Young Job-Hunters Grapple With Formal New World Melinda Ligos New York Times Service Thursday, August 9, 2001

NEW YORK The interview was over five minutes after it began.

Ron Donoho, executive editor of San Diego magazine, had barely ushered a job prospect into his office to discuss an internship when he stumped her with what he thought was an easy question.

"All I did was ask her what she could offer the magazine," Mr. Donoho recalled. But the woman, a recent college graduate, froze.

"All she could say was, 'Hmmmmm, that's a toughie,'" he said. "Then she added, 'I was more wanting to hear what you could do for me.'" A few hours later, in an apparent attempt to redeem herself, Mr. Donoho said, the candidate sent him an e-mail message on her qualifications for the news reporting post.

The note began: "Besides the occasional hangover, here's what else I could bring into the office," and proceeded to list attributes she seemed to feel would make her more desirable, including her sense of fashion. She did not get the job.

Experts say that such candidates are becoming increasingly common. Many young workers who entered the marketplace in the recent boom years never learned the traditional rules of hunting for a job, from showing up for an interview in a suit to following up with a thank-you note. Now that the job market has tightened, though, more and more job hunters are scrambling to master these basic skills.

For the most part, "20-somethings have never had to compete for jobs" in such a climate, said Allison Hemming, president of the Hired Guns, a temporary-staffing agency based in New York. She founded the Pink Slip Party, a Manhattan club for people who have been laid off from dot-com jobs. "They're used to being pursued, not being the pursuer."

Certainly, the job market was much different for those who entered the employment world in the mid-1990s. For instance, the U.S. Conference Board's index of help-wanted advertising fell from 82 in July 1995 to 58 last month.

Young job candidates who find they have to sell themselves, Ms. Hemming said, often do not even know where to look for their next job.

"These guys have relied strictly on the Internet and headhunters in the past," she said. "Now, headhunters aren't as interested in this age group, and so a lot of these people have no clue how to go at it on their own."

Employers say candidates who manage to land interviews are increasingly unprepared - sometimes woefully so - for the interviewing process.

"Many can't provide details to probing questions," said Paige Soltano, a hiring director for Bozell Group, a New York advertising agency. "If they tell you they completed a successful project at their old job, and you ask them why it was successful, they aren't able to give any details."

But the biggest difference that Ms. Soltano has noticed recently is the attire.

Although she is used to interviewing candidates in their 20s, Ms. Soltano said recent applicants had "reached a new low" in dressing for interviews.

"I see young women all the time who wear little sun dresses with bra straps showing, along with fancy flip-flops," she said. "This winter, I had guys coming in T-shirts and Army boots. It's as if no one ever taught them how to look for a job."

Ms. Hemming said she had even had to counsel members of her Pink Slip club on their hair for interviews, recently urging one young Web designer to dye his orange hair back to brown.

Larry Engelgau, president of Management Recruiters of Portland in Oregon, said that while most of the young people he saw were relatively polished, many were less than enthusiastic or even realistic.

"Folks in their 20s are still coming in expecting to get six-figure jobs right off the bat, and they seem put off when you tell them they might have to work their way up to that figure," he said.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001