Day 163 of writing every day.
Today I had my lesson with my programming mentor. When I asked about the interview process, the impression I got was that interviewers and management can seem kind of snobbish in how they treat applicants.
It’s important to have the skills needed to do a job yes, but what is, or what should the social responsibility of employers in a cooperative society be? Skills require time and nowadays money to acquire and get certified. You could study a subject more than someone who is attending college and majoring in that same subject, but you won’t get awarded with a degree. You have to pay for it and demonstrate you have the knowledge to professors and instructors.
When screening people to see if they would be a right fit at an organization, is it necessary to have all the skills before being able to do the job, or should an apprenticeship program or on the job training be the norm? All I see are people passing down the cost, but perhaps many have experienced betrayal for being too kind.
For example, though, the military will basically take anyone who’s fit enough to go through training and don’t bother asking if you have experience or not. No one in the military expects you to know how to handle a gun before you sign up or be able to march for miles with equipment on your back, etc. Those who seek a career in the military with a fast track to higher positions might attend academies and whatnot to become officers, but people take time to train all personnel to a passing level.
The for-profit and penny-pinching cost saving attitudes of so many companies is to hire only people that have previous work experience in their specific field. I don’t doubt that it makes sense if the skill is so highly specialized that it takes years to be proficient enough to do a good job at it and that the nature of the trade doesn’t allow for that many workers to begin with.
What I was told was that despite having positive feelings about job applicants for tech positions, the decision by an interviewer’s colleagues to reject them was because they said they had no previous work experience. It’s like a catch-22 where you need work experience to work something that should be entry level. Few in management are willing to make training new hires or mid career change hires a part of their company culture these days.
I’ll have to ask the reverse then and check if hiring only people with experience has improved the situation for tech companies. Innovation comes from taking in new and different perspectives, not hiring more of the same. Besides, if you’re willing to spend the time training someone, you’re more likely to get loyalty from employees who recognized you took a chance on them instead of just being biased towards someone else’s experiences versus someone new and full of potential.
People with experience are fine leaving their last job and have baggage with them. They’re more likely to be looking for the highest bidder for their services and leave you when it’s convenient for them. Someone who comes from no work experience in the position is looking for a fresh start and less likely to leave if they know from the get go that you’re going to treat them decently.
This culture of denying people a chance to do something solely because of experience goes against my ideals, which kinda gets me upset when I see that I’ll have to play their game to make a living. Martial arts are the opposite of them. People who practice don’t need a background as an athlete, and we take time to help everyone realize their potential, not expect them to be pros the moment they walk in.
I hope to change the world for the better one day in regards to this topic.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 