2011-08-06, 01:15 PM
Sarah Wrote:This argument sucks because employers want to hire young people for a ton of obvious reasons. They're not long-term and don't have families to support so things like benefits and future raises aren't expected. They're just happy to be making minimum wage. They're also more physically able to do things than older people.
I do suppose that hiring based of age would allow employers to get off on the cheap, but do they really do a quality job? From what I've seen at my internship at a job recruitment company, some companies want to hire someone with the experience for the job instead of some newbie that's fresh out of college. A lot of the jobs that my company has available require at least a few years experience at the job before they will seriously consider the candidate. I would say, yes, the younger candidates under-sell themselves and can get the company by on the cheap (assuming that they have little to no experience at all). Older candidates, on the other hand, have had many more years of experience which could pay off big time for the company that hired him/her. And if the job doesn't require super physical labor (like construction or carrying boxes for stocking shelves) that means the company would essentially get what they're paying for.
And as for Derosis' comment of anyone can get a job: While it is true to an extent, some people either- don't have access to the resources to find a job or they're, as you say, lazy. I suppose that means that to get a job, someone has to be motivated enough to do so. Drawing, again, on my experience at my internship, there are jobs in almost every state (minus like Alaska and Hawaii and a few midwestern states), so clearly there are jobs available. They may not be available in someone's specific city or town, but maybe there's one 30 minutes away in the neighboring city or that other city 3 hours away. If you are indeed desperate for a job, I would think that someone would look all over the place- even if they have to relocate to another city (some companies will in fact help you with moving costs).
Then there's the loss of motivation from not being hired after applying to 10-15 jobs. That does happen and some people give up and this is where they are wrong- If you really need that job, you HAVE to get yourself any means necessary to get a job, even if that means you have to work as a temporary window washer at the local mall. Even at my internship i see people like this: they've applied to 3-4 pages of just jobs and have yet to get hired. Good to see that they're motivated enough to keep going, but clearly they're doing something that isn't quite hitting the right nerve with employers.
TL;DR- There are jobs available, you just have to look. If you get depressed about not finding a job, keep pushing on and doing your best to find one.