Full Careers

Who is teaching the next generation how to get a job? Should they be fired?

I manage a staff of over 150 employees and take responsibility for recruiting, reviewing applications and conducting interview. Honestly I am getting fed up! Applicants between the age of 18 and about 27 who come prepared for an interview are few and far between. The average applicant comes in with an incomplete application, poor communication skills, no pen, dressed inappropriately, not willing to put in the grunt work and feel entitled to walk in as the king of the castle. Just today I conducted 5 interviews and only one applicant had a pen with him. Many are unable to maintain eye contact or answer a simple question without 10 seconds of ummms and ughhs. Did the career development services in high schools get shut down? Does anyone teach these kids how to fill out an application? How to dress? How to hold an intelligent and professional conversation? Do today’s high school teachers even teach the meaning of professionalism? Does anyone have an idea of what has happened to the future of American workers?

Public Comments

1. Nobody teaches this stuff today in high schools - at least in my high school they didn't. In 8th grade we had a class on careers where we learned how to write out checks and look up information on different careers, but we weren't taught anything about professionalism, interviewing clothing and decorum. I learned any of that I know from my mother, general common sense, watching others, online information I looked up, and maybe a FEW bits and pieces in college (and I was in a BUSINESS program!) You can't expect people to know what they aren't taught, and if they don't have the motivation to find out the information, they aren't going to learn it either way.
2. I completely understand your frustration. I don't know if they teach it in high schools, but I have seen college graduates coming to job interviews with an attitude that YOU owe them something. I do agree that some of it comes from the lack of classes or seminars on job search, but the biggest problem is that everything they do is of the same quality no matter what it is. It is really sad. The only good part is that you don't have to spend that much time interviewing those kids. You usually get the picture in the first 30 seconds :)
3. Different generation, different attitudes and presentation. 60 minutes did a show on this generation of workers calling them Millennials (or something like that). As a manager you should read up on how to manage the different generations and what general attitudes and social skills these new workers come with. You may think of yourself as old school, but we were new kids on the block to a generation prior to us and so forth. It comes in cycles as kids get a different view of the world from generation to generation. Your company may or may not have classes for managers that deal with recruiting and dealing with different generations. My company does and I was surprised that there were these "stereo types" about generations of workers and the funny thing is, is that it seems to be mostly true. Here is a link to an article that speaks about today's generation of workers.