Originally Posted by
TJ
Couldn't be anymore true, especially connections. A good example of this is my dad who is currently an Electrician (he's 51 now but this was when he was about 40ish), there was a position that opened up as Environmental Manager or something similar to that, my dad worked his arse off (with the help of my grandad) to get the qualification needed to be realistically considered for this job through the Open University course since he could do it at home. When he finished his work he was rewarded with the qualification and now met the requirements for the job. You know what happened when he went for the job? it was given to the person's relative who was conducting the interviews and deciding who eventually got the job. You might say oh well that's understanbable in some ways because they know that person well and he might be a good worker, but the biggest part of the story is that the said person wasn't even qualified for the job, but he got it anyway just because he was a relative to the interview conductor. Same with MPs in parliament, the shit they pull is unreal and they should be prosecuted big time for it.
Unfortunately, life is like that and you have to deal with it. Personally I'm only 19 so you might say what the hell does this young inexperienced idiot know about anything, but I have my grandad which I'm very close to tell me about these things all the time and he's been there and seen it all. He's also helping me hugely in looking for a job since I've been unemployed for about 10 months now (left school last year) and it really highlights to a person like him how much the economy has changed and how much shit we are really in when it comes to youth employment and creating jobs.
It's also good to add that employers (in nearly all cases) will value actual hands on experience more than qualifications since qualifications themselves don't necessarily mean you can do the job, they're obviously an advantage since it shows you're very capable of learning well and applying your knowledge but it's not as valuable as actual experience (I say in nearly all cases because in regards to the OP, I'd say that's a different situation). I say this because I read in the paper a while ago a manager who was recruiting about 20 staff for a store in Chester which is a city near me, she said that she would take experience over qualifications any day in her field of work and many people wrote in agreeing. That was actually the first of quite a few articles explaining the same thing that I read in a few papers and one of the reasons I think it's not worth going to University for.
Some of this is relevant to the OP, but some of it is my general view of things.
---------- Post added 2012-05-09 at 01:37 AM ----------
I severely doubt that, you underestimate big time how hard it is to get on to an Archaeology University course. You need very good grades.