Whenever I see an Entry Level job that requires 3-5 years of experience.

NancyGracesTesticles · 4 months

The "Entry Level" part is referring to the pay.

colloquialism86 · 4 months

My Dad hires new college grads in the IT industry. He told me, these secrets three:
1. "3-5 years" realistically translated, means 1.5-4 years.
2. "Experience" can easily mean the time you spent getting educated in the job requirements area specified in the job listing.
3. Even if you only legitimately have 75% or less of the requirements necessary, a GOOD COVER LETTER will jump you ahead of many others who are technically, "more qualified" than you.
How do I know these secrets to be true? I applied for 6 positions in this exact manner out of college, I got 5 interviews and 2 job offers.

Sabbatai · 4 months

Responsibilities: Installs Windows Operating Software [sic] on various desktop computers.

Requires Bachelor's Degree and 3-5 years job related experience.

Part time, pay dependent upon qualifications, $9-10 an hour. No benefits.

Actual job description for which I submitted an application out of desperation.

RIPoldAccount · 4 months

Always cut the requirements of a job in half. Anyone who meets the qualification for a job most likely will not apply because they want a higher level job. 3-5 years = 1-2 years.

EDIT: This is not true for all but for most.

LaserGuidedPolarBear · 4 months

I love seeing craigslist ads looking for people with graduate level degrees, 7-10 years experience, a mind blowing array of skills, and an offer of $16/hr.

Or when they want 4 years experience in a technology that's only existed for a year or two....that iss my absolute fav.

rmwpnb · 4 months

This is to weed out people who think they are lacking experience. It's also so they can offer you the lowest salary range due to your "lack of experience".

kat_burglar · 4 months

You have to have 3 to 5 years experience today before you ever get a job. Until then it's called an internship.

solusolu · 4 months

I applied for and got a job that was asking for 3-5 and I had 0.

when_did_i_grow_up · 4 months

It's put there almost arbitrarily by HR people. If you're impressive, they'll hire you anyways.

WendyLRogers3 · 4 months

"We want experienced people to take a pay cut to work for us. Because we want quality work, but without paying more than minimum wage to get it."

ivanmarsh · 4 months

It's not half as funny as jobs that require 5,10,20 years of experience in technologies that haven't existed that long.

rx_tacos · 4 months

This is precisely why when I'm hiring, even though we typically look for 1-2 yrs of experience I feel the need to "give the kid a chance." Some folks you can tell the hunger and passion in them that you could help coach them to be a good performer.

Sometimes they struggle a little bit at first if other have some kind of base in the industry, but otherwise, they're great.

Imstillawake · 4 months

As a senior engineering student, this is every job I ever seen.

funkydo · 4 months

Stand up against unpaid internships. When you own a business, don't use that. It's preying on a huge society where people will do unpleasant things in order to eat. I actually think we could stand to pass some legislation against it, just like we have a minimum wage.

SgtSTFU · 4 months

Getting a job out of college is the ultimate catch-22. "We are looking for college graduates. However, you may need a bit more experience under your belt." Tell me guys, is there some sort of alternate dimension of employment where we can get the "needed" experience that comes between graduation and getting that job?

i_Lean · 4 months

The best is when an Entry Level job explicitly says, "2-3 years of experience, internships don't count." I'm glad my three internships are useless to you!!

whatne1wuddo · 4 months

I'm 24, still an undergrad college student, and have gotten 4 of the last jobs I've interviewed for, including a summer internship at a very large public accounting firm (90% of the interns get full time offers once they graduate). I don't make a great deal of money, but for my age and school level, I'm fairly comfortable. Also, at the 2nd to last job I had, I hired someone for an entry level position who I eventually trained to replace me after I got a better job offer.

Here are a few tips:

1- Apply to as many places as possible. My last 3 jobs had been responses to Craigslist ads that I wasn't very interested in, but ended up being great experiences. I'm pretty happy with my job now, and have a well paying ($25/hr) summer internship, so I don't apply to jobs much these days (I will resume after the internship), but before that I sent out 20-30 emails a day, mostly from craigslist. Usually only about 5% respond, but 5% of 30 is way better than 5% of 5.

2- Have a very nicely formatted 1 page resume. When sending it in an email include just a few sentences summarizing who you are and why you think you're a good fit. DON'T WRITE TOO MUCH. From the interviewers perspective, they literally have to go through hundreds of these emails and 80% of them get filtered out because they are too wordy and/or have bad grammar.

3- At the interview. Show up a few minutes early (I think 15 minutes is too long- sometimes it's awkward for HR or someone at the company to figure out where to put you for so long, but 10 minutes is ideal) and DEFINITELY don't be late. Talk to them like you are talking to a new friend, be open and honest and try and have a good time. the interview is more about finding out if the company will get along and be able to work with the employee than it is about your expertise. Interviewers already know what you can do based on your resume. If you can talk about something besides work and yourself, or find something to connect on, it will help tremendously. Look around the office to find stuff to talk about. Be confident and smile. Shake everyone's hand and say "Nice to meet you, (there name)" Dale Carnegie says a person's name is one of their favorite things to hear. It also helps to remember them. I moved from LA to San Francisco and while I was looking for jobs in the new city I talked about the weather in SF and traffic in Los Angeles. I have some lain Mark Twain quote about the weather in san francisco that makes people laugh. It's easy to talk about, relatable, and gets people comfortable with you. Be confident. The cliché of "the interview being about you interviewing the company as well as the company interviewing you" is very true. Test them, see how they react. I always ask a couple questions at the end such as: "How soon are you expecting to hire someone?" "When can I expect to hear from you?"

4- Don't sell yourself short. If you're looking to get paid more than where you're currently working, tell them that you make more than you actually do, so that they don't offer you the same amount (assuming you don't hate your current job, or don't have a job, obviously).

5- After the interview, email them immediately thanking them for the opportunity to interview with them. Here's the email I use: "Thank you for the opportunity to interview with (company name). I enjoyed meeting you, (and other staff members) and would definitely like to pursue an opportunity with the company. Please feel free to email or contact me via phone if any questions arise in your decision making process." Also, follow up with a thank you card (hand written). Try and send it out the same day.

6- This may be the most important. USE CONNECTIONS. The last few jobs I've gotten haven't been through people, but I know the most important thing is to talk to people you know. While I was interviewing for public accounting firms I found a few people through family friends and other randoms that worked for those types of companies at some point. Some people knew a few people at the companies I was interviewing and sent emails out to their friends. This helps a lot.

TLDR: THE WORST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN IS THAT THEY SAY NO Get out there, send resumes, and be confident. You can get a job now if you do it right.

Red_Woody · 4 months

I always get turned down because I don't have enough experience, interviewers say. But how am I going to get that experience if I keep getting turned down?

irishfrog · 4 months

not funny, depressing

hyperkill · 4 months

"Entry" level is a joke now with the current state of the job market. There's people out there with years of experience in various fields that cannot find work and willing to take whatever comes their way. Kids just getting out of college are screwed, or they're made unpaid interns.

I was at a portfolio event recently where design students showcase their work in hopes of gaining employment. My partner and I were there looking for some great motion graphics people we could hire to help us out. We both noticed that MANY people there were discussing which person they thought would be willing to intern for them for free. It sucks that too many people these days just aren't willing to pay people what they're worth.

MongolianBBQ · 4 months

Perfect. My 3 to 5 years of bullshit experience will translate well.

bg-j38 · 4 months

Funny story tangentially related..

A long time ago I worked for a company that wanted people who had experience with VXML (Voice XML). We didn't give any amount of time, just put it as a skill that we were looking for. Except someone did a typo and put "WXML" in the publicly available job description.

Now WXML doesn't exist. It's a meaningless acronym. The reason we noticed was because all of a sudden about 75% of the resumes we started receiving said people had 3-5 years of WXML experience.

I don't post job listings, but if I ever do I'm totally putting in fake acronyms to weed out the liars.

liquidxlax · 4 months

What is worse is when the employer wants you to already have a job before they will hire you...

[deleted] · 4 months

You don't understand. It's 3-5 years for entry-level pay.

Osgiliath · 4 months

Out of college I was applying for "an entry level position" in the mail room of an organization. One of the requirements was "at least 2 years previous experience working in a mail room". WHO THE FUCK APPLIES FOR A MAIL ROOM POSITION, EXCEPT PEOPLE WHO HAVENT HAD MAIL ROOM EXPERIENCE BEFORE

cgeezy22 · 4 months

They are trying to tell you that they want your experience and only want to pay you entry level wages. They feel comfortable taking advantage of people in this economy. You're just a slave after all.

MysidianPadawan · 4 months

it usually just means you have to make shit up to get hired

edit: I am under the impression that nobody can get hired if they were truthful about their past experience/qualifications. It really bothers me they even ask for that info because everyone just lies anyway.

ThePain · 4 months

proceeds to forward this to each and every single game developer currently in business, including Valve

dmarek1 · 4 months

What it means is the job is designated as entry-level on their pay scale, and that is the position that you start at for the privilege of joining their esteemed corporation. You need to have this much experience to get your foot in the door with us.

asaturn · 4 months

ugh.

first job I applied for in Seattle was to install networking equipment. guy wanted me to recite the OSI layer model, explain network stacks, etc.

got through all of that and he says it pays $9/hr.

I walked out.

montibbalt · 4 months

Apply anyway. Often times the "experience" requirement is not actually a requirement and is only there to deter people who don't have any confidence in their own skills.

EthicalReasoning · 4 months

welcome to the new economy, you need 10 years experience and a bachelors degree to start

Pizza_The_Hut_17 · 4 months

I just watched the Princess Bride for the first time and I get these jokes now! Yes!

tiajuanat · 4 months

Ah, graduation time must be coming soon, let's see how many of my friends will lose their jobs before August.

funny

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