If you are a regular reader of my blog you already know that
I have extreme distaste for bad career advice.
One of the worst purveyors is Monster.com. Regularly they pay to have their articles
promoted by Yahoo giving what I consider to be sub par career advice. Today we were blessed by two articles
offering misleading information and bad advice.
The first article - -
$50K
Jobs that Don’t Require a Degree – written by Christine Laue. Christine lists herself as an employee of
Payscale.com. However, a quick internet
search shows that she is a freelance writer – meaning that she probably isn’t
any kind of expert on employment issues.
I can’t fault her for the piece – it is well written. However, I can and do fault Monster for
giving out information from an “expert” when it isn’t. I’ve written about this before and I’ll say it
again. I hate these articles. They are designed to give a light at the end
of the tunnel to unemployed and underemployed people that are looking to get
out of their miserable jobs. The jobs
listed include crane operator, millwright, retail manager and oil pumper and
they are all shown as jobs that can pay in the $50K range – which as they put
it is better than the entry level salary of a college graduate. However, what is in the fine print is that
with 5 – 8 years of experience in these jobs you can expect money in that
arena. Well – duh – I would imagine that unless you are a doctor or a lawyer
almost any job where you have 5 – 8 uninterrupted years of service you will get
paid more than an entry level job.
Additionally, just because a job doesn’t require a degree
doesn’t mean that someone with a degree won’t get preference. Finally, could they have come up with more
random jobs that are unattainable for the average person? Of all of these jobs
the only ones that an average person in an average location could attain is
retail store manager, crane operator and millwright. Thanks for the false hope payscale!
The second article
Seven
Employer Danger Signs by a Mr. Charles Purdy actually does have some great
advice. However, I took issue with tone
piece of advice that is just flat out wrong – it really struck a nerve with
me. In it he suggests that you should
check out a company’s reputation on the internet before you make a
decision. He specifically says to look
at what other employees are saying about the company.
I want you to stop and think about this for a second. Picture your office and think of the person
in your office you know that is most likely to get on Facebook or the internet
and write bad stuff about your company or your boss. Is this person’s opinion the one you want to
base your career decision on? The truth
of the matter is the most vocal people are usually the most upset people. Happy people don’t sing praises like mad
people complain. Life just doesn’t’ work that way.
Now… could there be truth to what is on the internet? Absolutely!
However, I would suggest that you take the information with a grain of
salt and compare it to what you find out through your own experience. Honestly this goes for almost all negative
information you find on the street – keep it in mind but make your own
decision.
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