Talk about a tough job market
Someone emailed me this job ad. It is for an entry level technical support person. It can sometimes be hard to explain to people what it is I do. Or don’t do as the case may be. Anyway, I post the ad as an example of the economic recovery sometimes called jobless.
I recently shut down a small business and had planned to just get back into the rotating contract consulting game. If you are any good at programming at all and can work you way logically through moderately complex problems, you can make a pretty good living on pretty decent terms. That was then this is now.
This employment ad from Coke is an excellent example of market saturation. It is a bit long so I will only post the opening just to set the flavor and tone:
NEW OPENING!!!Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., www.cokecce.com , a separate entity of the Coca-Cola Company, is the world’s largest marketer, producer, and distributor of products of the Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola Enterprises is an independent, public company with annual net operating revenues in excess of $14 billion. Approximately ninety-one percent of our sales are products of The Coca-Cola Company, the most popular beverage brands in the world. We also serve as a significant bottler of Dr Pepper and several other beverage brands. Our product line includes carbonated soft drinks as well as still and sparkling waters, juices, isotonics, and teas.
SUMMARY
Provide support for the Branches, complete Change Requests, resolve and update problem tickets, install and configure standard software packages, install and configure standard hardware, serve as Client Services project’s resources, resolve most technical issues without assistance and rotate weekly after hours on call support.
So far so good. A nice standard we-are-a-great-company-to-work-for opening. Followed by bulleted lists of skills and requirements. Then comes a pretty stiff weed-out line:
ONLY RESUMES WITH SALARY REQUIREMENTS (30K - 40k) AND THE POSITION TITLE and REQ. # 2619 AS THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL WILL BE REVIEWED!
If that requirement is strictly enforced, it will likely weed out a good 80% of the applicants right there. I got a dollar says they wind up going back and reviewing those that got it almost right. Now here’s the kicker:
CANDIDATES APPLYING FOR THIS POSITION SHOULD LIVE IN THE HOUSTON (BISSONNET), TX AREA. NO CANDIDATES LIVING OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSTON (BISSONNET), TX AREA WILL BE CONSIDERED.
Bissonnett is a street in Southwest Houston. They want someone who lives nearby their main regional office and distribution center. This indicates the market it saturated sufficiently that they can solicit and pick a winner from a very localized pool of candidate resumes.
Considering I’ve been commuting for twenty years , this is not a good indicator. Good thing it is purely anecdotal.