Searching for a Job 50 Years Ago vs. Today

By Samantha Weller on November 27, 2016

Job searching has always been that one, tough life obstacle that largely determines the rest of our lives. It’s almost more suspenseful than finals in college to those who aspire to land their dream jobs, and simply  stressful for those who lack the confidence that they’ll land anything.

Given the immense competition, the high expectations (some of them not well-known), and the overwhelming pressure, it certainly is a hardship to overcome for virtually everyone. While some might be imaging what life might have in store for them after college, perhaps feeling immediate anxiety at the thought of job searching and making it in the real world, little do they know how lucky they truly are.

As a millennial today, I am bound to knowing the struggles of such a duty, but not the redefined circumstances of it. I, among many others of Generation Y, have been so wrapped up in either fearing or wondering what lies beyond college for me that I’ve forgotten to realize how different job searching is for us today. If it isn’t an obvious factor in the economy’s air, life has drastically changed, and now the completely unrelated suddenly encompasses our craze with the internet: job searching.

In our parents’ time, job searching normally coincided with a rigorous amount of tasks, which included having to search through the Yellowpages to find numbers, using typewriters, going to the library to do research, and all with usually lacking knowledge about a company, as you couldn’t simply go to a company website like people can today.

Interviewing Mr. Weller, a near-retired man who, in his teenage years, devoted much of his time looking for jobs, I was astounded at how different of a process it was back then. Reminiscing that he would write to a company via a typewriter, mail it, and follow up a week or so later, I couldn’t believe that today, people simply type words on a screen and have someone immediately receive their interest or inquiry about a certain company.

“You had to be very proactive back in the day,” Mr. Weller said. “While today, people might get agitated about writing a professional email, it’s nothing compared to having to go places, get out of your house, and go to all kinds of lengths to getting yourself out there.”

The task back then was quite a process, and a very gradual one at that. Typewriters were key, and a lot more patience was involved –not everything was immediate or right before us like generations today are used to.

However, he most notably added that people used to take advantage of connections, which people still use today with professors or employers, but don’t necessary do so as much anymore.

“It used to be person-to-person, not screen to screen,” he said.

While we have the luxury of being able to connect with people so fast today, it used to be a very slow process that involved much more waiting time than what we consider to be a wait (having to wait hours to a day to get an email back).

forbes.com

Mr. Weller also commented on how incredible the networking opportunities we have are. How, we see it almost the same way we view Facebook but not as exciting, and not realizing what a luxury such websites actually are. When I first made an account on the useful networking site Linkedin, I felt as if it was a cheat in life, being able to connect with all kinds of people and displaying your skills without having to directly contact anyone, and it was surreal to me how a Facebook-like system could lead to you getting a job.

And with search engines such as indeed.com, we can search for jobs around the globe and view company salaries. Today, we have it all in front of us.

Mr. Weller thinks “the technology millennials have today is amazing, and I definitely think every single one of them should take advantage of it, because we had nothing like that back in my day and it was all about finding out for yourself through research.”

He further added that searching for a job “is almost like a massive research project, putting the pieces together, but almost in a hit-or-miss way, since timing is everything.”

As highly advantageous as the sources today are, there are some setbacks to all the drastic changes, and a big one that largely goes unnoticed is getting companies to see who you truly are. Back in the day, when there were more face to face conversations, it was easier for the interviewer to get to know an interviewee’s personality.

Today, it’s harder to show an employer who you really are, as a big part of the job process is primarily through a screen. Unfortunately, it’s just become more of a norm to use modern day technology to communicate about a job. And now, given that the internet, our used-to-be getaway, has merged into a fast-paced source to be professional and seek success, the pressure to stand out through emails or resumes has drastically increased. People feel as though the source of relaxation should instead be a source of success.

Another drawback is having to adapt to the professional side of the internet. Those who don’t know how to research jobs or network with companies won’t get ahead of those who do. It’s practically inevitable that we use the internet to our best advantage if we want to be successful. Modern-day job searching could be a direct result of our dependence and extreme usage of the internet.

Still, millennials should realize how lucky they all are, and that, although it’s easier to apply for a job than it was before technology took over, it’s still important to go out of the way and do more than typing words on a screen. Mr. Weller notably said “Not many people do that anymore, so when people today go lengths beyond the easy processes online, companies will be really impressed.”

Millennials should continue to learn the reward of going out of the way, and by doing this they will be able to take job searching more seriously, because as glorious as simply doing the work online is, it doesn’t compare to the rewarding feeling from making more of an effort. Just because generations of today have it easier getting there, doesn’t mean it’s easier when they get there, and we shouldn’t start out accustomed to that feasibility.

Learn how to take advantage of the opportunities, but don’t let it affect your motivation. It’s up to us to figure out how to utilize what we have, without setting back our abilities.

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