Graduating Summa Cum Laude into the Econmic Nadir

These are crazy times. The President and his team are patting themselves on the back and sounding very enthusiastic when they have spent more than $50 billion of public money in leading two automakers to bankruptcy. The U.S. stock market is hitting a high for the year and the world equity markets are zooming forward, while the unemployment rates are still moving up. One of my advisees, a highly talented young man who graduated Summa cum Laude with a double major and who had an excellent internship last year, is having a difficult time finding a job. The WSJ ran two interesting articles on the job front today-

In "What Won't You Do for a Job?" Ms. Lublin writes-"...As the downturn persists, U.S. employers flooded with résumés increasingly insist that job hunters jump through unusual hoops. An investment bank ordered an experienced female marketer to come dressed in fancy evening wear suitable for entertaining wealthy clients. Certain businesses force contenders to interview each other and tout their rival's prowess. Others demand protracted unpaid tryouts. "Job seekers frequently face a process that makes the Spanish Inquisition seem tame" because management sees the sour economy as a golden opportunity "for upgrading talent," says Jennifer Berman, a Chicago human-resources consultant. Anyone craving employment these days "should expect just about anything," says Tom Carter, president of LeaderFinder Consulting Inc., a New York executive recruiter. He recently began requiring prospects to ace a role-playing exercise before recommending them to clients..."

In "The New Trouble on the Line" Ms. Needleman write that " For years, the phone interview was a preliminary step that allowed an employer to give a candidate the once-over and schedule an in-person interview. But these days, many recruiters are using the phone interview to pose the kinds of in-depth questions previously reserved for finalists. What's more, job hunters say the bar for getting to the next level has been raised much higher, catching many of them off-guard... In a recent first interview for a senior marketing job, Robyn Cobb was grilled by a hiring manager for an hour and a half on topics ranging from her work history and marketing philosophy to her knowledge of the company and its industry. "I thought it was never going to end," says the 45-year-old Ms. Cobb, who lives in Alpharetta, Ga., and was laid off in December from a midsize communications firm. Until recently, candidates could often breeze through most phone interviews in 10 minutes or less by answering a few softball questions. Little preparation was necessary, and most people could expect to be invited for a "real" interview before hanging up. These days, job hunters are finding that they need to reserve an hour or more for a phone interview. They may be asked to discuss their full work history, including the exact dates of their experience in various business areas. They may also be expected to cite examples and exact stats that illustrate their strengths and offer details on how they would handle the position. During a call earlier this year about a director-of-Internet-marketing job, Jaclyn Agy of Wheat Ridge, Colo., says she was asked to describe about 10 different marketing initiatives she's worked on, plus provide metrics resulting from each.. Employers say they've raised the phone-interview stakes in part because they're attracting more candidates who meet their basic qualifications. They're digging deep to identify the best ones, and in some cases adding second-round rigor to phone screens as one way to accomplish that. "You can be pickier," says Joyce A. Foster, vice president of human resources at Hilex Poly Co. LLC in Hartsville, S.C. Salaried job openings at the company's 10 U.S. locations have been attracting up to three times as many qualified applicants -- including more candidates with experience in Hilex's niche, plastic film and bag manufacturing and recycling -- than during more robust economic times, she says. "... when it comes to candidates who were laid off, recruiters for the New York-based asset-management firm want to know the circumstances behind what happened. "Was this person a high-performance, talented individual who was let go because of the economics of the business," he says, "or an average employee let go in the first round" of layoffs? For many firms, evaluating candidates over the phone also serves as a way to save on recruiting costs... "When a candidate comes in to meet the hiring manager, recruiters have already gone through every detail to make sure they're a fit," says Mr. Cousens..."

Clinton had the Internet bubble, and Bush/Greenspan created the finance+ real estate bubble..both distorted the macro picture by creating high employment. The rising tide lifted all folks, including people with relatively poor skills. The question now is- what is going to take the place of these bubbles? The "green" economy is still in its infancy, and anyone who has traveled abroad knows that other parts of the world are ahead of the U.S. in this area. There is no one area that is growing massively, and most areas are retrenching. Without employment, the situation looks dire. The country and its people should start investing in the youth of the country and provide more money to not-for-profit organizations as a way to move forward. The for-profit firms have proved adept only at enriching the managers, in good times and in bad.