Are young people too fussy over jobs?

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Dr Denise Taylor

14 August 2013

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Young people are being too picky over accepting jobs says The Recruitment Society.

I’ve just given a short interview on BBC Radio Gloucestershire to discuss this.

It’s hard to cover everything in just a couple of minutes so here’s some further thoughts.

Years gone by when young people got grants to go to University almost every graduate got a job, as a company just wanted to employ a graduate.
But now there are many more graduates, and not all are going to get a graduate job. but it’s not the end of the world.
It’s possible to start in a junior role and to move into your desired job, but you must have the end goal in mind or a flexible goal staying open to new opportunities.
Many young people are not accepting jobs as they can’t see how they can lead onto a great job. So lets look at the options.

Option 1 – you wait.

Leave school, college or university with a plan to be a marketing executive, engineer, PR consultant and decide to hang on till you get a job in one of these roles. Great if you have relevant experience in your CV and you will stand a good chance.

But what if your experience is limited.

So you wait, and the months go by and you still don’t get a job.
Perhaps finally you see a job to apply for and you complete an application form. The company wants to know what you have done in the past 6 months, and there is a big gap – do you think you will get shortlisted?

Option 2 – if you took on a ‘low status’ job…

Consider someone who has spent 6 months working in a job, and yes perhaps it was a fast food restaurant. What have they gained?
It may not be directly relevant work but they can demonstrate

  • Ability to get up and get to work on time each day
  • Ability to work as part of a team
  • Ability to deal with the public, and be sensitive to ‘challenging people’
  • Initiative – they may well have identified some improvements

Don’t you think this second person is more likely to be shortlisted?
But perhaps you aren’t sure what work you want to do … and work in this fast food restaurant could lead you to becoming a supervisor and later an assistant manager. You may then decide to pursue a career in the company, or to look for other work where supervisory skills are important.

Option 3: Create your own opportunity

It’s not just waiting for jobs you see advertised, it’s also looking for companies to approach.
If you want to know more on this you can sign up for a free report at
www.graduatecareerservice.com and this is not just for graduates!
 
And then you may like to watch this

 Brought to you by Denise Taylor, award winning career coach with Amazing People and author of 7 books including How To Get A Job In A Recession, and Now You’ve Been Shortlisted.  Meet me on FaceBook at – https://www.facebook.com/amazingpeopleUK and let’s talk about your career goals in life.

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