Are You Qualified? What do employers look for in an applicant? Is it good grades, test scores, or involvement in extracurricular activities? Maybe, but these are, however, only one aspect of a candidate’s application that companies look at for future employment. In the opinionated editorial, “How to Get a Job at Google,” published in The New York Times, author Thomas L. Friedman, the paper’s foreign affairs Op-Ed columnist, interviews Laszlo Bock, the senior vice president of people operations for Google. In the article, Friedman proposes the idea that high school and college students’ GPA, test scores, and degrees are not the only criteria that employers seek in an applicant. They look for “abilities” that cannot be taught in the classroom. …show more content…
He made the rhetorical decision to interview Bock knowing that his standing would further convince his audience since Google is an extremely successful company in which Bock is responsible for choosing the employees. Friedman is in agreement with Bock that GPA and test scores are “‘worthless as a criteria for hiring…they don’t predict anything.’” This supports Friedman's idea that “Your degree is not a proxy for your ability to do any job.” By using Bock to essentially argue his point, Friedman ultimately gives his view more credibility since Bock has ethos in this subject area. Friedman also wants to point out that adaptability, innovative thinking, and creativity are significant qualities of an applicant that can be of great value to a future …show more content…
The title of the article “How to Get a Job at Google” pulls his audience into reading the article. Many people would like to know how they could get a job at one of the most successful companies out there. However, that is not what the article is about. Friedman’s interview with Bock does tell his audience what qualities Google looks at when hiring people, but Friedman’s main purpose is to persuade his audience that having these qualities are important in any job and are what many employers are looking for. The words that Friedman uses in the article make it informal and more appealing to his audience of high school and college students. He chooses to include quotes with crass statements, such as “‘worthless,’” “‘don’t care,’” and “‘argue like hell.’” He also decides to write his article in a tone that is unrefined, which makes the article a simple read. By using only Bock as a credible source and not incorporating other credible individuals in this subject area, helps Friedman make his article easy to understand and simple to read, therefore, making it pleasing to his audience. The article topic itself is thought provoking and reaches those who are open-minded to a different perspective on the qualifications of a job applicant divergent from the more traditional
...Graduating from college is one of the few sure fire ways to make a relatively large amount of money in your lifetime, but what is learned at college is not responsible for their graduate's success. The benefits from a college diploma come from the signal it sends to employers that you are worthy of being hired. But this signaling is collectively immensely costly. Millions of young men and women spend billions of dollars and years of their lives in unproductive and costly signaling. The current relationship between college and future wages and employment is imposing enormous deadweight losses on the United States economy. Altering long-held norms about college will be difficult, but it is vital. A slow transition to a new regime with alternative screening mechanisms for employers and colleges teaching specialized skills and knowledge would make everyone better off.
In this article “What It Takes To Make New College Students Employable” written by Alina Tugend, she argues that your time in college does not necessarily prepare an individual for jobs in society today. This is mainly due to employers who expect recent college graduates to have the skills prepared for a working environment. Unfortunately, that is not the case because the social and technical skills that you learn in college do not translate into the corporate world. To solve this problem, students can become more well equipped with the skills necessary to work by attending training programs, have employers work with them to fix certain issues, and teach them where certain social skills should be applied in the workplace.
Contrary to popular belief, a college education can help with any job, regardless of whether the job is within a certain major or not. In fact, a college graduate even benefits if they take up a job as a plumber or a police officer- not only from their academic education, but also from learning important skills such as persistence and discipline (Leonhardt). Having a college experience and exposure to the world creates well- rounded people with higher skills and work ethics- and therefore better workers. Though they aren’t immune to being turned down, college graduates are more likely to actually get jobs, and be paid more for them, as shown in a study d...
Education is one of the most important factors to any person’s success in their lifetime, but is higher education really worth it? The answer is found in the article “America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree.” Written by Marty Nemko who was most likely inspired to write this because of his experience as a career counselor. In this article Nemko addresses the parents of potential college students to inform them the truth about college’s being money hungry businesses. He brings fourth multiple examples of why bachelor degrees are overrated and how colleges are not being held to a high enough standard. Additionally, he argues that going to college isn’t even necessary for success, and that many of the skills needed to succeed in the workplace are already in the successful students not just taught at some college. The text as a whole reveals the ugly truth that colleges are more focused on making money than actually helping their students succeed and because of this fact parents should take action to protect their students from being harmed in the process.
College is the place where people go to retain the necessary training for a job that requires specific skills, which results in earning a higher pay check. In today’s world, employers are scouting out for individuals with the proper dexterities to fill the shoes for that specific job. Blanche D. Blank, the author of “A Question of Degree," argues that possessing a degree of higher education isn’t the only way to have a very successful life. This statement is highly argumentative, due to the fact that college graduates still out-earn people without degrees. Obtaining a college degree is one of the best things someone can do for themselves, when it comes to looking for a stable job. There is also so much more to college than just receiving a
Mr. Henry states that in order for the job market to sustain ample job opportunities for university graduates, those chosen should meet strict educational standards early in the education process. Without these measures, he believes, the American education system will continue to degrade as everyone will become equal, with none terrible and more importantly, none great. Mr. Henry asserts his belief that in a watered down workplace, complacency is only eclipsed by averageness. For an individual to progress and excel through college, it takes a certain measure of drive to achieve the necessary academic quality. This drive requires its recipient to work harder and achieve better grades, more income...
Not only is college important for bettering our society, but it is also important for bettering our own individual lives. Many people without a college degree are restricted to a smaller number of occupations for which they are quali...
According to the attribution theory, interviewees’ failure as a result of controllable events (such as effort) is viewed negatively by interviewers, while failure from uncontrollable events (such as ability) stimulates an understanding reaction by interviewers (Cariess & Waterworth, 2011). As “attributions about the cause of applicant failure can be clearly linked to hiring recommendations,” according to Cariess & Waterworth (2011, pg. 236), interviewees’ reason for their failure (effort or ability) largely impacts interviewers’ behaviour in a job selection process. Interviewers recommend interviewees with high effort-high ability first, followed by low effort-high ability, then high effort-low ability, and finally low effort-low ability (Cariess & Waterworth, 2011).
A problem America is experiencing is the economic growth, it is a problem because the wealth growth is only affecting the rich. It is as simple as this, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Robert Reich points this out in his text, Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer. This has been a problem recurring since the industrial revolution, because of the labor groups being stuck in that position. Also, the mergers, and lawyers cycle around their money through lawsuits, and takeovers. Reich uses metaphors in his text about the fall of economy, and he uses boats. There are three boats that are being represented by different economic standing. The reason why Americans are having such troubling economic standings
Google's use of algorithms in recruitment First, you survey current employees on a variety of characteristics and traits, including teamwork, biographical information, past experiences and accomplishments (i.e., have they started a company, written a book, won a championship, set a record).
While traditional societies relied on ascribed characteristics to determine an individual’s role in society, modern societies use the education system as a means to sort individuals on the basis of achievement, using measures such as grades, test scores, and work ethic to guide high-achieving students into jobs that recognize and utilize their skills, and low-achieving students into jobs that are less skill-demanding. For example, a high-school student with high-grades, high test scores, and a strong work ethic will be readily accepted into colleges and universities and afforded with opportunities to pursue more intellectually demanding occupations, but a high-school student with low-grades, low test-scores, and a low-to-moderate work ethic will not be accepted into college, and rather, must enter the workforce with only a high school degree, limiting his career options to categories that require low-to-average cognitive skills. Thus, the education system ensures that only the most qualified individuals end up in challenging occupations, directly serving the needs of industrial society. Specifically, functionalists argue that education as a system of role differentiation is beneficial in two ways. Firstly, it is able to address
Milton Friedman’s economic theory is a model that can be used to test whether or not hiring on the basis of looks is ethical. This theory rests on the idea that the reason that a company exists is to sell its products, make money, and seek as much profit as it possibly can. He argues that a corporation can’t have social responsibility for various reasons. ...
It’s nonsensical to believe that every sixteen-year old should know what he or she wants to do with his or her life, and even more so to discourage someone from pursuing his or her interests. In a capitalist society, it makes sense that average salaries a few years out from college graduation would strongly influence the interests of many young people. It’s not uncommon to come across newspaper articles or editorials bemoaning the United States’ lack of engineers or glut of unemployed English majors. It’s even more common to...
Is Google Making Us Stupid? - Magazine - The Atlantic. (n.d.). The Atlantic — News and analysis on politics, business, culture, technology, national, international, and life – TheAtlantic.com. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/
Researches in University of Southern California Center of Higher Education have proven that “Individuals who attend college save more money and have more assets including homes, cars, and investments” and that “college graduates earn more than twice as much as high school graduates” (Kezar, Adrianna, and Vikki Frank). This depicts a perfect example of a directly proportional relationship between colleges and the students’ economic lives; As individuals get more education and schooling, they also earn more money and salary. As a result, these individuals have more stable economic lives. Also, these students are less exposed to unemployment. Once they are employed, they are said to be productive, innovative, and effective. Employers and work bosses might choose to employ college graduates because they “challenge how things are done and come at things from a different perspective…[and] assimilate knowledge quickly and bring new ideas and energy” .The economic benefits of colleges on students are countless, yet among many of these advantages, the most salient one is that “college graduates with a bachelor's degree earn 80% more per year than those with only a high school degree” (USC). This might be “success” for all glory and gold diggers.All these factors pave the road for students to have a higher self-esteem, and improve the quality of their