Are your parents hurting your chances at landing a great new job? How helicopter parents try to micro-manage their kids' careers.
According to several reports, many parents are taking the lead when it comes to helping their children find jobs. The problem isn't exactly new, but it is taking on a life of its own, and many companies are struggling to find solutions to the problem.
From parents writing their child's resume to accompanying them on interviews, today's parents are more involved in their adult childrens' lives more than any generation before. In fact, the problem is so widespread, many companies have decided to embrace the over-involved parent and have started talking to the parents of potential new recruits to get them on-board. Some have even begun to offer new employee orientation meetings for the parents of their new hires, helping explain what the job is all about.
But, this sort of understanding is rare. If your parents like to be involved in every step of the job search process, they may be making it harder on you. When you contact a company about entry-level positions, they want to see that you are a capable, independent adult. When your mom calls to ask about openings for you, it makes them think that you are incapable of handling even a small task.
If you think that your parents are hurting your job chances, here are some ways to help the feel like they are helping without ruining your job chances:
- Let your parents look at job listing with you – Let them help you select the companies you would like to work for, but do the contacting yourself.
- Ask for their help with your resume – Ask your parents to look over and proofread your resume, just make sure they don't start handing out copies.
- Let you mom or dad drive you to the interview, but wait in the car – If they are adamant about being involved in the process, let the chauffeur you to the interview, but make sure they wait for you outside. This way, you can brief them about what happened as soon as you're done.
- Don't have them call in sick for you – If you land a job or an interview and are ill and need to call in or reschedule the interview, make the call yourself. Unless you are in the hospital and unable to use a phone, do it yourself.
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Are your parents overly involved in your job search? How do you handle it? Let me know in the comments.
If you are looking for a new job, visit CollegeJobBank for the best entry-level job listings.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for CollegeJobBankBlog. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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