No Stupid Questions

My dad was a big believer of this when I was younger. Finally I humored him and had him drive me around town as I went into every buisness ask for a paper application. I printed and stapled 30 resumes for the trip, got dressed up, on the way into town he was so smug about how I was finally "really trying to get hired". Four hours later, we'd been to nearly 50 businesses, I'd gotten two paper applications and only 16 of my resumes were accepted. Everyone else said to apply online or "we only hire through the temp agencies". My dad for his part took it way harder than me. I think he actually realized that's not how it works anymore because he never suggested it again and took me seriously when I said I'd been putting in applications online.

They believe that because that's how it used to work (and still does in some industries). That's their lived experience.

Lived experience and/or delusion. Many can't seem to absorb that the labour market didn't stop changing in 19-fucking-73, and it shows.

I couldn't believe how dogshit so much of their advice was the last time I was searching for new work, and how irate they were that I wouldn't take it - because it was useless and/or hazardous to my financial stability in the situation at hand. That coffee drinks-avocado toast shit seemed like satire at first, but some of them actually believe it, and had I been spineless/stupid enough to allow them to push me into the courses of action they were insisting on I think that it might have killed me.

That's what happened to them. If they were white.

Because that's how it worked for pretty much everything back in the day when your chances of getting a loan from the bank depended on the impression of trustworthiness you projected on the bank manager when you asked for it, rather than some obscure algorithm running in the bank's systems that didn't take in account any feedback from an actual human.

Amongst large companies automation removed humans from the loop, at least at an early stage, so now your machine processable input and/or information about you extracted from some other sources about what you've done so far, matching whatever the algorithm is configured to favor is all that matters. Sure, beyond that you'll almost certainly end up with a person making a final decision (for hiring, not for bank loans), but you first have to pass that big initial automated hurdle that's supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Amongst other things this has killed "being judged as having potential" as a way to get a foot on the door, unless you have a high score on a metric supposedly correlated to it such as good grades at a supposedly elite university, since unlike "impression" such metrics can be mathematically evaluated and compared by algorithms.

Mind you, when looking for work in smaller companies that haven't outsourced their hiring, impressions still work since your first point of contact is going to be a person whose opinion counts rather than an algorithm or a person too low on the pecking scale for their judgement to be taken in account.

Because life was literally that easy for them.

If they had a pulse, they usually got the job

You were guaranteed if you also dressed like the fancy people on television.

This works for small businesses. Sending them an email will just wind up in spam. But show up in person, and you might get to talk to an actual person. This distinguishes you from some random, semi-anonymous piece of paper or text header.

If you're applying at some gigantic mega-corporation, then none of that matters. They won't have time to see you anyway, and will only look at your application if they specifically asked you to give them one.

You can get into a lotta places wearing a hard hat and reflective vest while carrying a ladder.

That's what they did the last time they searched for a job. It used to work.

I've never encountered anyone of any age that thinks that. Presentation of yourself is important, but nobody has ever even implied that just looking nice is enough to get everything. It's simply part of the whole equation.

Generationally, the only thing here I've seen disconnected between Boomers/Xers and yoinger generations like my own and Gen Z are that they have a different sense of what looks good or professional. Personally, I like that younger people also hate suits. Suits are stupid.

Ok, I agree with you, I do, buuuuut

If someone shows up to an interview wearing pajamas, they are probably less likely to get a job. So you do have to dress up a little bit, depending on what the job is.

It does work sometimes because people can ignore an email or phone call, but its harder to ignore a person standing in front of you.

As an example we were contacting a business abut something we offered that we knew they needed.

Emails and phonecalls always got the reply of: I have left a note for the owner and when he has time he will contact you.

After months of that, and us happening to be in their area, we just dropped in unnounanced and asked for the owner.

He engaged with us , asked lots of questions, asked for samples and info. As we were doing that the secretary realized who we were and said something like " oh I've been meaning to have you read their emails and setup a meeting" lol

Too late lady.

The only time showing up in person works in the UK is if you're a teenager looking for part time or apprenticeship work in independent shops/hospitality/mechanics etc.

It depends upon the setting and what you want. Showing up to a McDonalds shift in a suite and tie trying to get the CEO job. Not so much.

Showing up to your first office job and meeting with your bosses in a nice polo or button down shirt and slacks looking professional, yes. It signals you are eager and want to succeed. Which will go a long way.

Of course you still have to put the work in. But your boss will be more likely to give you more training/work/promotions if they know you want to learn and work over someone who doesn’t give a shit.

What

with job sites being the primary source of job hunting, you wont even get a chance in most cases to even an interview. and you can just show up to a business with a suit on, and demand to see a interviewer.

You need to know someone who works there I find. That way they actually read your CV.