Why aren't people making themselves better employable?

[Tuesdays]

People need to get passed the way people look, and what a fancy piece of paper they hold.

No tattoo's, well groomed people with fancy degree's have ran the US into the ground, I'm sure its the same in other countries as well. You never know, they might be the best employee you've ever had, but since you care more about appearance, the people you want, want more than you have to offer.

Hence attracting people that are not so desirable.

[Fugus]

These people aren't unemployable. There's plenty of jobs they could do. The problem is that employers get to make outlandish demands of the people they hire. For example, the amount of data entry jobs -literally just typing stuff into a database all day- that require a bachelor's degree I've run into is absurd. A friend of mine has four master degrees and he barely has a shot at the jobs he wants to do because competition is insane.

Thing is, there are less available jobs than there are unemployed people. This is simply a fact. And employers can use this fact to get the absolute best employees out of the pool of job-seekers they can find, and pay them way too little. And anyone who isn't the absolute best is shit out of luck.

Exactly and this is allowing them to be extra picky on whom they want too.

I have actually been turned down for a $15 an hour job BECAUSE I had college. Talked to them off the clock and they said they would deny it if I said anything but they didn't hire college guys unless they had no choice because they didn't want anyone who was going to just finish college and move on, they wanted someone who was stuck and couldn't get better. Allowed them more control.

Also had a clerk job I was trying to apply to at a department store that I ended up balling up the application and walking out as they were asking stuff they didn't have any place asking. This place wanted to not only know what my last job paid me but it also wanted to know if I was married and if I was, what my wife did for a living and how much SHE got paid. Guessing to figure how much they could screw people on their wages.

Now most decent jobs out here seem to have signs on the doors stating they aren't accepting or even giving out applications and when they do have openings, they have over a thousand applicants for any position. And by decent, I am not talking about actually decent jobs, I am talking jobs that pay just enough to live and support yourself and 1 other without welfare.

[nomorepriest]

This guy is 100% right

[Deleted]

I'd take an art degree and an (in my opinion) interesting job over a degree in business economics (or the like) and a better paid mind-numbing 9-5 office job every day.

[Daelak]

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 are questioning the wrong side. The better question should be, why isn't the vast amount of public and private capital not being allocated to maximize utility for our 21st century demand/consumer economy? Why are we lending credence to interests that lobby governments to keep this 20th century form of capitalism limping along for their own short term profit? Why does an ideology that has a violent aversion to science and empirical data regarding education, poverty and crime, and economics given equal weight?

[Istypops]

Be who you want to be, just don't bitch and complain when your liberal arts degree doesn't manifest in to anything.

I'm not sure this kind of answer was called for. I am one of those people you later on described, but I put my creativity into web design, something that is very employable, and if not, it is not hard to start your own business, I already have a few small clients.

[Ebalina]

Why should we improve on our self's ?
The employee just raises the demands even higher with each new improvement you make just to not pay you for your improvement.

I have computer skills i speak 3 languages i can write in 2 of them fluent and i understand and can read a 4th one.
My last job needed me to be able to speak English and have basic computer skills got both covered.
That what i was told during the interview with my boss.

3 weeks in to the job the insane demands started flying my way.
Had to learn to communicate in Romanian French a well as do the year and monthly accounting stuff and clean the office 2-3 times a week and keep the computers in working order and shape.
All this while maintaining my daily routine of english/german/russian/bulgarian deals i had to make for our trucks to move and not lose time to stay in 1 place.

All this netting me 200euro a month.
And none of what i was doing extra was ever appreciated if anything i was undervalued.

I quit not long after because it was not worth it do to all this and have a Driver of a truck earn more money just because ..
While i understand that physical labor is taxing on people i also understand that high demands that my boss putted there are ridicules.

And all this because i did not finish my last year of collage even tough i have certificates for my languages and computer skills.


At this point i've stopped improving my self and i wait to see how the world will burn under the weight of these ridicules demands people put on their employees.


Also OP there is nothing wrong in looking the way you want and do your job in the cloths you are most comfortable.
No one should put him self in these stupid Stereotypes the modern world has put upon us.

[Deleted]

This guy is 100% right

He'd be 100% right if you were a candidate on The Apprentice.

There's more to life than work. People take art degrees because they enjoy art degrees.

I did A-levels in Chemistry, History and Geography, 3 subjects which are barely related because I enjoyed those subject.

It's great if you actually get a 'useful' degree in something you enjoy, but quite frankly you can be the richest person in the world but if you're not doing what you love then you've wasted your life.

[Jester Joe]

I'd take an art degree and an (in my opinion) interesting job over a degree in business economics (or the like) and a better paid mind-numbing 9-5 office job every day.

Besides, apparently drawing anime/furry/whatever porn is a pretty decent income according to the artists who make that stuff.

I only know this because my girlfriend watches them stream while they draw so she can learn more.

[Deleted]

Besides, apparently drawing anime/furry/whatever porn is a pretty decent income according to the artists who make that stuff.

I only know this because my girlfriend watches them stream while they draw so she can learn more.

She needs a hobby

[Mellomania]

She needs a hobby

Sounds like drawing is her hobby?

[Deleted]

She needs a hobby

Sounds like she already has a hobby - drawing.

My girlfriend draws a lot as well, and really enjoys it. Good to have something you can do + always learn more about. Isn't that what the vast majority of people who are on these forums are like? Most of us are gamers, and games have, for a very long time, been something that you can always get better at, through watching other people + discussion in addition to practice.

[Deleted]

Why should we improve on our self's ?
The employee just raises the demands even higher with each new improvement you make just to not pay you for your improvement.

I have computer skills i speak 3 languages i can write in 2 of them fluent and i understand and can read a 4th one.
My last job needed me to be able to speak English and have basic computer skills got both covered.
That what i was told during the interview with my boss.

3 weeks in to the job the insane demands started flying my way.
Had to learn to communicate in Romanian French a well as do the year and monthly accounting stuff and clean the office 2-3 times a week and keep the computers in working order and shape.
All this while maintaining my daily routine of english/german/russian/bulgarian deals i had to make for our trucks to move and not lose time to stay in 1 place.

All this netting me 200euro a month.
And none of what i was doing extra was ever appreciated if anything i was undervalued.

I quit not long after because it was not worth it do to all this and have a Driver of a truck earn more money just because ..
While i understand that physical labor is taxing on people i also understand that high demands that my boss putted there are ridicules.

And all this because i did not finish my last year of collage even tough i have certificates for my languages and computer skills.


At this point i've stopped improving my self and i wait to see how the world will burn under the weight of these ridicules demands people put on their employees.


Also OP there is nothing wrong in looking the way you want and do your job in the cloths you are most comfortable.
No one should put him self in these stupid Stereotypes the modern world has put upon us.

Give yourself credit for trying. The job market is absolutely terrible at the moment. But at least we're not being ordered to charge into machine guns.

[Deleted]

I did A-levels in Chemistry, History and Geography, 3 subjects which are barely related because I enjoyed those subject.

I took a break from my main studies for a while and studied Philosophy - just because I think it's interesting.

She needs a hobby

Seems like she already has one.

[Jester Joe]

She needs a hobby

Are you that daft? Drawing is her hobby, like others have already said. It's also her profession. She never gets bored of creating art, whether it's painting or drawing.

[Deathquoi]

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?

Why do you care?

[THE Bigzoman]

Great for you. Stop lecturing other people about their lives and they won't lecture you about yours.

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Ah. so you are saying one of those bloodsucking accountants than knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, and imposes restrictive financial metrics on normally useful people. Great. That's totally different from other types of bloodsucking accountants.

Do you know what accounting entails? It's essentially recording business activities. They don't name prices based on what i'm aware of. I took a few accounting courses in college.

[Shawn B]

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)

Holy COW!
Out of everybody who responded before you, you are by far the most reasonable.

This post is about why unemployed people aren't making themselves employable, and so far everybody's been attacking his points or giving pseudo intelligent fallacies instead of answering the damn question! And, they don't even back up their argument with a better option.
For example, the guy who posted after you, all hes doing is disagreeing.
Disagreeing is always an option, but why would you want to vilify not being employable?
Shouldn't everybody want to be employable?
How, then, can you BE employable?

[Deleted]

Firstly, I am a Commercial Management Accountant (occupation that you hate).

Unlike Financial Accountant, where you can work for a practice, and get hired by companies to do tax advice, annual account, audit and such, Management Accountants are generally hired in industry.

So, as a Management Accountant, there isn't much prospect if you don't work for a company.

Even for Financial Accountants, if you truely want to work for yourself, you will need to open a practice yourself. Then you will have the issue of competitions, staff hiring and such. But most private practice don't even make big money, as any bigger companies would hire big practices and potentially the Big 4 to do their accounts.

The FP&A from a decent size company can pretty much make more than the owner of a small practice.

The "No one should aspire to work for someone else if they are trying to make money" really does depends on the skillset you have, when your skillset is a more "business supporting" role than a "cash generating role", it is much better if you work for a corporation.

Another examples are City traders, they make much more money working for a well known firm, which would provide them the capital to invest with due to the client base. It would be very hard to get large amount of capital if they try to attract clients themselves.

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No one is forcing you to be an accountant any more than any one is forcing me to be a drug dealer. Your skill sets would translate into any number of other professions, if, as I don't believe, you really believe a practice couldn't successfully undercut the bloated accountancy firms most people consider to be crooked.

I think you aren't capable of going it alone because you don't have the balls. I think you like serving other people.

I like your thinking.

That sounds like a rather pathetic rationalization for being someone else's servant. You sound, rather ironically, like the worst type of waster making pathetic excuses for not making more of their lives.

Btw I know a half a dozen accountants who successfully translated their skills into other areas. You are deceiving yourself. You simply do not have the courage to go it alone.

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Shouldn't everybody want to be employable?

No they shouldn't. An employee who rents his labour below its true value. Did this never occur to you?

[Theodarzna]

Holy COW!
Out of everybody who responded before you, you are by far the most reasonable.

This post is about why unemployed people aren't making themselves employable, and so far everybody's been attacking his points or giving pseudo intelligent fallacies instead of answering the damn question! And, they don't even back up their argument with a better option.
For example, the guy who posted after you, all hes doing is disagreeing.
Disagreeing is always an option, but why would you want to vilify not being employable?
Shouldn't everybody want to be employable?
How, then, can you BE employable?

Its a fundamentally dumb question.