Catch 22

This past weekend I went back to my school for Homecoming and Halloween.  Yes, they were both on the same day, completely bad-ass.  I am extremely fortunate with my job.  This is even more apparent when I go back to school.  Many of my fellow alumni are still looking for a job a year later out of college.  Some do have fluff degrees but, at the same time I do not have an engineering degree either.

As a small experiment I went around a few job sites in my area.  There are jobs out there, but not for anyone close to my experience level.  Most jobs require over 5 years of experience in a senior position.  Many of us have lots of practice doctoring our resumes but even this is a little out of reach.  When things go wrong blame the parents.

By blame the parents, I mean the baby boomers.  The positions that are becoming available are for a different generation.  To even think about applying to almost any job I need to wait several years.  I understand that because of everyone retiring that new people need to fill these jobs.  It seems that companies, rather than looking to promote people within their company are looking else where for personnel.

I, myself, know very little about corporate culture and the norms.  My only experience is my current job.  It seems that there are fewer and fewer senior people to fill positions while at the same time the market place has lots of entry level applicants.  Those high up keep getting more piled on their plate while lower level people keep getting less.

To get a job you need a good amount of experience.  Yet, if companies are only looking for senior positions where are workers going to get that experience?  Why are these companies not trying to promote internally when they have documentation on past performance?  Then hire more entry level people?  As I have said I do not know much about how business works but for what I have seen my recommendation is not a common practice.