I completed my graduate studies at UBC early this year. Since then, I have been practically unemployed (notwithstanding the occasional tutoring and other odd jobs). Now, one of the major barriers between me and 40 hours per week in a cubicle has been lack of industry (or as all the ads put it, real-world) experience. Almost all of the companies hiring people with my background require 3+ years of experience. Since the recession has helped lay off many, many people, there are loads of engineers/programmers/software developers out there who have 5+ years of work experience and are currently jobless. My total work experience in years: 0 (or, to put an optimistic spin on it, 0+) . This has not made for an easy job hunt.
Anyway, long hours searching for jobs (and swearing at companies asking for decades of work-ex) coupled with longer hours of not actually having a job have resulted in a minor epiphany. Most jobs demand heaps of work-ex. But there must be many jobs where work experience is not necessary. In fact, there must be jobs where having work experience is - or rather, should be - an actual hindrance.
Anyway, long hours searching for jobs (and swearing at companies asking for decades of work-ex) coupled with longer hours of not actually having a job have resulted in a minor epiphany. Most jobs demand heaps of work-ex. But there must be many jobs where work experience is not necessary. In fact, there must be jobs where having work experience is - or rather, should be - an actual hindrance.
Consider dishwashing at a restaurant, for instance. It's a minimum wage job. It's dull, monotonous and, since you are alone at the back away from the other staff and guests, lonely. The skills you need to perform an adequate job need, literally, minutes of practice. And once you start performing at that level of competence, there is no real incentive to perform any better. Even in those restaurants where the diswasher gets a share of the tips, these tips are not the result of his or her work, so why work harder than necessary!?!All in all, it's the kind of job you do for the bare minimum time you have to do it, and then move on. Under these circumstances, any person who has the work ethic to really try hard at dishwashing and take pride in doing it well is not going to remain a dishwasher for long. He or she will invariably find a more rewarding job doing something else. What this means is, the dishwashers who DO have lots of dishwashing experience... are incompetent slouches who couldn't get any other job.
Would you really want to hire such a person to clean your restaurant's dishes !?! Dishwashing, then, is a job where - if employers stop to think about it - experience is a disadvantage. (Not that employers do pause and think like this, but , you know, IF they did...)
I know this analysis won't apply to everyone, so if your ARE a competent and experienced dishwasher, please don't flip out. Take pride in being a rare breed.
I wonder if there are any other jobs that fall into this category. There must be some.
3 comments:
The dishwasher at my restaurant quit last night and rightly so after a 9 hour shift by himself! Apparently, we've gone through 5 dishwashers in the two months that I was gone. It's a thankless job. Although there is one man in his 60s that does a fantastic job at it. He's always so on top of everything!
Hello yogababy, I'm a friend of GreenOnion, that's how I found your blog. Retail is also a job where experience is a hindrance. It's so monotonous that once you have experience you become a manager or you move onto restaurant work where you can earn tips. If you've been doing retail for 5+ years you are either hopeless or you're married to a wealthy man and your job is your social life.
Hello gate,
True, but if by retail you mean saleswork at a store, well, at least you are interacting with people. There are soft skills that are employed there that you can work on and improve.
But I do get your main point - experience in this case also implies incompetence.
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