Why Millennial’s Can’t Get a Job? Here’s a Hint: TXT MSG

Wrap your big brain around this . . .

Out of the hundreds of resumes people send you for a current job posting, you finally narrow down 10 really good ones, so you call them.

You get voicemail. Understandable, they don’t recognize your number. So you leave a warm and polite message, something like:

Hi John, this is Jordan Green at Blurrv Media Inc., I’m calling about a resume you sent us in regards to the Account Manager job. I was impressed with your resume, and wanted to chat with you about the company, the job and learn about you in the process. Please call me at . . . thank you.

I go about my day. No call back. Next day – no call back. DAYS later – still nothing.

Less than 10 percent of the people who send me resumes to the jobs we have posted are calling back.

Then it dawned on me, I remember reading several articles about how people under 30 don’t talk on the phone anymore. They text, instant message, even use it to emphasize key points when gesturing in a restaurant – but they don’t TALK anymore.

“Every time I see my voicemail icon pop up, I think, oh God, who died?” said one young person in one of the reports I read.

So, I decided to try an experiment. Instead of calling people who sent me a resume, I sent a short text message:

Thx for the CV. If u r still looking for work, please call me at this # and we can discuss.

(I even used texting slang. So unprofessional! I know!)

EVERYONE I texted called back. Well, okay, one person texted me back:

Yeah, Im still uneployed. Who is this?

(I even used her txting slang. So unprofessional! She’ll be looking 4work 4ver!)

Upon finally connecting voice with the rest, I’d ask: Did you get my voicemail?

They all said something along the lines of: “Oh, I never check my messages.”

One person admitted that when her voicemail gets full, she just deletes them without listening to them first.

The idea, as ridiculous as it was, to text potential job candidates, because they weren’t checking their messages, came to me because I received a text in regards to a message I had left on a prospect’s voicemail:

Hi, I just got a call frm this numb. If u r a telemarketer, DO NOT CALL BACK. Otherwise, what do you want?

(I even used her rude, unprofessional tone of voice. I know – who’d want to hire her EVER?)

I think our politicians can stop promising job creation, and focus their lies – I mean their campaign pitches – on more productive avenues.

I’ve finally figured out why the under 30 crowd can’t find work.

They only text message. Well, they do a lot more than that on their mobile devices, from snapping self-absorbed pictures of themselves (selfies) to surfing the net, to listening to music.

They just don't talk on the thing, or check it's messages.

(How do they expect to get a job if they don’t answer the phone?)

That’s a very good question.

My answer – wait – let me text it to you:

They prolly dnt farther ahead than their current txt msg convo.

What?

I said, they probably don’t think farther ahead than their current text message conversation.

It’s so unprofessional to text someone that sent you a resume in confidence.

It’d be like a woman sending her boyfriend a romantic text message while his unknowing wife is using his phone – nothing good can come from this.

And nothing good can come from a generation that can’t communicate.

Not that texting isn’t a FORM of communications, it’s just the wrong one for landing a job.

Part of the reason employers want to TALK ON THE PHONE as a point of first contact is to evaluate a potential employee’s communications skills, and get a sense for who they are.

We want to see how they express themselves, get a sense of their personality, their character and so much more than you could ever get from a text message, regardless of how many emoticons you toss in.

Not that condensing one’s thoughts into short snappy sentences isn’t a skill.

But I’m sure even the staff at Twitter needs to be able to use more than 140 characters to do their jobs, because if they didn’t, that company would have closed it’s doors and gone belly-up by now.

So, if you’re under 30, looking for work, and wondering why you haven’t been getting called back, perhaps you should LISTEN to your messages BEFORE deleting them.

(I knw, makes sense! So clear. So concise. Common sense? Too bad ppl -30 dnt this way.)