Question
Do you want insightful perspectives on your job search?
Nick’s Reply
This is where I answer my own question!
Of course you want meaningful job hunting ideas and perspectives! That’s why I’m going to share what I’ve been reading — and hope you will find these articles as thought- and action-provoking as I do.
Needless to say, the ideas you’ll find in these articles — some of which are presented as NEW! — are all old hat here on Ask The Headhunter, and still worth your attention.
I’m sharing these as a way to keep you busy with good ideas while I take my summer vacation. The next newsletter will be September 8 — see you then, and I hope you’re having a wonderful summer!
What is doomjobbing? What it means and why it matters for job seekers
33-year-old landed a $165K tech job after sending this with her thank-you note: ‘Nobody expected’ it
(Really? We’ve been discussing how to “do the job to win the job” for years! Still — some good ideas here!)
The jobs apocalypse: a (very) short history: Mass unemployment induced by AI would be unprecedented
I’d love to read your take on the three articles above! See you next month!
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Thank you for this short reading list, Nick! In response, I have a YAY and a BOO.
First the YAY! It’s inspiring to read a real-life example of a candidate doing exactly what you’ve been recommending, and seeing it pay off. What I especially appreciated was that Jean’s approach wasn’t particularly detailed or fancy, but it demonstrated her listening, critical thinking, and value. Hooray!
Second, the BOO! The article from the Economist about AI makes several key errors, which are common ones around this criticaltopic. One, it is a *major* fallacy to compare AI to previous technologies (like farming and the steam engine). LLMs are peanuts compared to AGI and ASI — both of which are closer than most realize, and which are being purposefully developed by elites for economic and military dominance. As far as we know, never in human history have we faced a technology that is (to quote Yuval Harari) an “alien intelligence”. We don’t understand how AI works, and we are on a path to create a technology that is intelligent, generalized, *and* autonomous. It will have its own goals, and the ability to act on those independent of humans. Comparing AI to previous tech is dangerously naive. (I’ve written about these issues, and I posted a video on LinkedIn last week if folks want to learn more.)
Two, saying “unprecedented in human history” and “never have new technologies spread fast enough to make large numbers of people unemployed for a long time” is laughable in its myopia and hubris. Hominins have been around for 1.5 – 2 million years, and our species 300 – 5500K years ago depending on how you define homo sapiens. Looking at the last 150-700 years and saying “never” and “unprecedented” ignores most of human history, and transformative catastrophes all our ancestors survived — economic and ecological. “Jobs” are something we made up just a few centuries ago.
And the “riots” and “unrest” the authors mention during the industrial revolution are referring to the Luddites. Contrary to popular depictions, Luddites were neither mobs not anti-technology. They were an organized movement which, after going through “proper channels” for a decade and getting nowhere, targeted specific employers who were *using* new technology to depress wages, eliminate worker autonomy, and degrade community life. The Luddites were only stopped through violent repression from the government and factory owners. But few realize the Luddites were right. We still experience the echos of what they were protesting, and we lost much of what they fought to protect.
No surprise, I suppose, that an article from The Economist would use hyperbole and a limited window of history (the short, brutal period of modernity) to stifle the masses’ reasonable fears about an alien technology with the power to completely transform human life — and not for the better.
But Jean’s job hunt success was inspiring to read! lol
The one area I saw issues with is “doomjobbing’ and it’s emphasis on pursuing job goals. I had such a goal in my late 20’s and finally dropped just looking for any field I could contribute in. Had a successful 40+ year career in a field I did not know still existed, while friends who had a better chance in my original goal field struggled and failed. (Your advice is good, but you may have to change your job goal.)
@Susana Rinderle: I thought the same thing re the protests over the new technologies of the industrial revolution.
I fear a different kind of revolution–if people don’t have work, don’t have money to live and eat, much less save for emergencies, then we could see revolutions like the French and Russian revolutions. The King and Tsar and their respective aristocracies had so much, there wasn’t much of a middle class, and far more people were poor. The French peasants were starving. The Russian peasants (those that didn’t get called to serve during WWI) were also starving. When too many people come to the conclusion that they’re starving and no longer have anything to lose, then things don’t turn out so well for the ruling class.
Doomjobbing removes a key requirement in job searching — selectivity. It also adds a lot of clutter for those who actually WANT and CAN DO the work being described and effectively penalizes them by flooding the market.
Many IT jobs are so temporary and under-defined that a detailed work plan would not be possible. A possible alternative — for those in the final consideration rounds — is to present the list of job requirements adjacent to the candidate’s demonstrated ability/experience as a final (aptly-timed) message to the employer.
I continue to be amazed at candidates and others who resist any change to the search approach they have devised (or stumbled upon). There are people who do not complete Linkedin profiles or actually read what they have written there.
Your columns have enlightened and entertained me since I heard you present in ’23. They continue to resonate.
Thank you.
@Dave M: I agree with your points about Doomjobbing and IT jobs. I think job seekers are loathe to change their approach because (1) HR and all other vendors in the employment space sell the status quo very hard, and (2) people hate job hunting so much that they don’t want to think about how to improve it. After all, government and the media tell us every day that it’s just impossible! And it’s easier to believe that claptrap than to do something different.
Thanks for your kind words!