Entry made August 18, 2004 : DependenciesWhile I was laying in bed it occured to me the reason why so many people absolutely hate finding a new job. It isn't that it's time consuming. It isn't that most companies just put everyone on ignore. It isn't that so many dreams are created and crushed. It's that in order to get a job, one has to rely on others. This goes back to that old saying, "It's not what you know, but who you know." People generally want to feel as independents. They want to feel that they are in complete control of their lives. When trying to get a new job, no matter how hard a person tries it all boils down to knowing someone involved in the hiring process. In elementary school we are taught about the President's cabinet. I remember thinking to myself, "So, only the people that the President knows are eligible?" There is no application process for the cabinet. The president just kind of goes, "Hey Bob! What are you doing for the next four years?" Obviously there are some checks and balances in the works but unless your current address includes a cell number, there should be no problems. In the course of job hunting I have come accross many jobs that would have been perfect for me. I applied to them and in most cases tried to do follow ups on them. But, because I didn't know anyone on the inside, the followups were completely worthess. Here is what a tipical conversation looked like. [ring] [ring]
It makes me want to scream. Finding a new job isn't just like pulling teath. It's like jamming a rusty ice pick into your gums and trying to leverage out the teeth. In todays world, you no longer mail in resumes and drop them off etc.. You have to email them. Everyone just says, oh yeah, just go to our website and use that to apply. What they're really saying here is, "Not only, NO! but you are such a retard that I bet that you go home and spend the two hours inputting your information into our database applying for that job not knowing that why you click the submit button it sends the resume to the trash directory! HA! HA!! HA!!!! LOSER!!!" Okay, now that I've established that the way to get a job is know someone with a similar job. This
is just another extension of, "You have to have experience for any job." After I finished all my classes
I went to the University's career services center. They are supposed to be the ones that know people.
Then when someone comes in (i.e. ME) and says, "I'm looking for this type of job." They say, "Oh I know
so and so at such and such. Let me indroduce you two!" But NooOOOOOoooo. You know what they said to me?
The whole point of going to a University is to get the education you need to get a high paying job. The whole system is defunct though. Any more (especially in CS) Universities just act as expensive job placement services. At least at other colleges, when students graduate, there are companies waiting in line to hire people. Not at my University. They said, "Thanks for the check. Visit our website and click on the link that lets you donate more money." Seriously, all the CS that I learned, I could have learned on my own at probably a faster rate. The school was helpful in learning Physics and Math, but that's it. I could have spent 2 years at the same school taking only Physics and Math classes and I could be at the same spot I am today (only 3 years younger). Alright, I'm sufficiently pissed off enough right now that I should stop writing or I'll end up shooting myself in the other foot as well. So long. |