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Comment by jhamburger | Hacker News Reader

The older workers are the biggest issue. When they show up at interviews they are basicallly saying "hi, i have 25 years of experience in a completely unrelated field, probably making 2.5x the salary you're offering for this entry level position. I have no real interest in this industry, but i did just get a certification from university of phoenix online during the year i was unemployed. So will it be me or the recent grad?"

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"I have no real interest in this industry" just doesn't fit with the other items in your argument. It's unfair and it plays to emotions not facts. And, even without that facetious addition, you'd probably convince me.

It does, though. Faced with two options, one employee who is passionate about computers and has been playing with Photoshop since he was a kid, and one employee who took a "two week" course and obviously is just looking for a paycheck anywhere... Who would you chose?

Insufficient data to draw conclusion.

Passion is nice, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. People who are "just looking for a paycheck" tend to be very interested in staying employed and are highly motivated to learn. We all like to talk about the person who only wants a job so they can survive while looking for other work, but we ignore that many of them realize they won't get another job, and their best bet is to do well in whatever position they can find and move up.

I'll take a steady, reliable, hard worker over a "passionate" precious and unique snowflake any day.

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