"Entry Level" Positions Piss Me Off

Do you guys ever just find a role, and you read through what they're looking for and think, wait a second, I'd be a great fit! I've got the education, I enjoy the work, I'm great at Microsoft Office, and I have previous internship experience in Corporate Finance

And then you get to the "requirements" and then realize this "entry level" position needs 10 years of experience, a CFA accreditation, your first unborn child, a second heart and spare kidney for that sweet, sweet $45k a year salary and the privilege to work at their firm where the entire task is mostly data entry and administrative. 
 

After seeing a dozen of these "entry level analyst" posts on LinkedIn, I think we need to create a new name for something that helps better define it. How about "Slave Wage Analyst" or "Not-Willing-to-Pay-for-Experience Analyst"?

 

It is what it is. You have to hustle to survive baby. Life is a game. Play your cards right

 

Hey man, I feel you. Unfortunately, as you know, the situation in Canada is total shitshow. I'm from a semi-target for Toronto and a lot of June 2020 and December 2020 grads are unemployed. A large portion of those who found something had to settle for an "internship" (post-graduation, w/out a guarantee of a FT offer) or one of those "slave wage analyst" roles you described. Check out the Opinion piece published on WSJ on the weekend "Canada's COVID Vaccine Failure". With the lockdowns extended in Toronto & Montreal and vaccination lagging, the scarring on the economy will take a long time to recover. Because of this reason, as a successful international student, I have decided to turn my back on Canada. I will be looking elsewhere, Europe & Middle East mainly as I'm not a US citizen. These are indeed hard times and so much is happening out of our control, just stay strong and be positive. Let me know if you would like to chat, I can remove my anonymity and send you a PM.

 
Most Helpful

As an older member on WSO, I have a lot of experience in this area. I see it all the time and you'd be surprised / amazed by how many candidates eliminate themselves from consideration and equally surprised by the shorter list of accomplishments that actually get hired. The more entry level, the more intriguing.

A lot of those requirements are actually desired not required (I realize they say required), especially for entry level. They are trying to limit the number of replies. Perhaps not an extreme example like "10 yrs experience of coding xyz or whatever".  If those are entry level, perhaps they are considered entry for post MBA where the candidate could easily have many yrs of experience.

Anecdotally, my first corporate sales VP job was one that, on paper, I was was gravely unqualified for to the point my dad actually asked me why I would waste my time applying. My cover letter got their attention and I ultimately got the job. This was a scenario where they were requesting certain industry certifications (think CFP, CFA, etc) of which I didn't have. Yet, I had the skillset they were looking for and that's what truly matters.

If you are lacking certain experience listed, hopefully you are very strong in other areas. Make sure you highlight that and are able to speak to your strengths and your ability to be a quick study on getting up to speed. They can gauge if you have the chops.

It's likely tougher today as social media / tech makes it far easier to drop resumes so each job opening has way more competition, but the same rules basically apply.

Good luck.

 

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