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U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

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Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#121

Post by ikeyany »

TuringNYC wrote: post #63
jdhn wrote: post #22

"They're just asking for the moon, and not expecting to pay very much for it," Cappelli says. "And as a result they [can't] find those people. Now that [doesn't] mean there was nobody to do the job; it just [means] that there was nobody at the price they were willing to pay." In my opinion, this is the key paragraph in the article. I see this all the time when recruiters send me job postings, and they want someone wi…

There is a shortage of workers in as much as there is a shortage of BMW 7-series sedans for under $30k. I looked everywhere at that price. Massive shortage.

We need to bring in cheaper, more desperate H1-BMWs from overseas.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#122

Post by notalaser »

havetocharge wrote: post #84
notalaser wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... the business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running well , or at least not as well as its owners would want it to be running? Should workers be doing charity work now?

No, you are free not to accept inadequate pay, just as the companies are free not to accept excessive pay. It's a marketplace, just think in terms of bids and asks.

Of course you are free to do whatever you want, it's the entitlement that pisses me off. Somehow, employees charging "too much" is not ok and totally not the companies' fault, whereas offering too little is great management. Then they wonder why there are six million jobs that they can't fill.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#123

Post by ikeyany »

existencebox wrote: post #66
pgwhalen wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What skill sets should they select for?

Having done a good handful of interviews, I tend to look for "generic problem solving" (not in the sense of trick questions, but in the sense of running through ambiguous engineering and mixed social/engineering scenarios to see how they'd move forward) communication skills (the ability to communicate the above effectively, talk about past work, problems, successes) and frankly track record. (this is obviously harder…

The industry chases away all the talented people with soft skills by telling them those skills aren't "merit-based".

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#124

Post by expertentipp »

molestrangler wrote: post #2

Go and read "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O’Neil. This has an excellent chapter of the use of ATS software the majority of recruiters use these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicant_tracking_system

Resume optimization to get the foot in the door, take home assignments, automatic platforms verifying programming skills, algorithm and data structure teasing. This is getting inpenetrable. I wonder how many of those smartasses inventing another question or an assignment would be able to get a job again.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#125

Post by jordache »

tambienben wrote: post #111
jordache wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does that random candidate get a hold of you?

> It turns out I knew the person who did get the job I was all but promised. You should have another cup of coffee.

i tend to skim-read manifestos

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#126

Post by HillaryBriss »

jdhn wrote: post #22

"They're just asking for the moon, and not expecting to pay very much for it," Cappelli says. "And as a result they [can't] find those people. Now that [doesn't] mean there was nobody to do the job; it just [means] that there was nobody at the price they were willing to pay." In my opinion, this is the key paragraph in the article. I see this all the time when recruiters send me job postings, and they want someone wi…

during my first real salaried job out of college, a coworker told me that they thought they could have done their work with nothing more than a high school education. that was true about my job as well.

companies have been spoiled with degreed employees who do routine coding and testing. in a lot of cases the degree is unnecessary.

but hiring processes can't break out of this pattern, this groupthink.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#127

Post by WalterSear »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #120
toomuchtodo wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If employers were required to pay for someone's time for an interview, you would see this fixed right quick. But because an employer can leave an unreasonable job req out there and interview as many candidates as they want, with the only cost being their own time, this continues.

Here's something I wrote on a different discussion about hiring: Imagine I cost my company $50 an hour in salary, and earn them $150 an hour (revenue of 3-5x salary is ballpark for most companies, we'll go for the low end for some perspective). As a senior dev, I have to sit in all the interviews of people potentially joining my team. Imagine we have 10 people that make it through the HR round. I have to participate…

I think the problem is that the company's budget and the hiring managers are different things - both in terms of resources and how people are willing to think about them.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#128

Post by WalterSear »

alexanderstears wrote: post #103
krapp wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As in, their business doesn't even generate enough revenue to afford hiring the kind of people who can keep it running? Even businesses which generate enough revenue to be able to afford higher salaries don't want to pay more for labor. They want to pay less for more.

And workers seek higher salaries. Through both entities acting in their self-interest, the market discovers an equilibrium.

Until the entity with more power starts bending the rules of them game in their favour.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#129

Post by coredog64 »

arca_vorago wrote: post #109
altotrees wrote: post #91

Recently had a recruiter call me, interview me over the phone once, in-person once, and via skype once. The job seemed to be a great fit, the pay was there, everything seemed to be lined up. The recruiter called me again to tell me that they were going to be taking the next steps with me very shortly. A week of silence goes by, then another. I email, inquiring about the position. "Oh, we gave that to someone we had b…

The latter, hands down. I quit college to startup an IT support company, and despite going back in spurts, never finished. I got quite a few jobs after I left the startup though, and in retrospect I think the primary factor that got me those jobs, despite my many years of expertise, was the fact that since I didn't have a degree they could pay me less vs most of the other candidates. The most recent one, that promise…

I generally agree with your premise, but wages are sticky, economically speaking. There might be a few people here who'd be okay with fluctuations of 10 or 20 percent in their salary on an annual basis, but by and large, most people would expect that there's not a decrease in their salary over time.

Re: U.S. Employers Struggle to Match Workers with Open Jobs

#130

Post by whipoodle »

RobertoG wrote: post #55
stult wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is a hangover from the recession. Hiring managers expectations have been anchored to market conditions that simply don't exist anymore but which lasted so long that no one in hiring recognizes the issue.

In my opinion this have nothing to do with circumstances. Companies that would prefer to pay less (that would be most of them) always say that there are not enough qualified people, they never complain that they have to pay too much. If there are not enough qualified people the answer is obvious: allow more emigration or educate more people in the field faster. The real goal is to reduce wages and improve profits. If…

You are correct, it is about labor costs.
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