Why aren't people making themselves better employable?

[Deleted]

So here in the Netherlands (and in many other countries) there is a large group of unemployed people.
These people are unemplyed for many different reasons but there seems to be one factor that most of them share: they aren't very employable!

So, what do I mean with not being employable? Let me give some examples:
- You got a pretty useless degree (art degrees are a good example)
- You never updated your skills after getting a degree (doing the same thing for 20+ years and never growing beyond that)
- You are unwilling to learn NEW skills and are not going to look outside of your current/past workfield.
- Your looks are not acceptable in a workplace (visible tattoos, piercings, obscure haircuts etc)
- You are a grown man/women walking around in a flaming skull T-shirt (some even wear these on job interviews - im not even kidding here!)
- etc. etc.

Grown, mature people seem to act like children sometimes... Making themselves more dependent on random factors than they should.
Many people are basically just waiting for something to happen or someone else to offer them something.

But why though.. Why aren't people making themselves better employable?

[Istypops]

I think you should stop asking these questions and accept that not everyone is like you.

[Deleted]

Why must everyone conform to your conservative corporate viewpoint on what constitutes a worthwhile life? Most jobs these days aren't worth doing and are tantamount to indentured servitude anyway. Lawyers, Bankers, Politicians etc are even bigger leeches on society than the unemployed.

Also what's wrong with being 25 in your head even when you're 50? There's only death to look forward to, so go to it smiling.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Because when they do, other people want to put up fences and deport them, or like to pay them slave wages.

[Graeham]

More people need to accept that as the population increases and technology advances there's going to be an increase in unemployment rather than a decrease. The unemployed have always made for an easy target, however, which is largely why they're demonised even though their existence is unavoidable. Jobs cannot magically be created out of thin air - and in the event that they are there's usually a pretty high amount of competition.

[Templar 331]

- You got a pretty useless degree (art degrees are a good example)

I'm sure this is far from the norm though I don't doubt that people with "useless" degrees don't get the jobs they studied for.

- You never updated your skills after getting a degree (doing the same thing for 20+ years and never growing beyond that)

Why should you? Why should you focus on the next job when you have a perfectly good one? Working anywhere for 20+ years is an accomplishment.

- You are unwilling to learn NEW skills and are not going to look outside of your current/past workfield.

If you're good at something why do something else? Adaptability is good but why should anyone focus on being a jack of all trades when they are a master at one?

- Your looks are not acceptable in a workplace (visible tattoos, piercings, obscure haircuts etc)

Not all jobs require looking professional. Now with public jobs I'll agree with you, but with jobs like manufacturing tattoos and piercings are normal.

- You are a grown man/women walking around in a flaming skull T-shirt (some even wear these on job interviews - im not even kidding here!)

At a job interview I'll give you, but on my own time I'll wear whatever I want.

[Deleted]

Generalisation FTW...bloody hell

I am by no means rich with my art degree but have had work (self-employed) for 25 years straight, feeding a wife and two kids....

You are self-employed and I respect that! I walk the same path in life myself.

My post is about people that don't have any work and don't want to make themsleves better employable. You are obviously not part of that group

[Kraenen]

Outside the question of how many of these people there are, some things I can think of:
Old, bad habits (never grew up with the right habits, and teaching from their parents to have better work ethics)
Low desire (the gains aren't worth it in their mind)
Lack of resources (they want to be better, but just don't have learning tools available)
Mistakes early in life (getting a bad degree, falling into alcoholism, getting pregnant)

[Deleted]

You are self-employed and I respect that! I walk the same path in life myself.

So then employability is not relevant to you, you don't need to worry about it. You just want to stick your nose into other peoples lives.

[Rhine101]

Lots of reasons. Not sure how things work there so I will not comment on your country. In America I can safely say many are lazy. The ones who are not simply do not have the opportunity to get better trained and educated for jobs. And then You have a sliver of folks who lose out to visa workers.

[Deleted]

Outside the question of how many of these people there are, some things I can think of:
Old, bad habits (never grew up with the right habits, and teaching from their parents to have better work ethics)
Low desire (the gains aren't worth it in their mind)
Lack of resources (they want to be better, but just don't have learning tools available)
Mistakes early in life (getting a bad degree, falling into alcoholism, getting pregnant)

Yeah, those reasons seem to be very plausible.
So besides giving people (more) options to learn new skills and/or get a degree we should perhaps also give people better beliefs about what's possible.

[DesMephisto]

So here in the Netherlands (and in many other countries) there is a large group of unemployed people.
These people are unemplyed for many different reasons but there seems to be one factor that most of them share: they aren't very employable!

So, what do I mean with not being employable? Let me give some examples:
- You got a pretty useless degree (art degrees are a good example)
- You never updated your skills after getting a degree (doing the same thing for 20+ years and never growing beyond that)
- You are unwilling to learn NEW skills and are not going to look outside of your current/past workfield.
- Your looks are not acceptable in a workplace (visible tattoos, piercings, obscure haircuts etc)
- You are a grown man/women walking around in a flaming skull T-shirt (some even wear these on job interviews - im not even kidding here!)
- etc. etc.

Grown, mature people seem to act like children sometimes... Making themselves more dependent on random factors than they should.
Many people are basically just waiting for something to happen or someone else to offer them something.

But why though.. Why aren't people making themselves better employable?

Because we're unwilling to accept a bullshit state of affairs that to be presentable we must look like a canned piece of meat. You call it unacceptable, I call you easily offended. Life is already oppressive enough, making us more oppressed to meet some ancient criteria that severs NO purpose in todays day and age is beyond ludicrous. I will grow my god damn beard out, and it will continue to grow. You might not agree with it, but it's a fucking natural process, WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO DENY IT. The same goes for haircuts, long hair/etc. We have to fight for what we know is right, women wouldn't be hired back in the day if they weren't wearing a dress/skirt/high heels.

We are oppressed.

That said, not updating skills/not learning new skills/not willing to try new things is pretty fucked.

I have a degree in Neuroscience (I got it mostly for fun, I still plan on applying to graduate school) I had a $30 dollar an hour job but I decided I didn't like it. So now I'm looking at jobs like Gamestop and Bevmo because you know what? Fuck it. Life is short, lets see whats fun. Also, I largely believe part of the reason unemployment is a thing is because people aren't aware of all the jobs available out there. I didn't know I could make $30 an hour working at wind tunnel teaching physics nor did I know I got the perk of flying inside the wind tunnel as well.

[Deleted]

Wow, the tattoo thing is a bit off isnt it. The problem is with the employer if they find tattoos an issue, which is even worse when we think they have the power in this scenario.

[Puri]

Those people would care much more if they wouldn't be content in their current lifestyle. Which may be living of rich parents/partners or welfare.

[Deleted]

Wow, the tattoo thing is a bit off isnt it. The problem is with the employer if they find tattoos an issue, which is even worse when we think they have the power in this scenario.

Well, this one depends on the job I guess. And perhaps also on the country (culture) you live in.

Here in the Netherlands is still very looked down upon to have tattoos. Even though a niche group of young people might have them, that still doesnt mean that they are acceptable in general.

[Kraenen]

Yeah, those reasons seem to be very plausible.
So besides giving people (more) options to learn new skills and/or get a degree we should perhaps also give people better beliefs about what's possible.

This is one of the things I struggle with. I'm learning a whole bunch of things like programming and web dev, but I get the feeling things are moving so fast (in most other industries as well) that what I learn now is just going to be obsolete at some point in the near future. So it's a bit demotivating. Apparently it used to be that you got a job, went into a company, and worked there moving upwards for 40 years. Pretty straightforward stuff, that generation was more my thing than today's intense obsession with networking and 4 year degrees being so emphasized.

Also some greater refining and proliferation of career cruising-type websites would help a lot. Many people just don't know where to start, and maybe government-provided websites with advanced screening techniques (doing things like Meyers Briggs, and narrowing down choices based on expertise) would do a lot. I mean maybe there's something out there that I'm not aware of but the ones I do know of are for pay, or not that great.

[Deleted]

I think you should stop asking these questions and accept that not everyone is like you.

This! so very much this! I'd rather be myself than conform to the "Yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir" BS. And I have a great job, with a decent salary and still manage to keep my individuality.

[Strangebrew]

So here in the Netherlands (and in many other countries) there is a large group of unemployed people.
These people are unemplyed for many different reasons but there seems to be one factor that most of them share: they aren't very employable!

So, what do I mean with not being employable? Let me give some examples:
- You got a pretty useless degree (art degrees are a good example)
- You never updated your skills after getting a degree (doing the same thing for 20+ years and never growing beyond that)
- You are unwilling to learn NEW skills and are not going to look outside of your current/past workfield.
- Your looks are not acceptable in a workplace (visible tattoos, piercings, obscure haircuts etc)
- You are a grown man/women walking around in a flaming skull T-shirt (some even wear these on job interviews - im not even kidding here!)
- etc. etc.

Grown, mature people seem to act like children sometimes... Making themselves more dependent on random factors than they should.
Many people are basically just waiting for something to happen or someone else to offer them something.

But why though.. Why aren't people making themselves better employable?

- You got a pretty useless degree (art degrees are a good example)
No it isn't, art degree is a pretty useful degree in the modern society, asia especially is huge on this.
I'm sure you are thinking about le feminists art studies bullshit, but art degree here involves everything from classical painting to animations.

To say it's useless is a load of crap, it's actually a pretty attractive degree.

Just to take an personal example, i have a britbong who worked as a freelancer photographer with a bit of graphic design work on the side his entire life.
Nothing big, but enough to get things going around.
One day he got contacted by a Taiwanese model company(technically a photo studio of some sorts), who wanted to hire him as a photographer, needless to say he accepted it.
Now he lives in Taiwan, having the perfect life, with a 10/10 gf.
Good pay, living the good life partying every weekend and all the shit.
I'm jealous as fuck, but cases like this aren't as uncommon as you think.

Here's another example.
http://kreativtforum.no/artikler/nyh...-til-hollywood
He created a animation movie by himself in his basement, what happened?
He got contacted by Hollywood.
He's now working with Zwart to create a movie.

- Your looks are not acceptable in a workplace (visible tattoos, piercings, obscure haircuts etc)
We live in 2015, and most places this is completely irrelevant.

- You are a grown man/women walking around in a flaming skull T-shirt (some even wear these on job interviews - im not even kidding here!)
Completely depends on your job.


Job's don't grow on trees.
As already someone said, not everyone is like you.


And quite honestly, i don't give a shit about being a "better employee"
Give me a job i enjoy, with a liveable wage, and i don't need anything else.

My personal life comes ahead of work.

[Deathsknight]

Then you do a bunch of stuff to make you better employable and get told you are overqualified and therefore won't be hired because they don't want to pay you what your qualifications are worth.

edit: even if you are willing to ask for less.

[Deleted]

This is one of the things I struggle with. I'm learning a whole bunch of things like programming and web dev, but I get the feeling things are moving so fast (in most other industries as well) that what I learn now is just going to be obsolete at some point in the near future. So it's a bit demotivating. Apparently it used to be that you got a job, went into a company, and worked there moving upwards for 40 years. Pretty straightforward stuff, that generation was more my thing than today's intense obsession with networking and 4 year degrees being so emphasized.

Also some greater refining and proliferation of career cruising-type websites would help a lot. Many people just don't know where to start, and maybe government-provided websites with advanced screening techniques (doing things like Meyers Briggs, and narrowing down choices based on expertise) would do a lot. I mean maybe there's something out there that I'm not aware of but the ones I do know of are for pay, or not that great.

You're right. It's all moving and changing in the highest gear these days.
Unlike our parents and grandparent, that could go on multiple decades with the same base knowledge, we are facing an ever changing world that demands that we keep up or find ourselves without relevant skills and knowledge.

Some workfields even change every 6 months. That's alot to ask of a uman being but at the same time... we ARE able to do it!
That is.. as long as we are both willing to do it and we keep the right mindset aswell.
The people that do accept the constant change and keep up with it are often the most sought after employees out there and also collect the highest pay.

But reading most comments in this thread already tell me that there aren't many people like that to be found here
Maybe you CAN do it Raybourne? Why wouldn't you be able to do it? It would really set you apart from the rest, and certainly above them on the Marketplace!