Just moving to Washington, I find myself having to look for another job, which is fine! It gives me a chance to either find employment that I have experiance in, or even find a job I've never done before and maybe eliminate a job type that I dont want to do and further narrow down what job field I want to be in and is best suited for me.
But in looking for work there's always been one thing that's always boggled my mind: Experience! there are so many jobs that, for whatever reason, seem like they should be entry level jobs that the employer still wants experienced people to fill.
So let me get this straight: You want a offer a job to only experienced people, that's entry level and would normally be offered to someone without experience that people with experience would avoid because they can move to a better paying job because they do have background to apply for employment that better fits their credentials?
I got a first hand look at how this works early on in my workforce history. There was a movie theater in walking distance of where I was living when I was in my early twenties. I was looking for work at the time, because Walmart had driven all the good jobs away in the area so I was looking where I could. I decided to ask about working there since they all knew me pretty well (when I was working I had been to that theater many times) I figured that I would ask about working there. Hey it was something to tide me over until my next job came into play. so I asked and found they were looking for people to work the projectors, admittedly something I had never done so far.
I of course wanted to apply. it was something new, I had been working fast food most of my early working years and I wanted a change. So I asked for an application thinking that they would train me for the job. I mean its a movie theater. My age group of the time is primarily the age they like to hire for any of those positions. They wanted experienced projector people. But we were living in a small town...how in the world would they find someone whose worked movie theater projectors before that would be willing to take a job that likely paid less then they were worth at a time where the economy was much stronger than it is now?
The reality was they couldn't, and they weren't willing to budge on their criteria. The reality today in our economic environment, in my opinion, is that there is no place for that kind of picayune thought process. People need jobs. Honestly if I had my own brick and mortar business, I would be looking for anyone that can be trained to do the job I needed them for. Experience is not really something I would look for except for very specific jobs, like cake decorator if I wasn't planning on learning how to do it myself and so on.
I just dont believe that the way the job market is today that businesses that can offer entry level positions that dont really require experience should only be seeking people with experience. That feels like a destructive ideal to me. Besides, if you hire someone that is not experienced with the field that gives you the chance to train them how you want. In my opinion, a person with the equivalent of a "clean slate" is a more desirable person to hire than someone with lots of experience. But that's just Husky Thoughts.
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