This weekend I had the opportunity to talk to a couple of my brothers who are looking for work. One is a 60-year-old amputee with an architectural degree and as many years experience as you can have at this age. He found a job through a friend here but after less than a year was squeezed out because younger kids were coming in with a two-year degree in CAD doing drawing work faster and cheaper, AND they would work the twenty hour days the company was asking. Squeezing infers cutting hours back so far the person can’t afford to drive to work anymore, so they quit. That equals no unemployment for the company to pay. Before he was completely let go, he began the job search again. Well, after many weeks of searching online, because there is no other way to apply for work today, he was finding himself applying for retail and restaurant jobs. WHAT? An architect with thirty years of experience is doing this like a 17-year-old looking for his first job? I am dumbfounded.
After finally losing his job, he contacted some independent architects that employed him in another state to ask if he could use them for references. They offered him some drawing work to get him by after hearing about the bad luck he had finding work. Well, that was great but only lasted so long. Now he is back on the internet looking for work.
Why do I even mention this? Well, here is the deal. This man with at least 30 years of architectural experience found work through friends. They were people he met, spoke to, interviewed with and worked for and they liked him. That is how it used to be. That is how it used to be when America was gainfully employed depending on themselves instead of the government. People had good jobs and pensions and work histories that listed a job or two they were still working. Now, what is the unemployment rate? Who cares? Does knowing that statistic solve the problem? No. I am so sick and tired of hearing about the unemployment rate.
Do you want to know what the solution to the unemployment problem is? Get rid of the middlemen and start talking face to face with prospective employees again. Get your job listings off the internet and put them back in papers and fliers where all the people can see them and respond in person to them. Let people prove themselves in personality, speech, attitude, appearance and talk about things like work ethic and the personal experiences they can bring to your company. Get rid of these recruiters with their ridiculous phone interviews and sorting facilities and spend your HR money on people. They call it HUMAN resources for a reason. Pay people to talk to people and bring the company some dependability, work ethic, and experience so the company can stay in business for the long haul. A degree on a resume full of twenty jobs in as many years amounts to nothing.
It has been my experience that people can survive with one good job and a modest income without suffering the horrors of worrying about house payments and gas for the car because they are forced to live off unemployment. The world has made the process of finding a job a job in itself which is too detrimental to measure. Fast and cheap get no one anywhere. Good people with good work ethic and experience get everyone everywhere. Why can’t anyone see that? We don’t need people looking for jobs for us; we need people to let us come into a company and talk to someone about working for THEM. Nothing says, “He’s the guy we are looking for” as a good hand written application and a follow-up face to face interview.
Come on, people! Let’s get back to people and get rid of virtuality because there is virtually no replacement for a real person.