Lately the job hunting process has become far more frustrating, disheartening and depressing. On Friday I received an automated email from the first company (agency) I interviewed with saying I had been disqualified for not having the requirements necessary (specifically my GPA). It represents a fundamental flaw in the governmental hiring process though. The application was essentially the second round of the process with the first being the phone interview. To make matters worse, not only had my resume been pulled without me applying, but I had done well enough in the phone interview to receive an application.
At some point in the process someone could have looked at my application and said “this person will never qualify based on our computer filtering system, but they decided to continue anyway. Now I have no options because I A) didn’t lie on the application process and B) was thrown out based on a computer picking up one faulty answer. Under the answer options was an area for you to write a small amount of information as well as to put a reference. Due to a computer, my reference was never even glanced at. I can’t say that it’s not partially my fault – sure I could’ve studied more, memorized better, and been better at taking tests – but it makes you really think about how many solid candidates are over-looked based on one or two semesters of adjusting, or even worse, illness to self or family.
I have a friend who was severely sick during her sophomore year at another school. In order to stay on family health insurance she could not temporarily drop out of school and instead pushed through the semester, failing three of her five classes and completely demolishing her GPA. Should she be punished for multiple flaws in the system that make her LOOK subpar? Or should she be admired for pushing through pain, sickness, weakness, and other distractions and at least passing those two classes and continuing her education?
To bring this post back to me: Sure I was a bit of a slacker during my first three semesters at Virginia Tech (I have heard of many people who had GPA issues the semester after the April 16th shooting) but during my final five I was noticeably better, even good enough to be considered for the majority of government jobs out there. These five semesters are also generally harder than the earlier ones as students take their capstone classes, as well as many 3000 level classes. During four of these final five I was also balancing a job with school work, something that MANY students do not even attempt, much less succeed at.
I’m not trying to say that I’m better than anyone else with this blog post. I am, however, saying that other factors must be looked at to validate whether a 3.0+ GPA was any more difficult than another person’s 2.8. Most of the people I know who graduated with a 3.0 or higher never even attempted a job during their four years at Virginia Tech however they did have outside forces such as fraternities and other groups that gave them help through previous experience, study groups, etc.
Over the past week or two I’ve realized that I no longer can count on getting a career job. It’s simply not possible at this time and is something I need to look at more in a year than right this instant. I’ve started applying for jobs that I’m not qualified for and looking at jobs that I never even thought I’d consider just because the market has changed more than just through unemployment rates. While the news will tell you every week that X new jobs were created or lost in the past seven days, they do not tell you the cold hard facts of it which is, in all honesty, the way this recession, depression, or whatever you want to call it, has changed for college graduates.
Growing up, my classmates and I were always told that it was important to go to college because, while not ALWAYS the case, most of the high paying and prestigious jobs require a college degree. This is no longer true. Entry level means you received a degree and have experience or you went to grad school. It may be time that we do what many of the fast food chains have done in recent years and shift our perceptions. XL went to large, large went to medium, and medium went to small. The same has happened in the world of education with college becoming equivalent to high school.
