Its the dumbest fucking advice I’ve found since everything is centralised and run from head offices but they dont seem to understand thats not a thing
My dad was a big believer of this when I was younger. Finally I humored him and had him drive me around town as I went into every buisness ask for a paper application. I printed and stapled 30 resumes for the trip, got dressed up, on the way into town he was so smug about how I was finally “really trying to get hired”. Four hours later, we’d been to nearly 50 businesses, I’d gotten two paper applications and only 16 of my resumes were accepted. Everyone else said to apply online or “we only hire through the temp agencies”. My dad for his part took it way harder than me. I think he actually realized that’s not how it works anymore because he never suggested it again and took me seriously when I said I’d been putting in applications online.
The part that gets me is they surely cant have had any recent success with it. Like, the first time they ever get to following their own advice in the modern day, they inevitably realize its bullshit. They voted and used their positions or authority in society to literally make it so that wasnt a thing that would ever be possible after them, shareholders dont care for opportunity or paying to train anyone or giving any rando a chance anymore
That would conflict with all the big cash payoffs
Have you heard the expression ‘pulling the ladder up after themselves’ in relation to Booomers, and the housing/labour market?
*Boooomers
Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomers
Blaming the generation for losing to the 1972 biz roundtable plot would utterly condemn our own as things are getting way way worse right now.
Their and our sins were not stopping a ruling class power grab.
We need to organize. They are organized.
Congrats on getting your dad to change his mind, even if begrudgingly.
There are so many people in his generation that simply do not understand what this job market is like, what navigating Indeed or LinkedIn is like, or how people apply for those jobs anymore. Very little human interaction happens applying for jobs these days.
temp agencies
what i’ve been wondering recently is whether unions aren’t just big temp agencies. instead of hiring people directly, the company forms a contract with the union and people work for the company as long as the union finds the working conditions (including pay) acceptable. if the working conditions drop, the union withdraws all workers at once, instead of the workers having to choose whether they continue to work at the company or strike individually.
They believe that because that’s how it used to work (and still does in some industries). That’s their lived experience.
it definitely didn’t work that way for Black boomers
Maybe not in general, but it IS the reason that if you look at photos of the million man march, they’re all dressed up. Reason being, they were afraid any media coverage would paint them as degdnerates, thugs, and vandals. It’s much harder to paint that picture if they’re marching in unison wearing 3 piece suits, and their sunday best.
This in the middle of the summer when that was wildly uncomfortable.
This. I work in un-unionized trades, which is arguably the least changed career since the time of the Boomers, and this advice does still actually apply
Lived experience and/or delusion. Many can’t seem to absorb that the labour market didn’t stop changing in 19-fucking-73, and it shows.
I couldn’t believe how dogshit so much of their advice was the last time I was searching for new work, and how irate they were that I wouldn’t take it - because it was useless and/or hazardous to my financial stability in the situation at hand. That coffee drinks-avocado toast shit seemed like satire at first, but some of them actually believe it, and had I been spineless/stupid enough to allow them to push me into the courses of action they were insisting on I think that it might have killed me.
“Naughty corporations” made me chuckle, but “I don’t know what the solution is” definitely rang true.
Most boomers actually don’t know where to begin, even though many of the solutions would be a 6-year-old’s first guess, and are actually proven to work, simply because they grew up being told that every single one of those obvious, proven solutions were “socialist” and that socialism was anti-American.
That indoctrination was so thorough that these solutions can be put right in front of them, gift-wrapped, with a neon arrow pointing at an easy button labeled “fix that shit,” and they’ll still shrug and say “we’re all out of ideas, maybe ask a billionaire what to do, surely they know how to fix the system.”
And the sad part is that they do and, in fact, already did.
This works for small businesses. Sending them an email will just wind up in spam. But show up in person, and you might get to talk to an actual person. This distinguishes you from some random, semi-anonymous piece of paper or text header.
If you’re applying at some gigantic mega-corporation, then none of that matters. They won’t have time to see you anyway, and will only look at your application if they specifically asked you to give them one.
Yeah I was going to say the same. Currently work at a small business run by a boomer so if the random person walking in looking for a job happens to catch him there’s a 50/50 chance that person will get hired. Bonus if the person looking for work has a degree from a ivy league university, boomers love that shit. I don’t know why someone with that sort of degree would be applying for a low wage small business job but the job market is a bit crazy nowadays.
The practice can backfire of course - I’ve seen the same boomer boss hire other boomers that barely know how to use a computer and then proceed to fail at his/her job spectacularly. It’s interesting when you run into boomers looking for work and it turns out they spent most of their career relying on others to deal with the mundane tasks of dealing with email, spreadsheets, etc. So many of them spent their careers falling upwards into management roles until they were laid off/fired/whatever.
This distinguishes you from some random, semi-anonymous piece of paper or text header.
It also just gives them a lot more information about who you are as a person. A list of skills or lived experience can be misleading in all kinds of ways. And they only allow inferring personality traits indirectly, like someone with good grades is less likely to be a slacker, but ultimately you don’t know.
Probably, yeah.
It’s how I found internship a year ago. It was really just vague “something related to computers”, so I ended up in a small PC repair and sale shop. I just asked the owner, and that was that. Although, since that was for free…On the other hand, the large company where someone else went in the past… they just told me “write an email to this person”.
But also, that was kinda rare. He usually wasn’t there, especially soon before I left, as he apparently ended up receiving some threats and a few mad people showed up after he helped organize some protests.
That’s what happened to them. If they were white.
It does work sometimes because people can ignore an email or phone call, but its harder to ignore a person standing in front of you.
As an example we were contacting a business abut something we offered that we knew they needed.
Emails and phonecalls always got the reply of: I have left a note for the owner and when he has time he will contact you.
After months of that, and us happening to be in their area, we just dropped in unnounanced and asked for the owner.
He engaged with us , asked lots of questions, asked for samples and info. As we were doing that the secretary realized who we were and said something like " oh I’ve been meaning to have you read their emails and setup a meeting" lol
Too late lady.
Ok, I agree with you, I do, buuuuut
If someone shows up to an interview wearing pajamas, they are probably less likely to get a job. So you do have to dress up a little bit, depending on what the job is.
Not even just job stuff, its as impractical as pushing you to apply for something government related and that your dressing up and showing up in person will somehow override literal requirements you know you dont meet
Gen-X here. The reason they’re giving you that advice is because that used to actually work. If you wanted a job, for instance, you needed to comb through newspapers or physically go around and look for places that were hiring. It wasn’t uncommon for ads to to say “apply in person.” Without the Internet making applying for a job almost trivially easy compared to how it used to be, going through the extra effort of showing up dressed professionally was a way to show that you were serious and willing to put in real effort.
The Boomers and Gen-Xers telling you to do the same aren’t living in the same decade as the rest of us, mostly because the Internet wasn’t pervasive in the time they were looking for jobs. Back in the 90s the Internet was kinda a novelty that you had to go looking for. It wasn’t, IMO, until smart phones came along that being online REALLY took off, though arguably iMac computers really pushed the “tech is trendy” idea out there.
It’s highly depends on a situation. But generally speaking it does work in a lot of situations.
You want work? Clean up, print a dozen resumes - apply online (if they have a website), then go and show up in the physical location. You will be noticed waaay more than a silent application.
You want to solve a service issue: even with big probiders atnt, T-Mobile there is a chance that a corporate store manager can do something.
Sometimes even between offices it can help if you show up in addition to the regular channels.
Being proactive, clean and respectful can take you long way.Fundamentally, it’s hard to overstate how much assertiveness skills can help you meet your needs. Just because it doesn’t always work doesn’t mean it never works. (When I say assertiveness, I mean confidently and respectfully seeking what you want)
The respect is the key word. Nowadays most people don’t give a shit. So when you do, you stand out. And if you treat someone with courtesy they will be much more favorably towards you.
With fake job posts and AI resumé scanning, showing up can’t hurt.
Obviously not every job is open to people who show up, but if you just want any job - any small (mon and pop) store will be impressed.
Honestly I saw some job applications that peope would not believe…I meant in addition to online applications.
That’s also true :)
Sometimes for example hotels even if they are big chains, prefer to see a face.
I’ll agree that there are instances where it works, but the tricky part is knowing who those were. I love your second example because I worked at one of those stores and the manager could definitely get things done if you were polite and got the employees to advocate for you.
But, we wouldn’t be much use in the first example because all applications were online, and the GM didn’t interview anyone until HR told them to.
They have since closed that store, so there are only authorized agents in my town, and there’s not a damn thing they can do for your billing issues.
I believe that asking respectfully won’t hurt. And if you are lucky you can get ahead of people who do not show up.
That’s what they did the last time they searched for a job. It used to work.
This.
It’s old advice that used to work, and it worked very well.
Not so much the dress up. But yeah. You need to show up. Also, it doesn’t help to be a bitch about people trying to give solicited advice by sharing their experiences.
If you want to make $350K working 10 hours a week in your underwear, go find out how all those other wildly successful folks in your generation are doing it.
Because life was literally that easy for them.
If they had a pulse, they usually got the job
You were guaranteed if you also dressed like the fancy people on television.
I’ve never encountered anyone of any age that thinks that. Presentation of yourself is important, but nobody has ever even implied that just looking nice is enough to get everything. It’s simply part of the whole equation.
Generationally, the only thing here I’ve seen disconnected between Boomers/Xers and yoinger generations like my own and Gen Z are that they have a different sense of what looks good or professional. Personally, I like that younger people also hate suits. Suits are stupid.
Every generation just gets more casual and I love it!
Pretty soon I won’t even need to put on pants to run to the store!
I would love to live like an actual cartoon dog and only wear tshirts to express myself.
You put on pants for the store?
There is also such a thing as trying too hard. I once saw a guy show up in a blue button shirt with white collar and tie, to apply for a cook job. He got the job, and was good. But that outfit was a fucking costume and all it communicated was “I am into putting on a false front.”
Suits aren’t stupid! There’s casual suits, for one, and really there’s suits for basically every occasion… There’s so many different fits, different materials, different cuts…
That’s just such a violent generalization, I simply can’t stand by and say nothing.
Maybe the idea you have of a “suit”, in your mind, sucks balls, but suits certainly don’t suck balls.
The only suits that aren’t stupid are fursuits. 😤
That entirely depends on which Venture was the one who made it. Rusty, Hank, Dean, Jonas Jr., or Jonas Sr?
what even is a proper suit supposed to represent?
like, i’ve grown up hating them as much as i hated everything else that was pushed onto me and i didn’t understand.
i’ve never seen a single suit that looks good or made sense to me. what is the purpose in it?
At the end of the day, it’s fashion – you may just not like them. It’s OK not to like suits, I’m not trying to push anyone here to like suits, I’m just saying they’re not stupid.
I mean, why wear chinos? Why wear blazers? It’s not like they’re “superior” garments or something, they just… Look nice! That’s it!
Suits are about showing that you care about what you wear and how you present yourself, because it’s intentional – you’re wearing matching pants and blazer, maybe even a matching vest on top of that – and that says that you meant to wear that, and didn’t just happen to wear it because you liked those pants and you liked that shirt. A suit is an outfit that looks like it’s meant to be worn as a single item: a suit. Not pants and a blazer; A suit!
That’s what makes it “special”, but it’s really just clothes.
Maybe when you think of “suit” you think of something like this:
But this is also a suit:
Do they look the same to you? Is it the same vibe? Do you think they fit the same and are equally as comfortable?!
HELL NO!! I wouldn’t want to wear that first skinny ass suit a single day in my life, but I think the second more relaxed suit looks very comfortable and reasonable, and something I could wear around without a problem.
Even if you still think both suits look bad, I hope this at least sheds some light on how not all suits are the same. What they do have in common is a cohesion that says that you meant to wear An OutfitTM, as opposed to putting on some pants and a jacket. Well, and they’re a little more formal than a t-shirt and jeans, too.
Something that I think might’ve also been a problem for you when suits were pushed on you was that maybe you weren’t wearing very good materials or very well-made stuff. I don’t mean to say that I know your upbringing, but odds are you were forced to wear poorly-made polyester clothes that draped weird, didn’t breathe well, and felt weird on the skin – that’s not exactly a good way to get a kid (or anyone, frankly…) to enjoy wearing anything.
I, at least, for the longest time, hated wearing collared shirts! Why? Not sure, but I assume a reason for that was that I was forced to wear them to church growing up and I hated both church and being forced to wear anything! Also, I was wearing shitty shirts that felt horrible to wear, regardless of occasion. Maybe you went through something similar.
ok, these two images explain a lot, thanks :D
yeah, the second one looks waay more comfy than the first one to me. and also i get your intention of wearing a complete, matching suit, like, stuff matches together. that’s better than just wearing random individual unmatching items.
the way i do it is to select all my clothing that i have/own depending on color schemes. almost all my clothing is green/brown/red, (the brown being similar to the second picture) so it all automatically matches because it all has a certain vibe to it.
The only time showing up in person works in the UK is if you’re a teenager looking for part time or apprenticeship work in independent shops/hospitality/mechanics etc.
with job sites being the primary source of job hunting, you wont even get a chance in most cases to even an interview. and you can just show up to a business with a suit on, and demand to see a interviewer.
fun fact, in the medieval times it was custom that you could not sentence a person in front of court without their consent. yes, the consent of the person about to be judged. how times have changed.
Now a days they just send a note by Raven to Castle Black.
