Shhh...I'm hunting...job hunting.

I’m struggling today with my apparent lack of employability skills. It seems a little impossible to turn housewife and mother into marketable skills since I have no current employer that can verify said skills. I remember when sometimes all you had to do was walk in, talk to the owner or manager, and walk out with a job. Not so much these days. Each business wants only the “best” candidates for the job and they have adopted the mindset that reading a piece of paper about a person is how they will find the “best” person for the job.

Here’s a clue for a few. How about you, oh I don’t know, actually talk TO the person instead of having them reduce their entire skill set to a few paragraphs on a sheet of paper. I find that I can learn more about a person in five minutes actually talking to them than I will ever learn about them by looking at their resume. Some have gone to really good schools and they had really good grades. That’s excellent for their academic career, but how about their people skills? Do they look you in the eye when you are talking to them? Are they fidgety? Does it look like the person really wants to be THERE or are they just looking for ANY kind of job that will pay them?

I’d much rather work with someone who actually knows about my business and seems genuinely interested in being there, instead of someone just looking for a paycheck. Maybe I’m wrong in my thinking. But, maybe I’m not. I understand that there are truly people who just need a job. I have a friend right now who has been looking for a couple of years now. They’re an excellent person with solid morals and some excellent skills. Yet there isn’t a company yet that will hire them. I’m kind of in the same boat in that I need a job. I have only been looking for a couple of weeks and I’ve been invited to a couple of interviews, but I’m fighting against people who are younger than I, with more education than I, but they don’t have a clue as to how to interact with people face to face. Do I hope I get the job? Of course! Am I realistic in what I am up against? Yes. And the outlook is rather bleak.

I long for the days when just being you, standing face to face with the hiring person, was enough to get you the job. I know we’ll never get back to those days, but one can dream.

So, for those of you in hiring positions, how about breaking from what you think you know and base your decision upon more than a sheet of paper with words on it. For those of you in the job market, I wish you the sincerest wishes in finding gainful employment. Now, time to get back to my job hunting and send out more of those pieces of paper for someone to read and decide if my skills might be something they’d be interested in hearing more about.