“Get a job!”
“Get a job!”That was a line from an old rock ‘n roll song we heard in our youth. But it’s not music to many Millennial ears these days.
It wasn’t as hard to get a job back then even though there were a lot of us looking for one. Not as many young people went on to college or vocational training, but if you were a good learner and a hard worker, the job was yours.
But, things have changed today! Strangely, now there are more unfilled, well-paying jobs than ever before. And far too many of our young folks, our Millennials, don’t seem to have a clue on how to land a good job today.
Read on. You may know some young person who will find this blog helpful. The best definition we ever heard of a good job is one where you never have to work another day in your life. “Why is that?” you wisely ask. You don’t want to just get a job. You want to “Get The Job!”
The answer is, that if you choose the job or career wisely, you will enjoy what you do so much that (OK, most days) you can’t wait to get to your job. And, OK, maybe there’s some “work” involved, but you will enjoy much of what you do because you know you are making a difference in your life and others too.
If you are a Millennial and thinking about finding a job we found a great “training” video to help Millennials in their job-hunting! But before viewing the video, here’s some personal history from one of your Blogmeisters to prepare you.
Unless you count delivering papers or shoveling the neighbor’s sidewalks in the winter for “two-bits,” (25 cents), my first job happened a couple of months before I turned 14. My mother told me she would not having me sit around the house all summer vacation and that was that, as they say. “Check with Jordan Pharmacy,” she told me. “Maybe you can find a job there.” With that lead, I asked Mr. Jordan, the pharmacist and owner, if he had any job openings. He asked me if I knew how to make change for a purchase. Having collected money on my paper route, I was able to say, “Yes, I can!”
I ended up working at that pharmacy part-time for almost 7 years, from high school through college. Plus, I was taught many, good job skills by Mr. Jordan and the other workers. When I was in college taking chemistry, I was even allowed to help the pharmacist locate the meds. Oh course, he checked and double-checked everything. That’s what good pharmacists do.
There were no electric scanners and computer-connected cash registers back then. To make a sale we had to ring up the sale on the cash register with the correct amount. We then took the money from the customer, put it in the cash register and counted the change back from the price of the item.
Say the item was a $7.37 sale and you were given a $10 bill. You took 3 pennies from the penny till to make $7.40, a dime more to make $7.50, a fifty cent piece to make $8.00 (yes, there were half dollar coins back then). You then took two one dollar bills from the register and that got you from $8 to $10. A happy customer makes for a happy sales clerk. And knowing these basic work skills made all the difference.
It seems to us that fewer folks talk to one another these days. Many younger Millennial heads, even older heads too, are bent forward, staring at the screen on the cellphone, thumbs flying, completely ignoring the person they are actually with.
This is not an issue in their minds, because the other nearby, real person is doing the same thing. Reality has been replaced by virtual reality which isn’t really real, so to speak.
No one wants to interrupt anyone else with a real, live conversation. So, they text each other, which of course takes longer, and can’t replicate the sound of a good friend’s voice. A couple today can share a good dinner and never share a good word. We would have called that “rude” in our day, but now it’s “what it is…”
The job market today is full of untaken job opportunities. Employers are often unable to find young people who want to learn new skills. The world of STEM, for example, offers many new careers, from technicians to data collectors to researchers to other engineering positions for both women and men. There are many more jobs waiting for the taking and fewer to take them.
Being able to use a cellphone or knowing Facebook or Snapchat is simply not enough to get a good job.
In case you missed the viral video below that’s recently flying around on social-media today, here’s an opportunity to see what far too many young job applicants don’t know about today’s world of work.
This video is both funny and not funny at the same time. Warning! This video hopes to show you what not to do!
Click on the graphic to the left to watch the video. It’s a story with a good lesson for many Millennials.
Some Tips: If you are looking for a job, research it first. Find out what you need to know about a job. Have some questions to ask. Be able to tell the interviewer why you want the job and the skills you bring to it.
Beforehand, try to talk to others who have a job like the one you want. Google some internet searches. Be ready for your interview! Show them you are the one who meets or exceeds their needs!
Some More Tips!
- Do your homework before the interview.
- Put your cellphone down and turned off so you don’t look at it.
- Look the interviewer straight in the eye. Do it right!
There are many links or Youtube videos our there to help you find the right job. Here’s a youtube link we found. There are many more!