| Those are not mutually exclusive and could perfectly well be true, if you bear in mind that it's some businesses and some knowledge workers. If your proposed explanation is broadly right, then you can describe it in two equally valid ways. (1) Some very good developers (etc.) present themselves in ways that lead to not getting job offers. (2) Some employers, when looking developers, are put off by presentation in ways that lead to not extending offers to good developers. "Present yourself in ways that employers will like" is probably good advice for would-be employees. But so is "Look past presentation and slick self-selling" for would-be employers. That might not be true if there were a glut of suitable employees, so that an employer only willing to employ people who tuck their shirts in nicely isn't short of good employees on that account. But, as you put it yourself: "Businesses say they can't get enough knowledgeworkers". Some employers, at least, don't find it easy to get the people they want. Maybe they would find it easier if they put lower priority on shirt-tucking. The last paragraph seems to be made entirely of slogans rather than actual thinking. Someone who is good at their job but wears a hoodie is not a "broken banana". (Maybe they're a banana with slightly more or less curvature than the average, or something.) Also, I don't say anything in the original piece suggesting that the person who wrote it isn't getting job offers because of ... well, let's be frank about what you're saying, because of not looking sufficiently upper-middle-class. They claim that the problem is that in an interview situation they aren't quick and smooth enough at solving programming-interview problems. Changing what clothes they wear and how they wear them isn't going to change that. |