Less Experience Preferred

Below is an email I received this morning.

It is a rejection for a position I applied for.

Rejected not for lack of experience, but for too much experience.

For having done well in my profession. For being, perhaps, just a little too old. Maybe a little too loyal to the company I had been with for twenty years. Cradle to grave at a company means nothing in America anymore. Excelling at what you do means nothing anymore.

Yes, I know it is not an out and out rejection. But I also know how it will play out.

If I state I am still interested and if they decide they still want to interview me we will go through the motions and then they will decide to go with someone with less experience. Less of a risk to leave if something better comes along. Someone more malleable. Someone cheaper and content to be so.

Never mind that I could show their workforce analyst a thing or two.

Think I'm kidding? The very same thing happened with the very same position, but at a different international company, two weeks ago.

In that case I was asked why in the world I would want to take a step down like that.

The irony is that I used to do what that position and two others on their telecom team do by myself in my former position.

And I did it very well.

(one of the persistent problems for the long term unemployed is a diminishing of self esteem. happens when all you have to keep you sane during the day is a crazy Jack Russell and your deepest conversations happen with the checkout girl at the grocery store. so you have to pat yourself on the back now and then)

But companies don't want that, despite their protestations to the contrary.

So the next time you hear the TeeVee bubbleheads decry a lack of skill and talent in the American workforce, that we've gotten soft here in America, keep this in mind.

It's a two way street. There is plenty of valuable experience out there looking for work. Both professional experience and just as importantly or more so life experience. I've seen this before experience. I know what really does and doesn't work experience. Imagine what younger employees could learn from those who have been down the road.

But the companies don't want to pay for that experience. And they don't want to take a chance on it, regardless of how beneficial it may be to them, long or short term.

I've raised a family. Taken two daughters to be terrific adults and a third well on her way. Balanced a household budget and navigated the tricky financial shoals when times were tight (getting much tougher these days. ask my creditors). And all the while working. Same place all those years. Climbing toward the top of my game.

Letters, emails and phone calls like these are an all too common piece of my life these days. For the last 2-1/2 years. And of so many like me.

Is it any wonder that there are so many who have given up hope on finding a job?

It's not age discrimination. Not exactly. Not overtly.

It's experience discrimination.

From a regional bank:

Good morning, John, and thanks for your interest in the Workforce Management Specialist position available at Susquehanna.

I wanted to reach out to you before I proceed with the prescreening process as I wanted to be sure that you were still interested in being considered after I share the following information with you.

First of all, this is an entry-level Specialist position reporting to the Workforce Management Analyst. Upon reviewing your resume, I can’t help but wonder if it would be challenging enough for you.

Secondly, we are looking to start this candidate in the $14.85-$15.50/hr range.

Please take a minute to think this information through and then let me know if you are still interested or if you prefer to withdraw your application for this specific entry.

Thanks in advance!