I attended a lecture yesterday with a friend who is doing her PhD, and it does seem that most overly educated people struggle to get jobs. She has three Masters and a law degree and can't get a job, and I do feel it's about who you know as well as what you have on paper. This makes networking and contacts, such as LinkedIn so much more important these days, or to have a good online presence if your networks are limited. It is sad that this happens, but it does. Also I read about some girl suing her law school as she didn't get a job. She may have got a degree, but getting a job is a totally different skill, based on personality and who you know, and no educational institute can help on those scores.
I can speak for Serbia because this is where I am trying to find a job. There is an urban saying here. It is not about what you know but who you know. This saying is a clear image of our society and the reason why Serbia is at the very bottom of world economy. We have resources, nature and wilderness. We have coal and all kind of raw materials. We have cultures like rye, wheat and raspberries. We had industries that could have be very strong now. Everything is dead. It is because people and the fact that those capable work shitty jobs and do not get paid because they do not know enough people in some good company. On the other hand you have incompetent idiots who get paid a lot of money for doing nothing or for having several people doing his job.
I think that more and more these days it's more about who you know rather than what you know. I know many people that even though they haven't got the necessary qualifications they've been told to apply anyway and they've ended up getting the job. While for that person it's obviously a good thing, for the other applicants that have got the relevant experience and qualifications, it leaves them wondering if their education was worth it after all.
Networking leads to the better jobs. You won't get the best/better jobs by answering ads. Techniques and practices for finding the good jobs were honed by Bernard Haldane fol owing WW2. I used his company services to good advantage in the recession of the mid 70s. Organizing the job hunt, interview techniques and resume design were drilled into me, so much so that 4 decades later I still still remember the how-to. You may find his books in your library. My experiences were prior to personal computers and the Internet and resources like LinkedIn (no doubt some techniques have been modified), but in the end it is one on one. A footnote: judging from internet searches, apparently Bernard Haldane Associates fell on hard times following his departure from the firm. The recent troubles are in no way a reflection of the firm's good standing in the heyday.
The huge issue when it comes to qualified people not getting a job is that these people, because they have a degree, feel that they should only look for a job in their respective fields. At least that's how it goes in Europe, you have a lot of jobs out there but people with qualifications don't really feel like grabbing the basic jobs. This is of course the issue related to the unemployment benefits being good. And yes, getting the good jobs is very much about who you know rather than what you know. A lot of the time some qualifications are of course necessary but they are more of a "check in the box" kind of things and you still need the connections to apply for those jobs in the first place.
She shouldn't apply to jobs that are for working class people, I suppose. With her credentials she could aim higher. Most employers feel if they hire someone with the best education and credentials that they will ask for more money or leave within a year because of a lack of opportunities.
Ermmm, well I never said what jobs she was applying for, but she was applying for lecturer jobs as she has three Masters degrees, but it is who you know. People with fewer qualifications would get the jobs over her. Many jobs these days are contractual in any case, because in education you don;t get tenure until much later. In any case the point is looks and who you know do matter more than people are willing to admit.
The term networking that's become so popular these days, to me us just a fancy way of saying its not what you know its who you know. A lot of vacancies are only advertised because they have to be, when usually the company already has a few people in mind already that they want to take that position. They have to make it look fair though, even though it might not be.
Networking on the net can help. It's relatively easy these days to get hired if you convince the people you "hang out" with online that you are good at your stuff. I know a couple of people who got well-paying jobs because friends they met on Facebook recommended them for the jobs. If you have no connections in real life build them slowly online. It isn't that hard anymore.
Good point, often jobs are advertised but if you know someone who can put in a good word for you... well you're way ahead of all the others.
