Entitlement and the New Job Search

So I have to admit, I've been a fan of Peter Shankman's for a long time. I first heard about him when he pulled a PR stunt to get a job (he stood on a NYC street corner with his resume on the billboard he was wearing). As memorable as that was, I didn't hear about him again until I joined a group called Young PR Pros, and he was an active contributor. I've been following his adventures ever since. Luckily for me, I met him, and that kind of sealed the deal. He's a great guy, and he shares a lot on his blog. So imagine my surprise when I was reading about entitled Millenials and came across his name.

Which led me down the rabbit hole, as it does every time. I really have to get control of that. I also have to stop letting the holidays slow down my reading. By the time I got to his blog post today, it was a month old. Shame on me. And, it was a response to someone else's post on the topic. To be fair to myself, it started with a news show, and I don't really watch the news. I choose to check the news on my laptop, which is just a particular laziness on my part.

So his blog post was responding to his non-stance on Millenials during a tv show addressing the conception that Millenials don't have the job skills for most of today's jobs. For the record, he wrote, and I believe, he doesn't really have a stance based on age or label. He does likely have a stance based on the ability to complete the work requested, which is where the job search comes in. It's all well and good to graduate from college. I'm a big fan, having done it myself. But why don't we inject a little reality into the situation?

I see entry level salaries for jobs purporting to be entry level jobs with mid-range level responsibilities. I've seen entry level jobs that pay $30-40K annually where the person hired for the job is responsible for the marketing and PR strategy. Not just executing the strategy, but creating it. I am sure there are recent graduates who can handle this type of responsibility, and do it well. I'm not even going to address my thoughts on why it is, exactly, that companies choose to take two entirely different disciplines like marketing and PR and blend them together. That's an insane expectation for your average college graduate. The best part? The new grads believe they can do it, if only they were given the chance. Better yet, they think they are entitled to the job because they've never failed, or they got good grades and graduated magna cum laude.

New grads are really looking for that $60-100K salary, though, which is really why they take jobs taht include responsibilities they have no idea how to accomplish, much less in an environment that frequently requires working with people who have a dotted line responsibility to you. But new grads don't want just a job. They want the job salary that was promised to them when they started college. Which is what a lot of more experienced job seekers are looking for, too. And they're struggling to find a job that will pay the mortgage and car payment and whatever else after having been down-sized. They're truly qualified for that entry level job that pays $30-40K, but they may not be able to afford to take that job. Or they feel like they shouldn't have to take a pay cut so they can be employed again.

It's pretty amazing to look at job descriptions, though. No longer is an intern or new grad asked to file and get coffee, maybe put together a PPT. Take a look at LinkedIn, and sort by entry level jobs. You might be amazed at the expectations, but those job descriptions reflect the opportunity companies are taking in a depressed job market to hire the best candidate for the least amount of money. If their HR professional can find and hire someone willing and mostly able to do the work, even if they've never done anything like it before outside of a paper for a class. But...if you hire someone who is a new grad and expects to work an 80 hour week to get the job done, then bully for you. It is amazing, though, to hear the kerfuffle over how Millenials aren't able to do the jobs they were hired to do. Of course they aren't. The job market is such that the job responsibilities went up and the salaries went down. I've looked at jobs that pay $30-40K and haven't applied. Not because of the money, but because there were responsibilities in the job description that I had never done before and they were asking for 3-5 years experience. It doesn't take long for employers to figure out you are on a learning curve, which is what an entry level position is for. Not to hire someone who hasn't ever converted a PPT to a Prezi for use at a trade show or conference call, but you expect them to be able to because you listed it in the job requirements.

The point here is, entitlement isn't just for Millenials. I've met a lot of entitled people, and read a lot of job descriptions that sound like the person or company writing them feels as though they are entitled to the best for less. I have found that entitlement is something everyone can fall victim to. If you listen carefully, entitled people tend to believe they deserve something and it comes through loud and clear in the way they speak and carry themselves. I'm not putting anyone down, here. It's just interesting to me that there's this disconnect between people who believe your actual experience and the way you present and carry yourself matters, and people who believe that because they want it, they should have it, for the simple reason that they exist and no matter what actual experience they have.