Are you looking for a great job? (part 1)
I’ve been thinking about the job-finding/person-finding paradox a lot lately, and it seems completely broken to me.
Consider a few facts:
1. The traditional way to get a job is to send a boring resume in response to as many posted jobs as you can afford. Your resume will be scanned, culled and if it doesn’t stand out too much, a person might look at it.
Then you go for a job interview and try to be coglike in your malleability and desire to fit in. If random acts are working in your favor, you get the job.
2. Then, the big Fortune 1000 company that hired you complains that all their people act like cogs, don’t care enough, aren’t creative in solving problems and don’t push the status quo.
3. Then, the big Fortune 1000 company realizes that as long as they’ve got interchangeable cogs, they ought to just move jobs offshore, cause that’s cheaper
or
3.a. The company doesn’t do that, succumbs to Wall Street pressure and either cheats (and gets caught and tanks) or doesn’t cheat (and gets bought or folded and tanks).
Something’s wrong here.
Let’s start with one assumption that has changed in just a generation:
It turns out that 100% of all job growth is now coming from small (under 500 person) companies. In fact, the big companies are shedding jobs, not adding them.
That wasn’t true for our parents. It’s true for us.
Also true: more likely than not, the best jobs, the most interesting jobs and the most secure jobs happen in small organizations.
SO: first conclusion: fitting in to get a job for the big guy is a bad strategy for everyone.
Link: Monster Jobs – Get work. Network. Build a better career. Today’s the day..