Why "Entry" Level Jobs Now Need 3-5 Years Experience
Summary
TLDRThis video script explores the paradox of entry-level jobs demanding extensive experience, amid a labor shortage. It critiques the convoluted hiring processes, the overuse of AI in applicant screening, and the tendency for companies to seek overqualified candidates, which can backfire. The script also delves into the legal and strategic reasons behind stringent job requirements, the benefits of internal promotions, and the importance of soft skills in job interviews. It concludes with a reminder of the value of fresh perspectives in the workplace.
Takeaways
- đź Entry-level jobs paradoxically require significant experience, highlighting a disconnect between job titles and actual expectations.
- đ The labor market's high demand for jobs has led to an increase in hiring obstacles, making job searches more difficult and stressful for applicants.
- đŒ Companies often request multiple years of experience for entry-level positions, potentially filtering out high-quality candidates in favor of desperate ones.
- đ€ The rise of AI in recruitment processes, such as application tracking systems (ATS), has led to an arms race of applicants tailoring their resumes to AI, not humans.
- đŒ Overqualified candidates do not necessarily outperform others, and underpaying for talent can cost businesses more in the long run.
- đ° The cost of bloated hiring processes, including job postings and multiple interview rounds, can be financially burdensome for companies.
- đ Job seekers are encouraged to apply for jobs that are better than their current ones to gain experience and increase their market value.
- đ Companies use high job requirements to protect themselves legally and to justify hiring decisions that may not be based on merit.
- đ Internal promotions are beneficial but can be more complex and costly than external hires, leading some companies to prefer the latter.
- đ ïž Managers often value experience highly due to their own career paths, but research shows that experience does not strongly correlate with job performance.
- đ Being able to address concerns about a lack of experience during an interview can demonstrate adaptability and problem-solving skills, which are valuable to employers.
Q & A
Why are entry-level jobs no longer considered 'entry-level'?
-Entry-level jobs are often described as requiring several years of experience and advanced degrees because companies are trying to filter out candidates and attract those with more experience, even for positions that traditionally did not require such qualifications.
What is the impact of the current labor shortage on job seekers?
-The labor shortage has led to widespread hiring, but job seekers still face challenges such as a lack of savings to sustain them during the job search and the stress of a difficult and time-consuming process.
Why do companies create difficult application processes?
-Difficult application processes can deter candidates who are not highly motivated, but they may also inadvertently filter out potentially good candidates, leading to a pool of only the most desperate applicants.
How do companies use technology to manage the high volume of job applications?
-Companies use application tracking systems (ATS) with AI to scrape resumes for keywords and filter candidates based on the information provided, which helps them manage the large number of applications they receive.
What is the downside of requiring multiple years of experience for entry-level positions?
-Requiring multiple years of experience can backfire as it may attract candidates who are looking for entry-level jobs because they are not performing well in their current roles and need to move on.
Why might hiring overqualified candidates not be beneficial for a company?
-Overqualified candidates may not outperform others and could cost businesses more in the long run, as they might have higher expectations or be more likely to leave for better opportunities.
What is the financial cost of bloated hiring processes to a company?
-Bloated hiring processes can be expensive due to the costs of sponsoring job postings on various sites, conducting multiple rounds of interviews, and paying recruiters' fees based on successful placements.
How do companies use job requirements to protect themselves legally?
-By listing numerous and sometimes unreasonable job requirements, companies can legally justify hiring decisions, as they can claim that other candidates did not meet all the prerequisites.
What is the benefit of internal hires over external hires according to the studies mentioned?
-Internal hires tend to outperform external hires because they are already familiar with the company's operations, require less training, and are more likely to stay in their new roles longer.
Why might a company prefer external hires over internal promotions?
-External hires can be easier and present less risk for companies, especially when there are no strong internal candidates. They also avoid the complexities and costs associated with promoting from within.
How can job seekers deal with the high requirements set by employers?
-Job seekers can still apply for positions even if they don't meet all the requirements, focusing on their ability to adapt and apply skills from different experiences or industries.
What is the role of soft skills in the job application process?
-Soft skills, such as dealing with difficult customers or co-workers, presenting strong arguments, or showing empathy, are important in every job and can help applicants stand out, even if they lack specific experience.
Why do some managers rely on experience as a key hiring criterion?
-Managers often value experience because they believe it indicates competence in a role. However, studies have shown that experience does not strongly correlate with job performance, especially in rapidly changing corporate environments.
Outlines
đŒ The Paradox of Entry-Level Job Requirements
This paragraph discusses the absurdity of entry-level job postings that demand extensive experience and qualifications, highlighting the disconnect between the labor market's demands and the reality of entry-level positions. It points out the stress and inefficiency of job searching in the current corporate environment, where the hiring process is often convoluted and dehumanizing. The speaker shares personal anecdotes of fruitless job applications and criticizes companies for filtering out all but the most desperate candidates with their over-complicated application procedures. The paragraph also touches on the risks companies take by hiring overqualified candidates who may not perform well, referencing a study that found no significant performance advantage in overqualified individuals.
đ The Impact of Technology on Job Applications
The second paragraph delves into how technology has transformed the job application process, making it both easier and more difficult for applicants. With the rise of online job boards and AI-driven applicant tracking systems (ATS), companies are flooded with applications, leading to the creation of barriers that filter out all but the most persistent candidates. The paragraph explores the use of AI in resume screening and the development of tools to help candidates' resumes pass initial AI screenings. It also discusses the implications of this 'arms race' between applicants and companies, and how it has led to a situation where applying for jobs has become a numbers game, with low acceptance rates prompting applicants to apply to even more positions.
đĄïž Legal and Practical Reasons Behind Job Requirements
This paragraph examines the reasons behind companies setting high job requirements, which often seem unreasonable or disconnected from the actual role. It discusses the legal aspect, where companies use extensive requirements to protect themselves from potential lawsuits related to unfair hiring practices. The paragraph also covers the benefits of internal hiring, as shown by studies indicating that internal hires tend to outperform external ones due to their familiarity with the company culture and operations. However, it acknowledges the challenges of internal promotions, such as the increased difficulty and cost for HR. The speaker suggests that companies may inflate job requirements to justify not promoting from within, and to ensure they can hire the 'safe' external candidate.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄEntry-Level Jobs
đĄLabor Shortage
đĄResume
đĄGhosting
đĄOverqualified
đĄHiring Process
đĄApplication Tracking System (ATS)
đĄInternal Hires
đĄProbationary Period
đĄExperience
đĄSoft Skills
Highlights
Entry-level jobs increasingly require extensive experience and qualifications despite being entry-level positions.
The latest jobs report reveals widespread hiring with a paradox of requirements for entry-level roles.
Job seekers face a stressful and time-consuming task, often without enough savings to support a prolonged job search.
The corporate world has introduced obstacles that make job searching more difficult than necessary.
Overqualification does not necessarily correlate with better job performance according to a study by Portland State University.
Bloated hiring processes can be expensive for companies, affecting the cost-effectiveness of recruitment.
Job application processes have become too easy, leading to companies receiving thousands of applications for a single position.
Companies use AI and application tracking systems to filter candidates, which can lead to a lack of human touch in the hiring process.
The use of AI in resume screening may inadvertently exclude qualified candidates who do not tailor their resumes to AI systems.
The competitive nature of job searching has shifted from personal connections to mass application with the aid of technology.
Companies often increase job requirements to cover legal bases and protect themselves from potential hiring practice lawsuits.
Internal hires can outperform external hires due to familiarity with the company, but they also present challenges for HR and management.
Promoting from within can improve staff retention and motivation, but it can also be more complex and costly than external hiring.
Managers often lack knowledge on what makes a good hire and may rely on experience as a default requirement.
Studies show no strong correlation between experience and job performance in non-technical fields.
New ideas from inexperienced employees can be as valuable as experience, as demonstrated by the evolution of companies like Nintendo.
The video encourages viewers to consistently apply for better jobs to increase earning potential and career growth.
The video is sponsored by Brilliant, promoting interactive learning in data analysis to stand out in the job market.
The transcript concludes with a call to subscribe to a newsletter for early access to videos and in-depth articles on various topics.
Transcripts
stop me if you've heard this one before
an entry-level job paying eight dollars
an hour with no benefits at an
unremarkable company oh and they want
you to have at least three years
experience in a similar role and
preferably a master's degree why the
[Â __Â ] are entry-level jobs not entry
level anymore the latest jobs report
found widespread hiring one man's quest
to find a job is Raising questions about
the labor shortage right now he says he
applied to more than 60 entry-level
positions ridiculately strong in
Hospitality Leisure and health care we
have created more jobs in two years than
any presidential term searching for a
job is a difficult and time-consuming
task most Americans do not have enough
savings to survive for more than two
weeks without going into debt which
means it is also stressful no matter how
efficient the hiring process is made you
are never going to have fun looking for
a job and nothing can change that but
the corporate world has introduced a lot
of obstacles that make the job of
finding a job as painful as possible
filling out online forms for information
already on your resume going through
multiple rounds of interviews and
getting ghosted by hiring managers for
hundreds of positions is enough to drive
anybody mad responded to me four of
those went on to a phone call after an
email exchange and then one of those
turned into an interview zero of them
turned into a job that was actually uh
desperate for help it's also simply Bad
Business attracting the right Talent is
vital for business success if businesses
make their application process too
difficult they are going to filter out
everybody but the most desperate
candidates which are rarely the best
candidates companies that ask for
multiple years of experience from
applicants applying for entry-level jobs
also expose themselves to a similar risk
it might sound advantageous for the
business to get an employee with years
of experience that they can pay like a
fresh graduate but company management
frequently overlooks the reason that
these applicants are looking for
entry-level jobs and a field they have
been working in for years and it's that
they are not that good at their job and
they need to keep moving companies
before their poor performance catches up
with them a recent study conducted by
Portland State University and published
by the Harvard Business Review found
that overqualified candidates did not
outperform the control group and that
paying significantly under Market rates
for talent will cost most businesses
more in other areas bloated hiring
processes are also expensive sponsor job
postings on sites like indeed LinkedIn
and Glassdoor can cost hundreds of
dollars per day easily more than the
successful applicant will be paid once
they are on board and working multiple
rounds of interviews also take paid
hours from HR hiring managers and
third-party recruiters recruiters work
on a commission basis for successfully
placed candidates but if a company makes
candidates go through multiple rounds of
interviews the recruiters can ask for a
higher fee or they will be incentivized
to send their best recruits to companies
that have a simple hiring process so
they can get paid quickly and reliably
it's bad business and good company
managers know it but there are three
reasons why they still do it anyway the
first reason is that it's become too
easy to apply for a job Indeed has 60
million monthly users and Linkedin has
over 200 million online job boards make
it easy for applicants to apply for
hundreds of jobs every day based on
convenient filters that let them search
results by in industry seniority
experience and salary range companies
can get several thousand applications
for a single position because the
optimal job search strategy has become
spamming your resume into as many
positions that vaguely fit the
description of the job you are looking
for companies have attempted to adapt to
this by having landing pages where users
can fill in their details into the
company's own database by manually
completing an online form these forms
typically ask for information that
should be included on any good resume
but it enters it in a way that can be
read by a computer instead of being read
by a hiring manager saving them the time
of manually going through thousands of
applications by hand to find the
attributes they are looking for in a
candidate the back end of these forms
will enable the hiring manager to search
through their candidates by a similar
set of filters that the candidates
themselves used to find the job posting
even in the arms race between the volume
of applications and the people that
check those applications you're
quantifying human behavior human
Expressions human voices turning that
into Data we're now using artificial
intelligence to help companies find the
very best talent some companies have
studied using application tracking
systems or ATS which use AI to scrape
resumes for keywords to populate
databases that can be filtered in the
same way without requiring candidates to
fill in a data entry form themselves and
most likely you were being analyzed by
an algorithm how does that make you feel
I feel like that would Blindside me
entirely this practice has become so
common that there are now ai tools like
zetti jobscan and Rezi that check
resumes against job posts and make sure
that they are appealing to the AI system
that check resumes before the hiring
manager does so an AI will write a
resume to satisfy another AI to stand
out against thousands of other
applications also written and checked by
AI applying for a job has become easier
than when you had to search the
classifieds and call companies one at a
time but this means people can apply for
more jobs more applications means that
the acceptance rate at each job is much
lower and the best way to deal with this
low acceptance rate is to apply for more
jobs which means that applying for a job
has become harder all over again nobody
is to blame for this new paradigm I love
making fun of dumb corporate decisions
on this channel but in this case they
are just reacting to new technology that
has made finding applicants easier than
ever and everybody else is reacting to
the same thing the competitive meta of
job searching has shifted from a firm
handshake to mass spamming resumes to
get past increasingly difficult spam
filters but that's just one reason and
there are plenty of things that
companies are doing which are just dumb
so it's time to learn how money Works to
find out why entry-level jobs all of the
sudden require three years experience
and how you can take advantage of this
benefit for your own career this week's
lesson was sponsored by brilliant
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the second reason that companies have
made it so difficult to apply for jobs
is because they want to cover their ass
there are lots of reasons why a hiring
manager might want to pick one job
applicant over another but not all of
them are legal and even if they don't
violate any equal opportunity laws some
might be a bad look for the company by
listing lots of unreasonable job
requirements the company increases the
likelihood that no applicant will tick
every box which means they can hire
whomever they want and cover themselves
by saying all of the other candidates
were missing one or more of the roles
prerequisites it's rare that companies
get much pushback over rejecting an
external candidate most people have just
become accustomed to never hearing back
from a majority of jobs they apply for
if you have ever applied for a job
recently you will know that no response
is the new rejection letter
first time if companies do respond they
try to keep it as generic as possible so
that they do not expose themselves to
any potential unfair hiring practice
lawsuits which makes a long list of job
requirements redundant where these do
help companies though is in rejecting
internal hires according to a study by
Cornell University internal hires
outperformed outside hires but only
because they are more familiar with the
business from day one requiring less
training to get into a new role and
because they were more likely to stay in
a job longer than the outside hire a
similar study by McKinsey Consulting
found that a strong culture of internal
promotions helped with staff retention
and encourage staff to work harder to
qualify because they could see it paying
off for them the pandemic a lot of
companies are are not flush financially
so they can't afford to hire a new
person internal promotions are effective
but they are also more difficult than
outside hires if you get promoted or
moved around within your company then
someone else needs to be hired to fill
your role and if someone gets promoted
to fill your role then HR has to fill
three positions instead of just one
which is expensive difficult and triples
a chance that someone won't be able to
perform their new job people hired
internally also don't have probationary
periods so if they do underperform in
their new role they are harder to let go
internal hires have advantages but
external hires are easier and present
less risk if a company has no strong
internal candidates for a new role but
it doesn't want to lose the benefits
that come from occasionally promoting
people from within then the most
effective strategy for them is to
increase the job requirements so they
can tell their existing staff that
Unfortunately they don't qualify based
on the jobs criteria I know I say it a
lot but this is another reason why the
best thing you can do in your career in
your early years is to consistently
apply for new jobs that are better than
the one you currently have workers that
change their jobs every two years earn
on average 50 more than their colleagues
who show loyalty to a company sticking
around might get you a promotion but
there's no way to know how long it will
take for other people to move out of
their positions having experience at
different companies is also more
valuable to new employers than long-term
tenure at a single employer when
employers ask for three years experience
they are often satisfied with candidates
that talk about dealing with similar
challenges in different Industries so
you should apply anyway and just have
some kind of experience to talk about
even if it's not doing the same job or
even a job at all and that's a third
reason why employers make job
requirements that are so out of touch
with the job they are offering they want
to see how Apple can deal with the
challenge there is an old saying in
business that even if you are not in
sales you are in sales most people do
not have jobs that require cold calling
a list of leads to generate Revenue but
those soft skills are still important in
every job dealing with difficult
customers difficult co-workers being
able to present a strong argument or
simply showing empathy for a clients
needs are all skills that could be
demonstrated by an applicant when they
are questioned about a shortcoming of
their qualifications against the job
requirements if you're in a job
interview and can provide a strong
response to a question like this that
eases the interviewer's concerns without
disregarding them you will probably end
up doing better than someone who didn't
even have that experience Gap if you can
deal with an interviewer's concerns then
you have clearly demonstrated that you
can deal with the other challenges as
they are presented to you a skill that
is worth more than anything you can
write down on a resume and that's the
fourth reason some managers do know what
makes a good hire but most don't people
are promoted into management positions
based off having experience in a
subordinate role managers are therefore
naturally inclined to believe that when
it comes to hiring someone more
experience is more better it's a
reasonable assumption that someone that
has practice in a role should be better
than someone with no practice in fact I
said it at the beginning of this video
and you probably just accepted it but
corporate rules to non-technical Fields
change so rapidly today that the benefit
is negligible a 30 year old study
conducted by the internal Congress of
Applied psychology in Madrid found no
strong correlation between experience
and job performance since this study was
published follow-up studies including a
publication from the Harvard Business
Review in 2019 found the same thing most
corporate managers do not read Journal
articles about statistical correlations
between hiring parameters and job
performance most go off their own
experience which is the value of
experience they do the same for other
job require government because the
safest move for them is to find a
candidate that takes the most boxes
experience can help a business but so
can new ideas and neither is more
valuable than the other in fact if it
wasn't for an enthusiastically
inexperienced employee Nintendo might
still be a taxi company and proprietor
of a love Hotel I'm not kidding go watch
my video over on how history Works to
learn about the really weird 130 year
history of Nintendo and remember if you
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