Why inexperienced workers can't get entry-level jobs | Hacker News Reader

Why inexperienced workers can't get entry-level jobs

bbc.com

3 pointspaulpauper5 comments

The problem is that if you end up without experience or just have working at Starbucks through your degree:

1. You failed to get into a good university that viewed you as more than few paying cattle.

2. You failed to be worth anymore than a typical minimum wage worker in your part time work (lots of interesting research jobs and jobs through industry connections on campus for those who make a mark). You didn’t get any of those.

3. You failed to impress anyone in your time at university who might give you an internship. A prof. A visiting speaker. An alumnus with a company.

4. You failed repeatedly to get an internship (plenty of them pay, but are just harder to get than unpaid ones) when most of your cohort did.

5. After graduation, either nobody you met in school referred you or you failed those interviews.

In 4 years, nobody thought you were any good. That’s a pretty damning judgement.

You stink of privilege. I suppose you are probably a highly-paid engineer coming from a very rich country in Europe or maybe the US, where you never had to face economic hardship because your parents were there to help you every step of the way.

What if you can't afford university? There's people literally living in their cars with full-time jobs, you know?

What if you're a good engineer from the technical point of view but find it hard to socialise with others? Maybe you're just introverted.

"Failing to impress" lol. A professor or an alumnus with a company. Yeah, you're definitely American. No such absurd things exist where I come from. Professors are burned out and alumni are lazy as hell.

Or your junior summer was in covid lockdown (like my son who gets his degree this spring where most of his highly regarded business school cohort could not find internships in their field due to lockdown).

He’s started looking for a job now, hopefully this isn’t an issue for him.

problem is these kinds of conditions are all luck. Yeah, you have to have pretty bad luck to be a decent candidate and not get any of these, but it is possible.

#1 is, more or less, true for all universities. #2 and #3 require making connections, which can be difficult especially during Covid. #4 is the job lottery and it can be hard depending on where you are. #5 is the same as #2.

Honestly I do agree that if you get zero research or internships during college, even during covid, then you have at least some responsibility. But still, it shouldn’t be enough to destroy your career. Moreover though, even if you do have references sometimes things fall through and you are still left in the open.

Somehow this is me, but again it's difficult when I face

- Discrimination - Autism - Assumptions

Where I live (Netherlands/Groningen) it's hard to get recognized, there's always that bias and assumptions.

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