Where are the Professionals and Newbie's for Hire? (Updated)
Hi Everyone,
Sorry for not blogging in January, but I'm blogging again now :). Um, this blog's topic is going to be different than the one's I usually do.It's about the job market. Yeah :( Just some shared experiences that I have gathered from listening to other people and looking into it myself. So please, read, share, comment, and take into consideration this is food for thought.
Cheers!
Leslie Nicole
Where are the Professional and Newbies for Hire? So, I’m a fairly recent college graduate. I graduated in December 2016, from a well-known private university in Los Angeles, CA, with a Bachelor’s degree, in Studio Arts with an emphasis in Multimedia and I also studied a little of traditional and gaming animation software. What’s Multimedia you say? Well it’s a term that means I’ve studied multiple forms of art mediums like (Photoshop, InDesign, Maya, Autodesk MudBox, Adobe Flash, After Effects, Adobe Premiere, etc.) that and some traditional forms such as ( sculpture, painting, typography) and applied it to my schoolwork and portfolio. That’s what it means. Yes, all that jazz. The list can go on and on and on, on what I’ve studied.
All of that sounds lovely doesn’t it? But in reality it isn’t? I have a portfolio but none of it quite pieces together because I have for one not done any work that caters and shows intermediate skills in one area. On my part it’s my fault. I should’ve put more thought and research into the program. Or was I misled into the dynamics and interesting sounding degree program? I’m not trying to be a cynic or to put someone down in their decision to have a degree like that. It’s a very good degree if you’d like to be a freelancer or have additional time to cater to a specific area in a certificate or master’s degree program. But the reality, for me, that is, is that the term Multimedia is a little too broad when you become an applicant to many entry jobs in the art field. Or any job in fact.
For me, I’ve found that if I get an interview which can last from 15-45 min tops and from the time they ask me what my degree and what I specialized in, the amount of time I would have to use explaining the program takes around 3 minutes.
If you have to clarify it to back-up your portfolio would take around 5-10 minutes if you’re good at explaining. So that’s an average of 3-13 minutes used up for your interview. If you have 15 minutes only 2-12 min for them to get to know you. If you have 30 min approximately 18 min to win them over into giving you another shot. So that’s tricky, I’m not a math expert but here’s a formula: A = B -(C + D)E
A= amount of time for interview B= amount of questions the interviewer has C= the interview D = minus or plus factors (age, gender, expertise, etc...) E= allocated time interviewer decides to give you afterwards F= special factors
Your personal algorithm may or may not look like this:
A = b -(c + d)e A = b - (c -d) e A = b - (c-d)e +f A = b - (c+ d)e +f And then, on the scale of how much interview time you have. If you score a less than, you didn’t pass. If you score less than or equal then you’re a maybe. If you score equal then they’ll take a second look. If you score a more than the scale of 3 points, then you’ll more or likely get a call back for interview. And if you score 7+ or more than you may or not be in a pool for top three or five candidates. And lastly, if you score a 10+ then you got the job.
So how does this work out for a recent graduate or an older more experienced professional who has been out of the field for about 1-4 years. Well, this is how the formula changes.
Additional experience Professional: p = amount of time Then f becomes a plus or minus factor. You might be too overqualified for the job
Newbie:If you are a newbie entry level candidate there are more factors against you then for.
Here’s a newbie’s (entry-level) scale
N = plus or minus experience (degree, age, etc.) F = becomes a minus factor in the equation because of age, demographics and then amount of experience shown on the resume and also what’s in your portfolio
As a new entry-level candidate with a Bachelor’s degree on the rise, the stakes are even higher if you are applying to a competitive and highly impacted field of interest. This also applies to how colleges and admission reps scale and score your application. It is based on the average need of students, the amount of people who get accepted a bigger than the expected student quota. The average amount of students who will be following through and submitting their registration of intent is significantly or is supposed to be lower than the amount able to attend. Other factors that could lessen the pool would be tuition based income, the amount of you would be paying for tuition can increase or decrease based on the amount of people applying for the college. This deciding factor also levels the amount of people who would actually be going to the college.
This depend if the applicant accepts and puts in their security deposit for their S.I.R., Statement of Intent to Register. After the applicants finishes up their requirements (submit their final transcripts, apply for financial aid, etc). The tuition increases or decreases based on the scale and amount of students actually going to the school. See how that works? This is vice versa and can relate to the jobs you apply for. The amount of part-time and full-time employees, the workload, the time to travel, and housing situation based on location, are all key factors that are considered in when a candidate applies to the company. It also factors in how long you will be staying at the company.
So how does this relate to me, per se? Well...I haven’t been in the hiring game for a long time to actually know all of the rules and there are definitely a lot of ins and outs. So the saying that it’s basically who you know. Is the most valid point of lesson that I have learned. Your network could be best represented as the variable y. This can add to your application as much as 5-20 points based on who you know.
Just based off of who you know could make a difference on whether you get the job or if you are in the top candidates list. This also can also not work in your favor, of who you do know. If you at any point if you, please excuse the Taylor Swift reference if you are a non- Taylor Swifter, had any (“Bad Blood”), then that variable becomes as much as a negative 5 to -50 points on your application making your application score go from the let’s say average 60-70% to a 10 or 20. The lowest on the actual scale. The lowest candidate on the actual scale. Meaning your chances of getting hired is on the less to 0 factor. If you are less than average 50 -20% than being considered in the job market you are on the negative scale (-0). So chances of you getting the job are slim to none.
So in terms the variable is very simple not complex. Easy Peezy right?
Here are some additional variables that can come into play: X is a variable for allocated time not in field and if at some point in time the same employees are still at the same company or not. This is a plus or negative factor.
M is another variable which means that you are selected from a pool of candidates by a recruiter which pushes your score up to at least 4-5 points
Q is a variable that is factored in if you are a person who has relocated demographically A = b -(c + d)e A = b - (c -d) e A = b - (c-d)e +f A = b - (c+d)e +f A + y = b- (c +d)e A -y = b - (c -d)e A +/-y = b -(c-d)e +/- f A +/- y += b - (c +d)e +/-f + x A + y +m= b- (c +d)e A -y +m= b - (c -d)e A +/-y +m= b -(c-d)e +/- f A +/- y +m= b - (c +d)e +/-f + x
Just add on X, M, OR Q to where A is.
Again, I do not have a degree in mathematics, nor am I an expert in how companies interview and hire candidates. I’m pretty sure there could be tweaking to this scale. But as a newbie (recent college grad) I’ve found that this applies a lot to the workforce. I haven’t applied of a lot of art jobs but have applied to internships, basic part time jobs, local retail, and fast food locations and have found out that this formula is very true and present. Even though much does not apply to me, I’ve learned that even the slightest wrong or positive you make in the workforce wherever you go could be a decisive factor in where you’ll work, live, and eventually who you associate yourself with.So, any key pieces of advice from the experience of others in the workforce, whether they’ve been hired for a long time or for a short amount of time helps out a lot.
Hope this helps for all of the professionals, intermediates, entry level, and newbies on the workforce. Best of Luck,
LNJ
Disclaimer: Again these are just thoughts by the blogger and author Leslie Nicole. They may or may not be fictitious. And should only be regarded as food for thought.