Bad economy? Good for a career change?
I was reading Brent Oxley’s post “Bad economy, good for Hostgator?” and I can’t help but wonder… is it time for a career change - for all of us?
In Brent’s words:
Every day I wake up to read about thousands of Americans being laid off of work. Unemployment is hitting new highs in America and yet I’m being forced to, once again, slow down HostGator’s growth due to the lack of qualified employees.
What’s wrong with the world? It so happens that the industry I work in seems to be facing the exact same problem: we can’t find good qualified managers and even if we do find one, they seem so reluctant to take the risk of moving companies, no matter what the rewards are.
I was thinking that the key word here is “risk”; how much risk are we prepared to take in order to get a better reward? Maybe people don’t feel comfortable getting into a new company when, in times of economic trouble, the last in is usually the first out?
But reading the replies to Brent’s post, I spotted something else, something that amazed me: quite a few people asking if Brent would consider them for employment. Simple as that! Job applications… in blog comments!
What’s happened to good old proper job applications, with an attached CV and cover letter? Are people nowadays so lazy that can’t be bothered to look for job openings and take some time to send in an appropriate application? Have we got so used to just whining about the credit crunch, the unemployment and the low salaries that we just can’t be bothered to look any further than just applying for any and all state benefits available?
I used to tell all my friends that to get your first job, you need to send as many applications as you can every day, and that you probably won’t hear back from anyone for at least a couple of months. And when I said “as many as you can” I did mean “as many as you can”… as many as 30 a day!
This has always worked for me. And it has even worked for my lazy friends, who were sending just 1 or 2 applications a day. A response always came back after a month or two, that always lead to an interview and most of the times to a job offer as well. But by that time, they were bored, disheartened and all nagging about the unemployment rates and how little one can do living on state benefits etc etc…
I know this might sound like I’m oversimplifying things and I don’t mean to say that times are not tough but hey… that’s how they’ve always been and that’s how they will always be. Credit crunch or not.
Can’t say I disagree with you, but having been laid off work rather recently and then on unemployment benefits for a few months, I know things are not just black and white.
Having said that, it’s true some people are so lazy they don’t even have a CV to send in when looking for a job.
And the credit card bills keep piling up and you know what’s next…