assigned to hire a new pastor. Numerous well-qualified candidates
applied, but none seemed to meet the
inflatable bouncer
committee's requirements. Frustrated with this perfectionism, one of
the committee's members submitted an anonymous résumé with the
accomplishments of a certain priest who had lived and preached in
Galilee 2,000 years before. The committee reviewed the résumé and
rejected it. Even Jesus Christ wasn't good enough.
According to
the Department of Labor, unemployment rose to 9.8% in September, and
that doesn't include people who have given up looking. Employers with
job openings have plenty of well-qualified job candidates to choose
from, and like a beauty queen choosing from an abundance of suitors,
they're getting awfully picky. In fact, they too seem to be looking
for, and expecting, perfection. I say this both from personal
experience and from hearing many anecdotal accounts from
freshwater pearl earrings
colleagues seeking employment. The pursuit of perfection is a powerful
trend in the present job market, and its riptides are sweeping suitable
job candidates off their feet and out to sea.
In my own
experience, I was recently interviewed for a position as a vice
president at one of the major social networks (I can't mention it by
name, but it rhymes with PieFace). A week later, the human resources
person who interviewed me got back to me to say I was perfect for the
job but lacked just one qualification. Therefore I was no longer being
considered.
Really? I lacked just one qualification, and I'm out of the running?
I
wonder if it ever occurred to this H.R. person that if I matched all
but one of their checkbox requirements, I was probably more than
capable of getting up to speed on the
freshwater pearl bracelet
one I lacked. Alas, the thought of hiring a less than perfect candidate
who could grow into the position was not what this H.R. person had in
mind, nor what's currently fashionable in today's job market. Her
company wanted perfection. But nobody's perfect. That's why pencils
have erasers.