24 - Complicated Career Expectations in the Modern World for New Grads + Notes on Hamilton

In episode 24 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee are back to discuss the escalation of career expectations for college students (as well as the musical Hamilton and Glassdoor/Indeed changes). 

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

1:30 - KD is now a user of a standing desk. How do you like yours?

2:00 - Hamilton time! Tim convinced the rest of the crew to watch Hamilton on Disney+ and Jlee says she respects it but is not the biggest fan of musicals or history. 

4:20 - Tim asks KD and Jlee who they think each of the HR Famous crew is in the Hamilton cast. Tim and Jlee both think they’re Alexander Hamilton. KD doesn’t think that Hamilton is charismatic enough to be Tim. KD wins by being compared to George Washington and King George by his friends.

11:00 - First topic of the day: Indeed and Glassdoor are merging services. Tim thinks that this is bad news for Glassdoor and worries that Indeed will sell out the mission of Glassdoor for $$$. 

14:45 - Second topic of the day: new grads! We welcome Tim’s middle son, Cameron, who is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan to discuss his latest experience in the job market. Cam is looking for a job in the entertainment industry in marketing/social media and he spends a lot of his time applying for jobs and reaching out to UMich alums to network.

18:15 - KD asks Cam about the alumni network at the University of Michigan and how he tries to leverage that connection. He talks about the different types of responses he gets and the steep cost of being a member of the U of M Alumni Association. 

22:00 - KD and Jlee talk about network fatigue that is occurring right now due to the many people who are currently looking for a job and how this will make it harder for anyone to make new connections. 

23:30 - The HR Famous crew wants to see Cam out in the news space talking about his experience. If you want to interview a new grad on his job search or are interested in Cam for your company, find him on LinkedIn!

24:30 - Tim talks about his perspective as a parent of a new grad and a HR professional and how he’s had to watch the struggles of his son enter a bad job market. 

26:15 - Tim asks Cam about candidate experience and what kind of response rate he’s getting from companies. Tim talks about how he thinks the data from this year about candidate experience is going to be really poor. 

29:00 - KD discusses his worries about post-grad jobs in a COVID and post-COVID world. He thinks we’re setting difficult expectations for high performing college students who are entering the job force. Jlee worries that colleges are just using student’s successes and expectations to get the best crop of incoming students. 

32:45 - Tim talks about his blog post he wrote about Cam’s college admissions experience and how the college admission system is screwed up. KD is a big fan of the comments on the blog post and still subscribes to them 4 years later. 

35:30 - KD asks Cam about how he remembers his college admissions experience and the frustrations he felt during this time. 

37:30 - KD asks Jlee about her experience going through college as a child of immigrant parents. She discusses the high expectations that her parents had for her and how she’s going to change and adapt those expectations for her children. 

40:00 - Jlee discusses her rebellious streak as a young adult and how she did well enough to get by and still rise to the top of her field. 

41:30 - HR Famous thinks the cream always rises to the top!

44:00 - KD posted a blog post on the HR Capitalist this week about a woman who reached out to him that had worked at the same call center for four years. He thinks that regardless of where anyone starts, the best will always rise and reach where they want to be. 

47:00 - Cam talks about what he thinks about taking a call center and his hesitations. He says that he would be more willing to take a customer service entry level position if he’s joining a company that has great upward mobility and career mentoring. 

48:45 - The HR Famous crew gives their last words of advice to Cam on the job search.