You’re Not Imagining It: The #Hiring Process Is A Joke

[00:00:04] Youre listening to Casual Talk Radio, where common sense is still the norm. Whether youre a new or long time listener, we appreciate you joining us today. Visit us at casualtalkradio.net. And now, here's your host, Leister.

[00:00:21] Feels like a good day to talk about the chaos of the hiring process. As a business owner that I am, and I have multiple of them, but also being a participant in hiring process.

[00:00:34] I have been working on the processes over years. I've sat across the table, both as a candidate and as somebody who is part of a forum hiring and as a hiring manager. So I believe I have a singular, unique perspective on the hiring process.

[00:00:56] It intrigues me that every company, if youre listening by the way, if youre employed, you went through it, it's possible it was a long time ago, but it's also possible it wasn't that long ago. So some of what I described will click with you. And if you're new, welcome. I am, I don't want to say ranting, but I'm spilling the tea as the kids used to say. This is, the hiring process is annoying.

[00:01:24] It's annoying because it's transparently stupid. Let me share the perspectives. So, and the origin of the conversation of why it just suddenly hit me. I work with a client. I'm, I work my, I'm own business, but I work with a client.

[00:01:43] The client will ask me to sit in, in their forum for hiring people. This is their full-time staff.

[00:01:52] Their hiring process sucks, frankly. Some of it's outside of their control, but their hiring process sucks. It's stupid.

[00:02:00] If I were talking to the people in charge of the hiring part of the process, these are people that clearly don't get it.

[00:02:06] They don't understand. And that's what it is. But the problem I see with every company now that I interact with, whether it's, you know, soliciting new business or it's sitting on a forum or it's listening in or it's observing or it's seeing job posting.

[00:02:24] The same fallacies apply uniformly across the board. When you may not understand this, so I'm spilling the tea.

[00:02:35] Most companies, there's a theory that they're fake jobs. I'm here to tell you that the vast majority are not posting fake jobs.

[00:02:43] At least not, that's not the right term for what's happening. What's happening is that internally they do need to hire someone.

[00:02:53] And usually there's one of two reasons behind this a budget. You got to spend the money by this date or you're going to lose it.

[00:03:01] B they truly do have a need for someone.

[00:03:04] They've already set their mind on someone potentially. And unless they find an absolute superstar, they're going to settle on the person they've already preselected.

[00:03:15] They don't tell you this because they can't. In some cases, they have not identified anybody eligible.

[00:03:22] And so when they go out, they actually are legitimately looking for someone.

[00:03:26] The third scenario is the one where I have a beef, but I want to talk about that second one.

[00:03:32] The idea that the job's not fake, but you are already at a disadvantage long before you submit that resume.

[00:03:39] When I say a disadvantage, you are judged by the resume. You are judged by the interview.

[00:03:45] You are judged by your history. When I say history, I'm not just talking about where you worked.

[00:03:51] I'm talking about how long you worked. You are judged for your lack of experience, the current experience, education.

[00:03:59] You are judged every step of the way.

[00:04:03] A lot of applicants have this mistaken notion that just someone who's excited and has energy and drive and passion,

[00:04:13] and they really want to do it and they want to try to sell you and they're the greatest boisterous personality is going to get a head in.

[00:04:20] You're not. They don't look at you in a favorable light.

[00:04:24] They're going to look for reasons not to hire you.

[00:04:27] If you don't believe me, I saw an article on Medium.

[00:04:30] This guy was bragging about his one-page resume that got him this amazing job at Google paying $300,000 a year.

[00:04:38] Here's the problem. As we would learn, and this is right around the pandemic,

[00:04:43] we would learn that there was collusion between Amazon, Microsoft, and Google for the same workers.

[00:04:50] We would learn that there was non-compete clauses.

[00:04:54] We would learn there was exclusivity agreements.

[00:04:56] We would learn that the big tech companies are all essentially fighting for the same pool of people.

[00:05:02] Then those same companies will gladly cut you when times get tough.

[00:05:08] Amazon spiked during the pandemic only because it was the pandemic and the government recommended that you use Amazon and other similar services

[00:05:17] rather than go out and do your own shopping.

[00:05:20] Then, after everything opened up a little bit, Amazon stocks started dropping and they cut.

[00:05:26] Mass loads of staff. Guess what? It was the back office, not the deliveries.

[00:05:31] When this guy posts his resume bragging, braggadocious about $300,000 job at Google for a one-page resume and look at how it looks.

[00:05:41] And people, he had already known what the rebuttals were going to be.

[00:05:44] You worked at Amazon. You worked at Microsoft. That got you a lean in.

[00:05:49] What he didn't call out is this guy had a four-year computer science degree.

[00:05:55] When you have a computer science degree for a year, you are going to be favored over everybody else, even if you're a blatant, incompetent worker.

[00:06:04] Because just because you went to college does not mean you are a competent worker.

[00:06:08] I have worked with countless people who are blatantly incompetent.

[00:06:13] College does not teach you about workplace competence.

[00:06:16] College simply teaches you about how to write a paper, how to somewhat communicate, and how to somewhat follow dates and due dates and things.

[00:06:25] That's about it. That's essentially what college does.

[00:06:28] What college is supposed to do is prepare you for the workplace.

[00:06:34] College cannot prepare you for every workplace because every workplace is following overpaid consultants who lie to them about how to hire the right people.

[00:06:43] Why did I send you 360 that way?

[00:06:46] Because these overpaid consultants, they're paid money, and they are highly regarded because these fat cat billionaire CEOs have all sat around in a room,

[00:06:58] and one of them was sold, and he sold his buddies.

[00:07:01] Notice I said he sold his buddies.

[00:07:04] This consultant, he's the guy.

[00:07:08] This is what you need to be listening to.

[00:07:09] This is what you need to do for your business.

[00:07:11] Have you not noticed how all of a sudden all of the different sites started requiring text message verification codes out of thin air?

[00:07:20] That wasn't random.

[00:07:22] That's because overpaid consultants said it was a good idea despite the fact that text messages are never secure in the first place.

[00:07:29] We've never secured the technology.

[00:07:31] It's the least secure method of communication that there is right now, arguably.

[00:07:38] So the point is, the consultants have an in, and they tell the companies, you want to require a four-year degree.

[00:07:47] You want to look for how long somebody's been at a given company.

[00:07:52] If they've been at a company less than three years, they are a risk to you, and they're not worth hiring.

[00:07:59] If a person's currently unemployed, they are a risk to you, and they're not worth hiring.

[00:08:04] If a person doesn't currently have work experience, even if they have the degree, they're a risk to you.

[00:08:10] They're not worth hiring.

[00:08:11] They have all these different things that are disqualifiers designed to discriminate against you.

[00:08:16] That's what happens.

[00:08:18] Back now to the hiring process, step two.

[00:08:21] They put a posting out there.

[00:08:23] All of a sudden, you hear that the job's filled, and you're like, geez, it wasn't even that long.

[00:08:28] That's because they already had settled on somebody internally who, like, was a blatant incompetent, who was likely not qualified, but because they're already working there, it simplifies the paperwork at the HR level.

[00:08:40] We know the game.

[00:08:41] You, as an applicant, would have to be an absolute superstar to overcome that candidate.

[00:08:48] And even then, not every company's open to it.

[00:08:51] Let's talk about scenario number three.

[00:08:54] Scenario number three is where they will put the job posting out in whatever faith.

[00:08:59] They will say, we are open to these candidates.

[00:09:02] But the moment you submit resumes in, they've already tried.

[00:09:06] Number one, you don't know if it's trashed automatically by a computer.

[00:09:09] It's called an ATS, applicant tracking system.

[00:09:12] It's possible.

[00:09:13] There are sites out there that tell you how to craft your resume to defeat the ATS.

[00:09:19] The problem is, if you have old-school-minded humans, and your resume gets past the ATS because it is built so good, an ATS-crafted resume is not designed to be pretty to a human being.

[00:09:32] So this old-school person who's used to seeing a very well-formatted resume will immediately discriminate against you because your resume doesn't meet their standards, and your resume might get trashed anyway.

[00:09:43] That's the trap that I'm describing.

[00:09:45] If you do it to beat the computer, you're likely going to get trashed if it's one of these old-schoolers, and they're still in the game.

[00:09:52] There's a lot of them out there, by the way.

[00:09:54] If you do it to where it's nice and formatted, pretty, and it looks appreciable and everything else, that ATS is going to trash it because it can't read it.

[00:10:02] So what can you do?

[00:10:03] All you can do is perfect what it is that the ATS is looking for, format your resume like you should, but still include all the other stuff that the ATS wants.

[00:10:14] That means you cannot rely on templates, standard templates.

[00:10:17] You kind of have to create your own template.

[00:10:19] You can be inspired by existing templates, but you kind of have to create your own template that follows your standards.

[00:10:25] Second, I would argue, ignore the advice that your resume should fit to one page.

[00:10:30] Why should you ignore that advice?

[00:10:33] If you follow the advice of putting everything to one page, it's going to force you to basically sacrifice formatting or go without some of the critical back-end information.

[00:10:44] Make sure that the resume includes all of the relevant work experience that you have.

[00:10:50] Three, understand, if you've been job hopping for possibly valid reasons, you are going to be discriminated against.

[00:10:58] You can work your ass off in that interview and it won't make a damn bit of difference.

[00:11:04] Understand, and I would even, I'll tell you, and some will disagree with me, I'll tell you, do not be afraid to ask the question about whether or not that is going to be dinged against you so that you know what you're up against at least.

[00:11:18] Because the worst that can happen is they lie to you, right?

[00:11:22] If they lie to you, you can sense it.

[00:11:24] You know, they're hemming and hamming, hubba-da-hubba-da.

[00:11:26] You know, you can sense that they're lying to you.

[00:11:28] You can sense when somebody's not telling you the truth about a question you asked.

[00:11:31] Ask the question.

[00:11:33] I understand that some companies don't like when there's a, you know, significant job jumping or limited job experience per.

[00:11:44] I'd like to understand if that's going to be weighed against me.

[00:11:47] Just ask it in a very, you know, friendly way to see what their answer is going to be and then gauge whether or not it's worth continuing with the process based on it.

[00:11:54] Because I can tell you for direct experience, I've sat in forums where somebody I knew they had the, they had it.

[00:12:02] They had, I think I've ranted about this.

[00:12:04] They had all the potential in the world.

[00:12:07] They needed a mentor.

[00:12:09] But the company, all they could see is, well, they don't have experience in that.

[00:12:13] And, well, they don't have experience in this industry.

[00:12:14] Well, they only, they worked at each company for one year and doop, doop, doop.

[00:12:18] Not understanding.

[00:12:19] The median, the median has decreased in terms of how long people stay at companies.

[00:12:25] It has decreased.

[00:12:26] If you have people that have been in the work space since the 70s and the 60s, they're used to the old school where you had pensions and you were taken care of.

[00:12:37] And there was no social media and there was less discrimination in the workplace to some degree.

[00:12:43] To where it was more likely you were going to stay there at least five years, if not 10.

[00:12:49] That era is long gone, especially if you're talking about STEM.

[00:12:54] In STEM careers, that has decreased.

[00:12:57] That's why there's a crisis in the medical space.

[00:13:00] Because a lot of these doctors and nurses are not staying at the hospital long term because they disagree with some of the policies of each policy.

[00:13:09] It's got to that point.

[00:13:10] You can't even work at a place because of your political lean and your nervousness of being fired.

[00:13:16] Grubhub, Matt Maloney, the CEO, literally sent a letter out threatening employees and telling them that they should quit if they voted for Donald Trump back when Donald Trump took office.

[00:13:26] That's where we are now.

[00:13:57] Some manager, it is not working here.

[00:14:00] I'm leaving.

[00:14:01] If you don't fix X, they don't fix it.

[00:14:03] I leave.

[00:14:04] Sometimes they don't believe me when I tell them and I give them the chance to fix the problem.

[00:14:08] They don't believe me when they try to throw money at me, which just insults me because you're not taking me seriously.

[00:14:15] That's the only reason I've ever left is you are not taking my concerns seriously.

[00:14:21] Thus, there's no valid reason for me to remain here.

[00:14:24] So, we can keep playing this dog and pony game if you want.

[00:14:28] The bottom line is I don't have to be here.

[00:14:31] I'll find another place and I will leave.

[00:14:33] And that's what I did.

[00:14:34] Not because I wanted to, but because ultimately I'm not going to put myself out.

[00:14:39] After I learned this hard lesson, the very first job I had, I was essentially abused.

[00:14:45] Not physically, but I'm talking about my time, respect, my emotions.

[00:14:50] Everything was abused.

[00:14:51] I swore to myself that was never going to happen again.

[00:14:54] So, I committed to do everything I could to avoid that and ramp up what I learned and what I knew to try to avoid it.

[00:15:02] I still run into interviews.

[00:15:04] I think I told the story in 2012.

[00:15:08] Actually, 2011 prior.

[00:15:09] 2011.

[00:15:11] And I'm interviewing with the company out in Washington.

[00:15:14] And I, believe me, I was the best qualified candidate they talked to.

[00:15:20] I didn't even need to know.

[00:15:21] These guys, you need me, bottom line.

[00:15:25] And if you don't have me, you're screwed.

[00:15:27] I knew this.

[00:15:28] They chose a different candidate simply because he had experience in the industry, not with the technology that's the core of the job.

[00:15:39] If I'm dealing with insurance, it doesn't matter that you have never sold an insurance policy if the job we're hiring you for is to write software.

[00:15:50] But that's the fallacy.

[00:15:53] That's what they do.

[00:15:54] They're like, well, you never worked insurance.

[00:15:56] You never worked.

[00:15:57] They don't understand.

[00:15:59] It's what does this job need to do?

[00:16:01] Everything else is tradable if it's needed.

[00:16:04] A lot of times you can just ask questions.

[00:16:07] A lot of times you can review docs.

[00:16:09] Technical skill can be trained.

[00:16:12] Business knowledge can be trained.

[00:16:13] They don't want to train.

[00:16:15] That's why college is essentially a scam because college has been put in this position of trying to train certain skills to be appealing to the companies.

[00:16:25] Yet the companies are still at liberty to discriminate against you because you don't have the work experience specific to that industry.

[00:16:32] So your computer science degree doesn't mean a damn thing if you're going into an industry that's dealing with older people who are going to discriminate against you because you never worked in that industry.

[00:16:44] Unless you happen to work for these mythical companies, the Amazons and the Microsofts that just someone, some billionaire sitting in a room said that was a good idea.

[00:16:54] And they hire you simply on that when you might be incompetent.

[00:16:57] Otherwise, that is the trap of the hiring process.

[00:17:01] No matter what you do, it is weighed against you that rhyme.

[00:17:05] So then what do you do about it?

[00:17:08] Frankly, nothing.

[00:17:10] It's fishing.

[00:17:12] Fishing with an F, not PH.

[00:17:14] It's fishing.

[00:17:15] You have to keep tossing the line and hope something bites.

[00:17:18] And then it's going to be a time waste because all of these multiple interviews are designed to try to disqualify you.

[00:17:27] The STAR interview system, which is a blatant waste of time.

[00:17:30] And if you don't know what STAR is, first of all, yes, you do.

[00:17:33] You just don't recognize it by term.

[00:17:35] STAR is situation, task, action, result.

[00:17:39] It's the questions that they ask you.

[00:17:41] That's the format.

[00:17:42] That's what it's called.

[00:17:43] Situation.

[00:17:44] Tell me about a time when.

[00:17:46] Task.

[00:17:47] You had to whatever, whatever.

[00:17:49] Action.

[00:17:50] What action did you take?

[00:17:51] Result.

[00:17:52] And what was the result?

[00:17:53] That's the question format.

[00:17:54] You can recognize it when you hear it because it always starts as tell me about a time when.

[00:17:59] Tell me some time when.

[00:18:00] Give me an example of a time when.

[00:18:02] It always starts the same way, and that's a STAR format question.

[00:18:06] The reason STAR format questions are stupid is that they can be practiced, number one.

[00:18:11] Number two, they don't say anything about the competency of the person or capability to do the work.

[00:18:17] They're there to discriminate against you.

[00:18:19] That's what it's for.

[00:18:20] You are expected to follow some script.

[00:18:23] And college will tell you how to follow scripts, but the STAR assumes that you've done whatever it is that they've asked.

[00:18:29] So if they tell you, tell me about a time when you dealt with an irate customer.

[00:18:34] What was the situation behind why they were irate?

[00:18:36] What actions did you take to resolve it?

[00:18:38] And what was the result?

[00:18:39] If you've never been customer facing because you're a data center, you don't have a way to answer that question properly.

[00:18:46] If you say, I don't know because I've never worked customer front end, you're disqualified because that's what you're looking for, despite the fact that you could still do the work.

[00:18:54] It doesn't mean that you can't do it.

[00:18:56] It means that you never had.

[00:18:58] That's the discrimination that I'm describing in the hiring process.

[00:19:03] I had a person.

[00:19:05] She was job hopped.

[00:19:06] She job hopped.

[00:19:07] She was here for a year, here for two years, here for a year, here for a year.

[00:19:11] But she was the biggest extrovert you would ever meet.

[00:19:15] Bubbly, boisterous.

[00:19:16] She just was talkative.

[00:19:19] But she knew her stuff when she was tested.

[00:19:21] And this is my gauge of whose quality.

[00:19:24] As a hiring manager, I learned it myself and I've applied it everywhere and I've never been wrong.

[00:19:30] I look for if I can ask you a question that you cannot rehearse and you nail it.

[00:19:35] I know I can work with you, right?

[00:19:38] It's clay.

[00:19:38] I can mold you into what I want.

[00:19:41] It might be because some people, because of their personal lives, it might be that it doesn't work out.

[00:19:47] There's something in their personal situation that limits their potential.

[00:19:51] I think I told the story and if you knew you didn't hear it, but back during the pandemic,

[00:19:56] I made a conscious decision when I lost the one client I had and I shut down the second client I had

[00:20:02] and I had some money in the books.

[00:20:04] I needed to get some marketing revamp and do a new campaign to try to sign one more client.

[00:20:10] All I needed was one client to sustain the business always because of the rate.

[00:20:15] So I hired two kids, essentially kids relative to me.

[00:20:20] Fresh out of high school, I specifically said, experience is optional.

[00:20:24] It's nice if you have it.

[00:20:26] I'm more concerned that you've gone through college, you graduated college, and you have a desire to do these works.

[00:20:32] One is sales and marketing, more so sales.

[00:20:36] One is marketing aligned.

[00:20:38] We'll work together to create this strategy.

[00:20:40] Then one of them, the salesperson, I wanted to hit the streets, boots on the ground, and try to find just one client.

[00:20:46] If you give me one client, we're good.

[00:20:49] Then we'll sustain throughout this issue.

[00:20:53] I interviewed both.

[00:20:55] One is a guy, one is a gal.

[00:20:58] The guy, he impressed me in what he was doing.

[00:21:00] He impressed me in his presentation.

[00:21:02] He had a very good demeanor about him.

[00:21:05] I had a good feeling about this guy.

[00:21:07] And I knew I could put him on sales because he had a visual appearance.

[00:21:12] He was just a handsome guy, right?

[00:21:14] So I knew if this guy walks into any of these office buildings that's got some attractive receptionist up front, we're going to nail that.

[00:21:23] I knew it.

[00:21:24] We're going to be swimming in money like Scrooge McDunk because this guy, I knew he could pull women by just his looks and his smile.

[00:21:32] He just had that look about him.

[00:21:34] And I knew I could work with him then on the communication.

[00:21:37] He had some slight challenges, but nothing I couldn't work with.

[00:21:40] I knew I could work on his delivery of the voice part.

[00:21:44] The gal, she was much more reserved.

[00:21:47] But I could tell she was a worker.

[00:21:51] She was very energetic to do it.

[00:21:53] And she wanted to learn.

[00:21:54] She specifically said, I asked her a very interesting question about, you know, what is it you want out of a job?

[00:21:59] And she said, I want to learn.

[00:22:01] I want to get better at whatever, but I want to learn how to do more so that I can be more of a contributor.

[00:22:05] And I was impressed with her.

[00:22:07] And I knew she could do the marketing.

[00:22:09] I hired both of them.

[00:22:11] I paid them $40,000 a year each.

[00:22:13] You might be like, really?

[00:22:15] For no experience?

[00:22:16] I had a policy.

[00:22:17] For me, the pay, it only matters.

[00:22:21] Experience only matters for pay when the job warrants experience lien.

[00:22:27] If I am hiring something that is not driven off the experience, I could pay whatever I choose.

[00:22:34] And I chose to make sure that they were taken care of.

[00:22:37] You know, this is a tough time.

[00:22:39] It's the pandemic.

[00:22:40] I need to make sure they're available for me.

[00:22:42] So I'd rather pay them something that's going to keep them available for me and hopefully get them to a better life.

[00:22:48] That's the kind of manager that I am.

[00:22:51] I am not.

[00:22:51] Now, when you start to get to the upper level, so this is a, these are white collar jobs, but they're low level, they're entry level.

[00:22:58] But when you start to get to the upper levels, you know, they're mids.

[00:23:00] A lot of companies have abused this, but it used to be an entry level position.

[00:23:04] Yeah, you're going to start them at a decent, but not amazing amount of pay.

[00:23:08] But once you start getting into senior, now we start talking about the six figures of et cetera, because you should be experts in your crap.

[00:23:15] What companies have done is they've created entry level senior positions, which is a slap in the face.

[00:23:22] I start these two off.

[00:23:24] I remember we did the orientation.

[00:23:25] We went, I rented out an office space down further.

[00:23:29] This was in Nevada.

[00:23:30] I rented an office space, met the both of them there.

[00:23:34] Great, had a great time.

[00:23:36] We're signing all the paperwork to get them on board because I did all this.

[00:23:38] I had them a laptop ready to go because they're all remote.

[00:23:42] We didn't have, it didn't need office space.

[00:23:44] It's all remote because it's, it's remote work.

[00:23:47] It's all Microsoft essentially.

[00:23:49] That's why I said it's entry level.

[00:23:50] You didn't need too much experience on any of this.

[00:23:53] Got them nice binders, got them all this swag and everything.

[00:23:58] Phones, cell phones, everything, the whole nine.

[00:24:02] We start doing the work.

[00:24:03] I notice, so I have a team meeting every, every morning at 10 a.m.

[00:24:08] That's it.

[00:24:08] I don't believe in meetings prior to 10.

[00:24:10] I think they're stupid because your brain's not even up yet till nine.

[00:24:13] You need to get your coffee, get your breakfast.

[00:24:15] They'll do all these things.

[00:24:17] They expect you to wake up at six and do all that stuff before you start at eight, which

[00:24:20] is crap.

[00:24:22] I believe you should be able to get whatever your body wants.

[00:24:26] That's how you stay healthy.

[00:24:27] That's how you stay energized is you don't force your body into a different time.

[00:24:32] That's how you jack up your circadian rhythm.

[00:24:34] And that's what adds stress.

[00:24:36] And that's what distracts people.

[00:24:37] That's why there's people that go to work and they're like zombies because they're forcing

[00:24:41] themselves in that groove that adds no value of you got to be on at eight o'clock and that,

[00:24:46] that, that, that.

[00:24:47] I didn't do that.

[00:24:48] All you had to do show up at 10 a.m.

[00:24:51] I did not require them to do advanced timesheets.

[00:24:54] The timesheets were based on tasks.

[00:24:56] I gave you a task.

[00:24:57] You got to complete one task.

[00:24:59] Do something.

[00:25:00] Get something done every week.

[00:25:01] That's all I ask you.

[00:25:03] You're paid for the week.

[00:25:04] No hours.

[00:25:05] No nothing.

[00:25:05] It was the most flexible job.

[00:25:07] And they both said this, this is the most flexible job I think we ever had.

[00:25:11] Of course, because I don't care about the time you spend.

[00:25:14] I care that stuff's getting done.

[00:25:16] So I give you a task.

[00:25:17] I give you a due date.

[00:25:19] I expect you to get done.

[00:25:20] How you get there is all up to you.

[00:25:22] They got some stuff done.

[00:25:23] I start noticing that the guy, this is the sales, the guy, he's showing up to the meetings

[00:25:28] late.

[00:25:29] The gal who's on the marketing side, she's showing up early, which is what I want.

[00:25:32] She's there before I am.

[00:25:34] Great.

[00:25:35] The guy, though, he's showing up late.

[00:25:37] It happened at least twice.

[00:25:38] I had to give him a warning.

[00:25:40] I need you to show up to the meetings here.

[00:25:42] This is pretty thing fair.

[00:25:44] 10 a.m.

[00:25:44] is pretty flex.

[00:25:46] Here's the problem.

[00:25:47] During the screening, so I did a drug screening in Nevada.

[00:25:51] You are not allowed to disqualify a candidate only because of weed.

[00:25:57] And that was the only thing he failed for.

[00:26:00] He failed the piss test for weed.

[00:26:02] That should have been my flag.

[00:26:05] But per the criteria, you cannot deny solely because of weed.

[00:26:10] And what I should have done is just gone back out to the well to try to find a different

[00:26:14] candidate.

[00:26:15] Because I had another candidate on deck and he disqualified himself and I should have gone

[00:26:18] back to the well.

[00:26:19] Because when he failed for weed, think about it.

[00:26:22] I do not smoke weed.

[00:26:24] I'm straight edge.

[00:26:25] But I'm pretty damn sure it's not that hard to, if you're applying for a job, just stop

[00:26:32] smoking the shit for a little bit so that you can get the job.

[00:26:35] Because it's a good probability you're going to get drug tested.

[00:26:39] That, I was trying to be flexible.

[00:26:41] I'm trying to help the guy out.

[00:26:42] He's a kid.

[00:26:43] He's a college kid.

[00:26:44] So I, I wouldn't consider it a mistake because the state is tying my hands.

[00:26:50] That's the reason I'm anti-drugs largely.

[00:26:52] It's because I see weed people walking around like fucking zombies.

[00:26:56] That's why I don't like it.

[00:26:57] And this guy just simply proved what I believed, which is you guys are not.

[00:27:02] So the reason that he was late for the meetings every time is that he would oversleep every

[00:27:09] single time.

[00:27:09] Guess what?

[00:27:10] I don't smoke weed, never have, but I've heard people talk about the fact that it causes you

[00:27:15] to sleep quite a bit more than you normally would.

[00:27:18] Okay.

[00:27:20] I'm pretty sure it's not that damn hard to understand.

[00:27:23] I probably should avoid smoking weed in the morning to make sure I show up for that one

[00:27:28] meeting that I'm asked for, that I'm paid a pretty good amount of money to show up for

[00:27:33] this.

[00:27:33] Then I have to think if you're not willing, again, this is my thought.

[00:27:38] If you're not willing to do something so simple as just let go of your drug vice long enough

[00:27:44] to get some work done, I can't work with you because I gave, this is the lowest bar possible.

[00:27:51] You all you got to do is show up at a meeting at 10 AM and you cannot get that done.

[00:27:58] I'm sorry.

[00:27:59] I had to let the guy go and he begged.

[00:28:01] He was, he was really sad.

[00:28:03] He's like, he begged.

[00:28:03] I need the job.

[00:28:04] I understand.

[00:28:05] I, you had three chances at this point.

[00:28:08] I can't do it.

[00:28:09] You got to understand my perspective.

[00:28:11] She shows up at the meeting early every day.

[00:28:14] She is on it all the time.

[00:28:16] The reason I was also more frustrated with him, his work quality when he did show up

[00:28:24] was 50 times what hers was not because of desire, simply because I knew he had it.

[00:28:32] He had all the potential in the world, but he squandered it because he'd rather puff some

[00:28:37] grass.

[00:28:38] She had the greater, she had the greater work ethic.

[00:28:41] She's there early and she tried.

[00:28:43] She tried, tried, tried to the point.

[00:28:45] Sometimes she overworked herself and I had to calm her down.

[00:28:48] She tried.

[00:28:49] She couldn't go outside of her bubble.

[00:28:52] She couldn't go outside of the box.

[00:28:54] Money starts to run dry.

[00:28:55] I then had to let her go.

[00:28:57] I had to let him go because he wasn't showing up.

[00:29:00] I had to let her go because I ran out of money.

[00:29:03] I couldn't pay her both.

[00:29:05] Well, she declined the 401k.

[00:29:07] He took the 401k.

[00:29:09] I still paid him the 401k.

[00:29:11] They had full benefits paid.

[00:29:13] This is what I'm saying.

[00:29:14] The companies out there right now would never ever do what I described, even though everything

[00:29:23] I described is tax deductible.

[00:29:25] You can deduct the hardware.

[00:29:27] You can deduct the hiring.

[00:29:28] You can deduct the payroll taxes.

[00:29:30] You can deduct the benefits.

[00:29:32] You can deduct all these things.

[00:29:33] You benefit as a hiring manager to give somebody a chance.

[00:29:39] As long as you understand what you need out of the person, it doesn't matter.

[00:29:44] None of the rest of it matters because neither of them had done this kind of work before.

[00:29:50] But yet, having never done it before, he was a superstar.

[00:29:55] If he just was not puffing grass, he would have been killer.

[00:30:00] He would have made millionaires out of the three of us within three months with my guidance because that's how good he was.

[00:30:08] He just couldn't let the freaking weed go.

[00:30:11] That was his only letdown.

[00:30:14] She had all of the energy, desire, passion in the world, and it was frustrating letting her go because I wanted to get her out of it.

[00:30:24] I tried to open and say, I want you to go beyond.

[00:30:28] You've got more to you.

[00:30:30] Now, if we took his accuracy and quality and you paired it with her energy and passion, you then have the perfect worker.

[00:30:40] That told me the team dynamic was spot on because I have the knowledge.

[00:30:44] I have the vision.

[00:30:46] He has the skill.

[00:30:47] She has the energy.

[00:30:49] We should have been a perfect cohesive unit.

[00:30:51] His weed held it back because he could have helped her.

[00:30:56] I describe all that so you understand why I'm so frustrated with the hiring process at various companies because all of them can do the same thing I just described to you,

[00:31:07] but they're afraid to because of what I experienced.

[00:31:11] But that's the reality of it.

[00:31:15] Just because somebody is going to be incompetent or just because somebody is going to be lazy or just because somebody is going to not show up on time or the most egregious,

[00:31:26] oh, we're afraid if it's a female.

[00:31:28] There's been ones I've worked and all they are dudes, sausage party, right?

[00:31:32] Because they're afraid that the women will get on maternity leave.

[00:31:35] I've had ones where they start and, you know, two months later, they're on maternity leave.

[00:31:41] It happens.

[00:31:43] That's what that's that's it's a biological something.

[00:31:46] That's what it is.

[00:31:47] What are you supposed to do about it?

[00:31:48] What they do is they discriminate against people and they look for these things because they don't want.

[00:31:54] They're more concerned about their own situation, not about we got to give people a chance and understand part of your screening simply has to level set and understand.

[00:32:06] There's certain questions you can ask.

[00:32:07] You cannot ask.

[00:32:09] Okay, are you pregnant or you can't ask these questions, right?

[00:32:12] But what you can do is you can level set expectations and you can do that.

[00:32:19] You can say we have a project.

[00:32:22] We're hiring to get the project done.

[00:32:24] It's a five month project.

[00:32:26] We need to make sure everyone can commit five months minimum to get this done.

[00:32:31] Are you going to be able to do it?

[00:32:32] If they can't, do you need to know that?

[00:32:36] And why may not come into play?

[00:32:38] It may not matter because if they can't, they can't.

[00:32:41] Okay.

[00:32:42] If you're not able to commit the five, you're not qualified.

[00:32:45] It doesn't matter why you're just not qualified because it's what we need.

[00:32:49] They're afraid to do that.

[00:32:51] So instead, they'll simply favor what some consultant tells them to do that they think increases the chance they're going to find somebody good.

[00:33:00] And as a result, you don't see.

[00:33:04] I would argue any hiring manager do what I do, which is I'm happy to pay somebody to get the stuff done.

[00:33:12] Even now, I have all sorts of things that I'd love to get done.

[00:33:17] And I'd love to hire somebody else to help with some of these things.

[00:33:20] I'm trying to get the home stuff sorted out first, but I would love to have somebody that helps with some of the other outreach things that I've been deficient in off the side.

[00:33:31] And I'd go out to pay them, but they have to have the same energy that I do.

[00:33:35] They have to have the same drive that I do, but they also have to have that same ability and skill that I do.

[00:33:41] Not necessarily they have experience doing it, but they can think outside the box.

[00:33:44] This means they cannot be, I'm sorry, weed smokers.

[00:33:48] They cannot be buried in their cell phone all day long texting their friends.

[00:33:53] You have to be nose to the grind, focus on the work for whatever time frame I need you for.

[00:33:59] And that is worth paying for.

[00:34:03] It's hard to find it.

[00:34:04] I understand.

[00:34:06] It doesn't change that people still need work and you have to give a chance.

[00:34:11] And sometimes it sucks because it doesn't work out.

[00:34:14] The bottom line is as companies, we can still deduct it anyway.

[00:34:17] So it doesn't, yeah, we waste some money every time we have to let somebody go.

[00:34:22] Every time we have to hire somebody, it's a pain to set up medical benefits.

[00:34:27] It was a pain.

[00:34:28] It was, you wouldn't think so, but it was a pain because I said, I want to pay all the medical benefits for them.

[00:34:34] And they, what do you mean?

[00:34:36] I want, they should not have a bill for medical benefits.

[00:34:40] What's hard about it?

[00:34:41] What's the problem?

[00:34:42] Because no company does it, even though it's deductible.

[00:34:45] It's deductible because it's an expense.

[00:34:48] It's at the end of the day, anything that's an expense is deductible.

[00:34:51] You just have to know where to deduct it and how and why, and be able to back it up and put documentation to it.

[00:34:56] It's deductible.

[00:34:57] They don't want to do it.

[00:34:58] In summary, when I saw the most recent situation, I was on a forum and they completely overlooked the gal and she was an extrovert.

[00:35:08] And I knew she could do it.

[00:35:09] She had the skill.

[00:35:11] She just, she, she talked too much, frankly, but she had, she just needed a good mentor.

[00:35:16] She just needs somebody to refine her delivery.

[00:35:19] And I saw them just completely overlook her.

[00:35:21] It told me, man, it's a, it's a rigged game.

[00:35:23] And I can only imagine people out there trying to find a job in this rigged game system.

[00:35:29] We got it's rigged.

[00:35:31] Now there's the, got to rush back in the office when they don't need you in the office.

[00:35:35] There's nothing there.

[00:35:35] They want to have you sit in wasted meetings and waste freaking time.

[00:35:38] So if you do get the job, you're, you're, you don't want to be there, right?

[00:35:43] You're only there to collect a check.

[00:35:44] You don't want to be there.

[00:35:45] You're absolutely, I don't want to say depressed, but you're dejected.

[00:35:49] You can't stand going to work.

[00:35:51] You're stuck in traffic because they put their freaking building in downtown, whatever.

[00:35:55] And so you got to eat an hour commute one way.

[00:35:58] They're not paying gas for that because they can't.

[00:36:01] So that's what I'm saying.

[00:36:03] Everything contributes.

[00:36:04] It's like you haven't, you're stuck.

[00:36:06] You apply for all these jobs.

[00:36:08] You waste weeks or sometimes months just trying to get into the thing.

[00:36:13] You get in there and then it's an absolute shit show.

[00:36:16] I can only imagine what it's like for people out there.

[00:36:19] And I'm sympathetic.

[00:36:19] I truly am.

[00:36:21] But I understand what the mental process is for these companies.

[00:36:27] They're not doing it because they dislike you.

[00:36:29] They're not doing it because they're racist per se, although there's some of that, but

[00:36:34] I guarantee you that's not the driver.

[00:36:36] The driver is that overpaid consultants have told them this is what it should be.

[00:36:41] Overpaid consultants have told them, no, your office should be in the middle of downtown

[00:36:45] because that's where all the workers are.

[00:36:48] Overpaid consultants have told these people under DEI, well, no, but you know, the suburbs

[00:36:53] is discriminatory.

[00:36:56] You know, you should be in the urban core because that's where all the diverse sets of

[00:37:00] people are.

[00:37:02] Overpaid consultants have told these people, well, if they've worked at these high quality

[00:37:08] companies or they've gone to these high quality colleges, we don't want a four-year degree

[00:37:13] from University of Phoenix, we want a four-year degree from Harvard to Yale.

[00:37:17] Overpaid consultants have told these businesses this is the way it should be.

[00:37:21] And since those businesses are feckless, look up the term, they're feckless and have no balls,

[00:37:27] they fall into it because they don't want to think for themselves.

[00:37:31] That is the cause for the rise of DEI.

[00:37:35] DEI, I don't know if you've been paying attention, hasn't solved the hiring issue that I described.

[00:37:40] In fact, it made it worse because all they've done is start targeting based on race.

[00:37:46] That's what they did, even though it's illegal.

[00:37:48] We know the game though.

[00:37:50] Yet you still have STEM jobs dominated by men.

[00:37:55] Make it make sense because at the end of the day, overpaid consultants have told them,

[00:38:02] well, men are where you're going to get technical skill.

[00:38:04] This is, these, the data speaks for itself.

[00:38:09] The data speaks for itself.

[00:38:11] Why would you need some sort of a group called Girls Who Code if what I'm saying isn't true?

[00:38:19] Think it over.

[00:38:21] Overpaid consultants are pulling the strings across the board.

[00:38:26] That's why hiring sucks.

[00:38:28] And it's going to continue to suck.

[00:38:30] It's going to keep sucking.

[00:38:31] The whole AI rush is not the problem.

[00:38:34] It's overpaid consultants keeping you from getting into work.

[00:38:38] And there's not really much you can do other than the best you can do.

[00:38:42] And understand, the game is rigged against you from the jump when you see that posting.

[00:38:48] And to another point, when you see that posting online, I should stress,

[00:38:55] when the postings were all local, when we had a physical newspaper,

[00:38:59] we didn't have anywhere near these level issues.

[00:39:02] Certainly it was challenging to get work.

[00:39:05] Nowhere near as bad as it is now.

[00:39:07] The online job posting made things worse because they're going to force you to relocate anyway

[00:39:14] because they want the laws that apply to their local state,

[00:39:18] even if you could feasibly do the work.

[00:39:21] So that means you have way more candidates.

[00:39:24] They might get hundreds of resumes.

[00:39:27] And there's only five or ten that are even worth anything to them.

[00:39:30] Well, it's a waste of everybody's time.

[00:39:32] It's a waste of your time because you don't know.

[00:39:34] They want you to be there.

[00:39:36] So they're going to force you to relocate.

[00:39:38] Then they'll say, we're not paying the relocation.

[00:39:40] You just got to come out here on your own dime.

[00:39:41] So they want you to own the risk.

[00:39:43] They want you to own the risk.

[00:39:45] They want you to pay the money.

[00:39:46] For what?

[00:39:47] To get there and realize this is going to be an hour commute, a nightmare commute,

[00:39:52] because traffic is a nightmare every single day.

[00:39:55] That's extra time away from your family.

[00:39:59] They'll tell you, well, we got a 401k.

[00:40:01] We got time off and all this.

[00:40:03] Try to sell you.

[00:40:04] And none of it impresses you because it's the same thing you heard in every company.

[00:40:09] Because overpaid consultants have told these businesses,

[00:40:12] this is the way it should be.

[00:40:15] That's the game.

[00:40:16] Once you learn the game and you understand what it is,

[00:40:20] you realize that everything you were told about the interview process was a bunch of crap.

[00:40:25] Everything, every technique you were told as far as the interview process is a bunch of crap.

[00:40:29] Because no matter what, it all comes back to the simple thing I say.

[00:40:36] When you are trying to get a job, all you can do is all you can do.

[00:40:42] That, what does that mean?

[00:40:43] It means do the best that you can.

[00:40:47] Don't try to overimpress them.

[00:40:49] But also don't put yourself out and don't be afraid to ask questions.

[00:40:53] Challenge the status quo.

[00:40:56] Challenge what they present the job as.

[00:40:59] Understand when you are the underdog.

[00:41:03] You know you're the underdog.

[00:41:05] You can read the posting and understand I'm probably the underdog in that one.

[00:41:09] Is it even worth the time going forward?

[00:41:11] If you think it is, understand how much harder you got to work.

[00:41:15] Whatever practice you have to do in front of a mirror.

[00:41:18] Whatever you might think you need to do to help your confidence.

[00:41:22] Because confidence is going to increase your chances.

[00:41:25] It won't guarantee it.

[00:41:26] Because you could still be dealing with the old farts up in there who have the traditional thought.

[00:41:32] And they look at something on your resume they don't like.

[00:41:34] Which leads to the last thing to think about.

[00:41:37] Are you listing stuff on the resume that doesn't need to be there?

[00:41:40] I'm not suggesting you lie.

[00:41:42] I'm saying you don't need every single iota of experience.

[00:41:45] You need the relevant experience.

[00:41:46] Whatever is relevant to them that they should pay attention to.

[00:41:50] That's what you should spotlight.

[00:41:52] To get them to focus on what you want them to focus.

[00:41:55] In other words, you steer what their attention should be on.

[00:41:59] And that goes to the resume.

[00:42:01] It goes to your interview.

[00:42:02] It goes to your application if there is one.

[00:42:06] You should remain in control of what you want them to focus on.

[00:42:10] You still have to keep it in the back of your mind.

[00:42:13] You might be the underdog.

[00:42:15] And no matter what, somebody could come along and be 10 times better than you.

[00:42:20] And you just have to be okay with that.

[00:42:22] Don't take it personal.

[00:42:23] It happens.

[00:42:25] Perhaps it's a good thing.

[00:42:27] You might dodge a bullet.

[00:42:28] Because maybe it's a crap company.

[00:42:30] Check out Glassdoor.com.

[00:42:32] Maybe the company is absolute trash.

[00:42:35] Desperation to get back into work might overwhelm you.

[00:42:38] I understand.

[00:42:39] I've been there.

[00:42:40] I still say don't settle for crap either.

[00:42:44] Sometimes you do what you got to do.

[00:42:45] In the pandemic, we all did what we had to do.

[00:42:49] I'm saying we're not in the pandemic right now.

[00:42:52] Take the time to try to find something that you do want to do.

[00:42:56] Prepare yourself as best you can.

[00:42:59] Focus and spotlight on what you want them to focus on.

[00:43:03] Just make sure in the back of your mind you always reconcile.

[00:43:07] There's always going to be that discrimination against you.

[00:43:10] And there's sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.

[00:43:13] It's always a crap shoot.

[00:43:14] And it sucks.

[00:43:16] But that's the state of it.

[00:43:17] That's where we're at.

[00:43:18] Especially when it's a STEM career, but not just STEM.

[00:43:21] That's where we're at.

[00:43:21] And that's the reality.

[00:43:23] And in some cases, uprooting and moving increases your odds a little bit.

[00:43:27] If you go to a place that nobody seems to want to live, okay, there's a bit of desperation on those companies.

[00:43:32] To bring somebody in they might not normally bring in.

[00:43:35] A lot of people are afraid to uproot and move for whatever.

[00:43:39] But that's sometimes the best way to get those opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't have gotten.