Why is it so hard to be a part-time bank teller (or to get any job)?

[Hauldren Collider]

I don't have any connections at all....my father works at a law firm for christ's sake. Stop blaming your condition on circumstance. I got where I am through hard work, skill, and most importantly a clear idea of what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. And as a corollary to that, I make my own decisions and I follow through with them.

Why the **** am I giving advice to a 25 year old when I'm only 18? You are a sad waste of space, Alby.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I don't have any connections at all

Oh dear god.

[Hauldren Collider]

...I don't...

No one in my family has any connections in the software industry whatsoever.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

I'm pretty sure that you can't claim 'self-made man' with your background, assuming it's what you've repeatedly bragged it is, regardless of who you do or don't know in the software industry.

[Hauldren Collider]

I'm not a self-made-man yet because I'm not even ****ing out of school. The reason I get to brag about this to alby is that apparently I make more money than he does, and he has a ****ing university degree.

Alby is where he is because of his own laziness and bad decisionmaking. I'm doing much better than he is because I actually have some ambition. He clings to this ridiculous belief that everyone who is doing better than him got there with inherited wealth or some other bull****.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Oh, and I won't dispute that in the least. I just prefer it when people who have advantages acknowledge them...not as either a positive or negative thing, but just as a general state of self-awareness.

[DaShi]

HC, because of your background, you will never be self-made. The opportunities afforded to you by your family's wealth (and influence) have opened a string of doors that Alpert and many others could never obtain so easily. As I've mentioned before, the most impressive thing about you seems to be the school you came from. Actually, people probably say the same about me.

[DriXnaK]

Albi you don't need to go to a great school or have tons of money to get a job. You do need to have talent and ambition though. I sacrificed a lot to get that IT degree I have now and to get into programming. For 2200$ I got a degree, a bunch of certifications, and the best job I've ever had. You can pony that up just working minimum wage. Are you telling me you can't do that? There's TONS of .Net and Java jobs out there. Not only that, but you have a financial background which makes you attractive to financial firms, and there's a lot of programming work done there. Finance degrees are a dime a dozen these days, but Finance degrees with programming capabilities and technical know how aren't.

Your problem is that you made your degree the be all and end all of your resume and then you sat in fast food for years instead of trying to acquire additional skills. Maybe if you spent less time whining on this forum about your circumstances and more time studying and networking you'd go somewhere. Maybe HC does have a leg up because of his parents' wealth or something, but are you going to try to tell me that I somehow have a leg up on you? I didn't go to a great school, I've never had money before and I had hardly any possessions. While people were out having fun and enjoying life I was scraping by trying to add to my skills whether it was Japanese, trying to start a business, getting a marketing degree, or learning programming and grabbing an IT degree. You wallowed in your lack of success, pitied yourself, and came to this forum seeking sympathy. You are weak. You even have a leg up on me in that you are physically capable still. I accomplished what I did with never ending chronic physical pain. In fact, in December, I cracked my vertebrate and couldn't even walk for a week. It took me a month to heal all the way. Even then I didn't stop studying or working to make it out. Do yourself a favor and get the **** off this forum, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and get over whatever wrongs you feel were made against you. Everyone has a sob story, the difference is that I never asked for people's sympathy and I never gave up trying to improve.

[KrazyHorse]

HC, because of your background, you will never be self-made. The opportunities afforded to you by your family's wealth (and influence) have opened a string of doors that Alpert and many others could never obtain so easily. As I've mentioned before, the most impressive thing about you seems to be the school you came from. Actually, people probably say the same about me.

His family really isn't that wealthy...

[Asher]

Albi you don't need to go to a great school or have tons of money to get a job. You do need to have talent and ambition though. I sacrificed a lot to get that IT degree I have now and to get into programming. For 2200$ I got a degree, a bunch of certifications, and the best job I've ever had. You can pony that up just working minimum wage. Are you telling me you can't do that? There's TONS of .Net and Java jobs out there. Not only that, but you have a financial background which makes you attractive to financial firms, and there's a lot of programming work done there. Finance degrees are a dime a dozen these days, but Finance degrees with programming capabilities and technical know how aren't.

In theory you could make a killing as a software developer for the investment banks (I did it for a couple years), if you don't mind being worked to death. It's probably not realistic to get a job as a developer there without a CS degree at least -- or if you have a finance degree, a ton of practical, proven experience in development.

Your problem is that you made your degree the be all and end all of your resume and then you sat in fast food for years instead of trying to acquire additional skills. Maybe if you spent less time whining on this forum about your circumstances and more time studying and networking you'd go somewhere.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

In my industry, attrition is generally much higher than in my case.

You had 85% attrition after "a few months". Is your industry kamikaze pilots?

[Fake Boris]

His family really isn't that wealthy...

I presume the school he went to means a lot.

[rah]

How would you have done this differently in the other steps, rah?

Employees are an incredible investment in training. Unless you're talking about entry level positions in call centers or similar jobs where high turnover is the norm, the cost of high turnover is too high. I figure when I hire someone, I need at least 5 years from them to makeup for the time and money I'm going to invest in training them. Even those with previous experience will still need to learn the specific business knowledge. I like to hire fresh kids that haven't learned many bad habits. But back to the original question.

A 30 minute interview is very unlikely going to guarantee that you've got a winner. It will however help you spot the losers.
So the goal is to take more than just the interview. Example. In one company where I ran IT, operations and development, one of our call centers was located next to computer room. We kept our eyes open for the most eager and reliable phone reps. We'd take the best for night time operations or entry level programmers. The call center managers loved it because they were able to brag that it was a potential career path for their people. You can bet I heard when any of the 100s of reps was taking a course in the field. We'd have months or years of history on these kids to review. The kids that we selected from the masses felt really special when we tabbed them for reassignment into systems. This generally had a great impact on their loyalty to the department and we could keep them long enough to recoup our investment in them. They really appreciated that we were giving them new careers.

Granted you don't always have a large pool to choose from. When I haven't I'm always on the lookout for talent whether I'm hiring or not. I go to the technical colleges (like Devry) and talk with their placement councilors to see who's available. It's amazing how cooperative they are when you go to them. Always keep track of friends of friends, or those your employees know about.

So generally I know more about my candidates than a 30 minute interview would provide but sometimes you don't have that luxury.

In times like this, if I got 2000 resumes, I'd first have HR screen out for qualifications and obvious losers. If I didn't have an HR dept, I'd hire a temp clerk to do that. It's not a particularly hard skill.
That usually get it down to a few hundred which I'd further reduce to about 20. At this point it's worth whatever time I spend finding the right person if I can find a good candidate that will work for me for 5 years.

Interview using standard behavioral methods. (Again, more to eliminate losers than find winners)
Then it's gut feeling time. Hopefully you've eliminated all the losers and you have a good enough crop left that whoever you choose will flourish if you provide the right environment.

The goal is to cultivate a feeling of loyalty. This a two way street. If you take care of them, they're more likely to stick around. Which is one reason why I like getting fresh kids. It's easier to get them raises when they're on the low end of the pay scale. 10% of nothing is easier on the budget then 3% of a lot. There's nothing like building loyalty when you're giving decent % raises frequently.

[Hauldren Collider]

I presume the school he went to means a lot.

It's a public school.

[MRT144]

I'd say the problem with al and the success with hc in no small part are about access, opportunity and making the most of both.