There has got to be a better way

I know a lot of guys who are unemployed due to outsourcing, restructuring, or just a tangle with a regional manager who had a beef. I get calls all the time how do I land that job that will keep me around for a while? I sure wish I had the answer but being that I personally have been down this road I can sure empathise and understand the pain it is to get through to that HR manager. I have seen 50 or more varieties of a resume and they all look good. But folks I hate to break it to you, most of the HR recruiters don't care. The majority of the companies which have more than a fifty employees are using a software of some type to sift through the hundreds of resumes. What that means is if your resume doesn't match with key words matching the job description, nobody is going to see it. Yep. I have one close friend who has been laid off twice in 15 months because of restructuring. He has sent out via company websites, 577 resumes. NADA! He is on his second layoff and this time he is trying to make a resume sound like the job description in order for his resume to get through that pesky ol' software. In one week, 114 resumes; all with the key words in them. Lets wish him luck.

I had a long conversation with a member of our state legislature here and I asked the question: The affordable care act requires states report all jobs where the employee works 28 hours per week on up. So is it far to say that the unemployment rate for full time employees is not 4.2% but 24.2% since the number of people that have had their hours cut has increased 55% and the number of part time jobs created has been 45%.

Now we have a slight reporting issue. If you are like my friend, he is 59 years old. Been in sales for 30 years and now can't find a job unless it is 100% commission. He is working temp jobs during the day and working at a convenience store at night. Can't retire because he lost his pension a few years ago when the employer went belly up, and then he lost his 401K to having to borrow it to put food on the table.

I asked an HR manager friend of mine why do they like hiring 24 year olds with a degree in basket weaving over a guy like my friend who has all this experience? I couldn't believe the answer, "because we can pay the 24 year old less". Gulp!