Job Security Is a Dumb Goal (And a Survey with Some Cool Prizes)

There's a lot to like in this article and in the philosophy Ryan is outlining, and I was with him riiiight up to the following:

"So, when you go on your next job interview or when you talk to your boss about your career plans, ask him what the company is doing to make you employable."

This might be a fair question from an existing employee under some circumstances, but trust me, the day a candidate asks me what I'm going to do to make him or her more employable is the day I shuffle that resume to the bottom of the stack. Come on, Millennials, give yourself a chance to get hired!

Again, I do agree with Ryan's basic philosophy, and I also agree that in this day and age it's as unfair for an employer to offer job security as it is for an employee to seek it. But questions like this call for a little tact.

How about, "What will you do to help ensure that my value to this company keeps growing?" To my ear, that suggests a forward-thinking and entrepreneurial mindset. Asking an interviewer about "employability" suggests that you've already decided to leave the company before you've even been hired, and that the only question remaining in your mind is when.

I like the sound of that — I've given up on the idea of job security. I'm a typical Gen-Y kid who has not been at a job for more than two years at a stretch.

But I come from an Asian society that still clings onto this ideal of stability, which makes it hard to explain to friends and family that what I'm doing on the Internet is not BS.

I'm with Sean riiiight up until he says:

"Come on, Millennials, give yourself a chance to get hired!"

He's got a point, the question shouldn't QUITE be "what are you doing to make me employable"…
We definitely shouldn't be quite so brash.
A proper question would be "What are you doing as a company to promote the right mix of training, skills, experience, and mentoring".

AND, if the employer stalls, (or moves the resumé to the bottom of the stack), run. Fundamentally, the company should be interested in growing their employees as quickly and as effectively as they can, regardless for how long they stay. Training, skill building, and mentoring should be an integral part of work. It's like watering and giving sunlight to a plant. Your workers will thrive if they're given this.

And, as any employer of a Gen-Y knows, the fastest way to loose their Gen-Y's is to deny them of these options. NOT because Gen-Y's are selfish and only look out for themselves, but because Gen-Y's know the a stifling atmosphere is not the place to grow.

Matter of fact, your other employees know this too. They're just not as young, as mobile, or as ready sacrifice their paycheck for their happiness. Loose your Gen-Y's, and eventually (though it may take a while), you'll loose everyone else.

@ Benjamin Jancewicz:

I'm with Sean riiiight up until he says:

"Come on, Millennials, give yourself a chance to get hired!"

Yeah, I wasn't sure I was going to get away with that. Thanks for calling me out.

I happen to agree with your restated question as well as my own. I think the key difference is that training, skills, experience, and mentoring are beneficial to the company with whom you are interviewing. "Employability," at least as perceived by employers, is useful really only to the employee and to the next company he or she joins.

That said, I'd still advise some caution; you don't want to suggest that training, skills, experience, and mentoring are the responsibility of the company to provide and the employee to receive. Effective employees go "halfsies" on development and look to create their own opportunities as well.

I have to agree with Sean. A cardinal rule of interviewing is that you don't want to come off as entitled or expecting the company to owe you something. The main point of the meeting is for you to prove that YOU have what THEY need. Yes, a secondary point is for them to sell themselves and for you to gather information, but if you have done your homework, you already know quite a bit about the organization and may even already know answers to questions such as what type of training and development opportunities they offer. Hopefully, you already know enough to know if you'd want a job with this organization!

Asking questions that seem overly "in your face" or "entitled" will buy you a quick "thanks for your interest" letter. If you want the job, focus on what you have to offer. If you want something to ask, ask if they reward hard work by promoting from within!

I'm with Sean, too. I like the idea of a younger worker asking about mentoring, training and all that, but don't they have the inititiave to do it on their own, instead of getting spoon-fed? Perhaps a larger company is going to spoon feed you and assign you a mentor, and make sure you get your training on how to use their software, etc, but I come from the smaller company market and a lot of times you just have to get your own initiative on.

What if the company has 15 employees, and none are really suited to be your mentor?? What if the are ALL suited to be your mentor but none have the time (fast pace in a smaller company, where many people wear many hats).

Alas, maybe I'm just too old and this question is right on for this generation. I hope not though.