At the Mandolin Cafe

Finally traveled to the Mandolin Cafe and rubbed elbows with follow job seekers. Yes, there is a job club in Tacoma at the Mandolin Cafe on Wednesday mornings. The atmosphere is more relaxed at the cafe which has a nice roomy conference room. The decor is beautiful with the walls adorned by artwork from local artists. Hmmmm, gets my thought processes going. Shall I get back to doing traditional art? Why not? It's all how I manage my time as to what I accomplish and focus on.

Great group of people shared their ideas about job search activities and gave each other tips. Discussion focused on employer's requirements. There was a person there who works with recruiters. She said that there's a gap between what employers are looking for and what applicants offer. Employers are complaining about not finding qualified candidates. A WorkSource person said that what we can do as job seekers is target our resumes. Make sure we use the words in the job postings that describe our skills.

Job searching today is very different and job seekers can take advantage of the technology available which allows us to be more innovative in advertising ourselves with little or no cost.

But there is another side to the equation which job seekers have no control over and that's employer's expectations. I do see job postings that have everything but the kitchen sink and, in the graphic design field, I see employers combining graphic design with IT. There are very few people who can be an excellent programmer and excellent graphic designer. But employers, in an attempt to cut costs, try to merge the two which is really right brain vs left brain skills. Ideally, a graphic designer would work closely with a programmer for creating websites. Unfortunately, "designer" is used interchangeably with "developer".

Many employers are looking for experienced people and aren't willing to give entry level candidates a chance.