| Rant accepted. Maybe my describing prior work experience as "necessary" was a bit of a hyperbole for all employment situations. I agree with everything you said and I also appreciate you talking about the counter-points to your arguments. However, despite the feelings that prior experience is not always great criterion for selecting great employees, the reality remains that it's usually necessary for selecting adequate employees. For most grads an employer may be making an investment in the grad acquiring the skills they need on the job and if they have prior work experience that could help indicate that candidate is more likely to acquire said skills than another candidate with no work experience. Since I am both a relatively recent grad (2007) and have also had a number of different types of jobs since I was about 14 I have a few observations: * Many college students are grossly unprepared to face looking for a job. From resumes to professional courtesy it seems that many students just don't know where to start or what their prospective employers are looking for in candidates. * Getting a job is basically a sales pitch. Your resume and interview has to convince the employer that you are right for the job. Those with poor presentation and preparation skills will suffer. Even if they are passionate and creative, if their resume doesn't convey this then they will probably be passed over for a position. * Many recent grads are unwilling to accept a job in a different line of work than in their college concentrations. * Some recent grads come across as pompous or condescending due to either too much exuberance or having a big fish in a small pond attitude. Like prior experience, academic success is not necessarily an indicator of being a great employee or easy to work with. * Personally, many of the recent grads (and regular employees) I know who have a good work ethic have worked menial or unsatisfying jobs at some point. This may be a self-selection bias to do difficult or different things, but I still feel that those who have either humbled themselves working a hard job they didn't need financially or worked and excelled at an unsatisfying job to provide for themselves are usually more cooperative, more determined, and have all around better character. I do acknowledge that these qualities can certainly be found in those who have not worked jobs prior to graduating. * Some people are just the clock-in clock-out types who simply are not passionate about their work and/or are unhappy with it, and for these types of people prior work experience is a good indicator of an acceptable but not necessarily a stellar employee. A passionate employee that loves their work is probably an outlier to whom the normal metrics of employee selection may not apply or who would far and above fulfill hiring criteria for prior experience. |