Author Topic: regressive North Carolinan primitive outraged by sense of entitlement  (Read 1767 times)

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Offline franksolich

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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2659212

Oh......my.

As one can imagine, this turned into a great big campfire really fast.

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Progressive_In_NC (207 posts)      Fri Jan-11-08 09:39 AM
Original message
 
What is with this sense of entitlement (re: job interviews)

So I have embarked on the yearly task of finding four new college graduates to bring into our firm and train them up into six figure income earning, 60 hour a week billable consultants by their sixth year in the business.

These young folks will be unbillable for the first two years and thus a cost center for our company rather than a revenue generator like the rest of us. I can not find a single person who is happy with an ENTRY LEVEL salary of $50,000 a year in NC.

They have no experince in our field and a degree in computer science just shows me they are capable of doing the technical work, not that they can operate at the manager/vp/cio level in a company or that they know any of the current technology that we will have to train them in when they reach our door.

Two of the folks (one guy and one girl) are working at Sams Club and Carmax respectively until they can find a job making over 70K to start. Both have turned down anything under 65K/year that they have been offered. For her, it has been 6 offers rejected so far.

I've interviewed 11 people from local major universities so far. I've been asked for:

80K -- 2 times
75K -- 4 times
70K and four weeks PTO (the standard is three)-- 3 times
70K -- 1 times
65K and and a four day work week -- 1 time

My first programming job in 1994 paid me $26,000 a year and I was thrilled to have it. Now I do make the large salary and work the 70 hour a week grind, but this is almost 14 years later almost.

Is it like this for everyone hiring out there now? The sense of entitlement is just outrageous.

Just a very very very few sample comments of the primitives and one non-primitive, the libeloushistorian:

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mondo joe  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-11-08 09:45 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. I think it's a generational thing. The 30ish and under set has a much greater sense of their own $ value than I recall my generation being at that age.

To be fair to the people you're talking about, though they may not be revenue generating at this time, they are an investment for our company with the intent of a future return - otherwise there'd be no need to recruit them.

Of course this is an investment for them as well. So you both have something to gain long term even for a short term compromise.

On the bright side, for you, this is a group who knows how to push for the maximum advantage which in the long run is a good asset for your company.

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malaise  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-11-08 10:24 AM
Response to Reply #2
 
25. I find they have an highly over-rated sense of their value and a frightening unwillingness to pay any dues.

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liberalhistorian  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jan-11-08 12:04 PM
Response to Reply #25
 
68. You've hit it right on the head with that!

"frightening unwillingness to pay any dues"; that's exactly what it all boils down to. There seems to be no recognition that even the most brilliant, highly-paid, highly-regarded, well-known, even famous, people HAD to start somewhere and it usually was at or near the bottom. You can't just start at the top with all the bells and whistles, it just doesn't, and shouldn't, work that way.

I KNOW it's a pain in the ass to mop floors or be a low-level office grunt, no question. But, for the most part, that's where you need to start and build up from there. You are not "owed" anything just by virtue of existing. You have to work for it, and you'll actually appreciate it much more when you do get there, because you've done it on your own.

I think that's what pisses me off the most about those born into wealthy families, a lot of the time they DON'T have to work for it at all, it's just given to them. A good friend of mine grew up in such a family, but her father was smart. He made her and her brother start at the bottom in the family company, NO preferences or special treatment or anything like that at all. And she's done very well at the company. He did that because his own father did not do that with him, just gave things to him, and he wanted his own kids to have to actually work for what they got regardless of the fact that they had an automatic employer to work for, the family company.

Now, if they were in their 30's, 40's, or 50's, with long-term, solid work history, it would then be different, I could more than understand where they were ocming from. Some of these companies now want such people to work and work and work but don't want to pay them anything near their worth. But they aren't, they need to pay their dues first, just like everyone else does and needs to do.

I usually hate shaking my finger at the "younger generation", because, frankly, every single older generation on earth since the beginning of time has complained about the "younger kids" for whatever reason. But this is a legitimate complaint and a real problem. I think a lot of it has to do with that whole "self-esteem" movement in the schools these past fifteen or so years, where students got rewarded for anything and everything, even if they didn't, and ESPECIALLY if they didn't, do a ******* thing to earn it. That's caused a huge entitlement mentality that I'm not even sure we can do anything about at this point.
 
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mondo joe  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jan-11-08 12:08 PM
Response to Reply #68
 
69. That strikes me as very puritanical. The beauty is this: either the workers will influence compensation to improve - and thus they will have earned it - or they will fail to do so - and this will "pay their dues".

They can't live forever on no income, so one or both sides will have to compromise.

But just as you are not "owed" anything, neither do you "owe" it to anyone to "pay your dues". It's all a negotiation.

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liberalhistorian  (1000+ posts)       Fri Jan-11-08 12:18 PM
Response to Reply #69
 
74. I'm afraid you DO need to "pay your dues." 

If I were a hiring person, I wouldn't want someone who'd never done the grunt work to pay their dues in the beginning. I find that usually those types have a horribly inflated sense of their own worth, a horribly inflated sense of entitlement, AND, quite often, no or little understanding of what the "grunts" do, what it's like for them, and how much they contribute to a workplace.

There's just lots and lots of stuff there. 
apres moi, le deluge

Offline Uhhuh35

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Re: regressive North Carolinan primitive outraged by sense of entitlement
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2008, 04:14:15 PM »
"ceile  (1000+ posts)
149. Aboslutely!   
W/ 10 plus years experience in my field, I'm luck to be making over $30K (just barely). Average salary for what I do is about $28K and the cost of living is sky rocketing in this town. Maybe I should move to NC...."

Maybe you should go to school, get a degree or learn a trade that pays better?
Naw, too much effort. And you'd miss all that complaining wouldn't you?
DUmbass!

I went to college at age 27 after I got out of the service and then again at 34. I'm 44 and I'll probably go back at least one more time.
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
— Albert Einstein.