Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watcgl.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!water!watcgl!dmmartindale From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Newsgroups: net.singles,net.social Subject: Re: Salemanship Message-ID: <2001@watcgl.UUCP> Date: Sun, 9-Jun-85 20:35:38 EDT Article-I.D.: watcgl.2001 Posted: Sun Jun 9 20:35:38 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 10-Jun-85 22:10:21 EDT References: <968@peora.UUCP> <1424@mtx5b.UUCP> <344@unc.UUCP> <396@unc.UUCP> Reply-To: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 38 Xref: watmath net.singles:7224 net.social:631 In article <396@unc.UUCP> fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) writes: > >Sheesh! Employers are never satisfied, are they? > >First they said they wanted college graduates. >So the youth all went to college. > >Then they said they wanted graduates of useful disciplines, not liberal arts. >So people shifted from liberal arts to business and engineering. > >Then the employers said that technical skills are not enough. You must > sell yourself. >So the students practiced salesmenship. > >Now they say salesmanship is not enough. They must have a good character > and good communications skills (isn't that the purpose of a liberal arts > program?). > >Next thing, employers are going to demand students who are able to >separate themselves above the crowd, but without becoming unconventional. >[several more increasingly-contradictory requirements..] > >Just tell us what you want, and that's what we'll become. I believe that the interviewer quoted was not saying that "salesmanship is not enough" but that he disliked interviewees selling themselves. In general, all employers are not going to want exactly the same qualities, and students simply cannot conform to a single standard and thus become the ideal employeee - some of the qualities desired ARE contradictory. One partial solution is to figure out what you ARE good at, and find an employer who values that. Or try to make yourself into what "most employers seem to want", and accept the fact that some employers disagree. Personally, I wouldn't make a very good salesman, but the qualities that would make me a poor salesman probably make me better-suited to the work that I do want to do.