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Thoughts on the job market
Sep. 19th, 2006 10:18 amIt is immediately apparent to anyone who has been scanning job ads for longer than, say, five minutes, that the vast majority of postings are for certain types of jobs. Secretaries, call centre agents, sales representatives, and various types of financial agents all seem to be in great demand. This is fine if you happen to be looking for a job as a secretary, call centre agent, sales rep, or financial officer. If, however, you have your sights set on something a little more esoteric, you're out of luck.
One important thing to note about all the jobs I just listed is that they don't actually do anything in terms of a concrete product or service. If a company is in the business of making widgets, for example, none of the above jobs actually involve making widgets. A secretary may file reports of widget production, a sales rep may sell the widgets, a financial officer may ensure that the company has enough money to produce widgets, but, in the end, none of these jobs actually involve the production of widgets.
Consumers consume products and services. This is a tautology, of course. But the flip-side of the statement is that consumers do not consume the services of secretaries, call centre reps, etc., at least not directly. It could be argued that a company would cease to exist without its sales reps: if the widgets aren't being sold, the company disappears. On the other hand, the company disappears much faster if there are no widgets to sell. The most important part of any company, at least in my mind, is the part that actually produces the product or service being sold to consumers. The most important people at a school are the teachers, not the administrators. The most important people at the widget production plant are the widget producers, not the secretaries or the managers.
I think of the entire workforce in terms of "degrees of separation" from the product:
( Further thoughts, including a definition of 'degrees of separation.' )
Perhaps this is why I'm so annoyed with my job hunt. Teaching is, in fact, a 0-degree job. That's why I like it: I'm doing something that has an actual, concrete impact on people. Editing, on the other hand, is at least 4 or 5 degrees separated from any product. ("I edit the documents that were written to inform the media about a new line of widgets.") That might be why I don't particularly care about the industry for editing jobs: it doesn't really matter. At that degree of removal, words are just words and have no actual impact on the product, unless the company is a publisher.
Pah. I should be job-hunting now, but I've just written myself into a funk. Perhaps I'll go to karate instead and come back refreshed in the afternoon.
One important thing to note about all the jobs I just listed is that they don't actually do anything in terms of a concrete product or service. If a company is in the business of making widgets, for example, none of the above jobs actually involve making widgets. A secretary may file reports of widget production, a sales rep may sell the widgets, a financial officer may ensure that the company has enough money to produce widgets, but, in the end, none of these jobs actually involve the production of widgets.
Consumers consume products and services. This is a tautology, of course. But the flip-side of the statement is that consumers do not consume the services of secretaries, call centre reps, etc., at least not directly. It could be argued that a company would cease to exist without its sales reps: if the widgets aren't being sold, the company disappears. On the other hand, the company disappears much faster if there are no widgets to sell. The most important part of any company, at least in my mind, is the part that actually produces the product or service being sold to consumers. The most important people at a school are the teachers, not the administrators. The most important people at the widget production plant are the widget producers, not the secretaries or the managers.
I think of the entire workforce in terms of "degrees of separation" from the product:
( Further thoughts, including a definition of 'degrees of separation.' )
Perhaps this is why I'm so annoyed with my job hunt. Teaching is, in fact, a 0-degree job. That's why I like it: I'm doing something that has an actual, concrete impact on people. Editing, on the other hand, is at least 4 or 5 degrees separated from any product. ("I edit the documents that were written to inform the media about a new line of widgets.") That might be why I don't particularly care about the industry for editing jobs: it doesn't really matter. At that degree of removal, words are just words and have no actual impact on the product, unless the company is a publisher.
Pah. I should be job-hunting now, but I've just written myself into a funk. Perhaps I'll go to karate instead and come back refreshed in the afternoon.
