Last week I put up a post talking about the fact there's nothing wrong with young talent doing a call center role for a good company early in their career, but I talked a bit in that post that good to great talent wouldn't be in that role for 3+ years - they'd promote within the call center or elsewhere in the company. 

Good talent goes up. The cream rises to the top.

There's just one problem with that. The world we live in - from the escalating college admissions process, capital campaigns at colleges, media, social media, etc - has robbed us of perspective.  Young grads are automatically nervous related to their slotting in the job market.

That's why I wanted to have a guided conversation on one of my podcasts - The HR Famous Podcast - on how career expectations for new grads have escalated to the point where it's not healthy, and from a talent perspective the current narratives aren't true.

Take a listen to the podcast below as I talk with Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee about these expectations and our view of them. We also have Cameron Sackett, Tim's son, on as a new grad to talk about how he's feeling attempting a job search in a COVID world. While the timing sucks, I'm a HUGE believer that Cam will be successful regardless of the level of job he lands in the coming weeks/months.  Look him up on LinkedIn if you need a young Marketing pro who can do great things.

Great talent ALWAYS goes up if it performs like it should. I'm pissed at a world that causes kids like Cam to be stressed about their careers, but the stress would likely have been there for a lot of kids even if COVID wasn't a factor. It's a mind#### that the world has forced on them.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Great talent goes up.

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In episode 24 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee are back to discuss the escalation of career expectations for college students (as well as the musical Hamilton and Glassdoor/Indeed changes). 

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

SHOW HIGHLIGHTS

29:00 - KD discusses his worries about post-grad jobs in a COVID and post-COVID world. He thinks we’re setting difficult expectations for high performing college students who are entering the job force. JLee worries that colleges are just using student’s successes and expectations to get the best crop of incoming students. 

32:45 - Tim talks about his blog post he wrote about Cam’s college admissions experience and how the college admission system is screwed up. KD is a big fan of the comments on the blog post and still subscribes to them 4 years later. 

35:30 - KD asks Cam about how he remembers his college admissions experience and the frustrations he felt during this time. 

37:30 - KD asks JLee about her experience going through college as a child of immigrant parents. She discusses the high expectations that her parents had for her, and how she’s going to change and adapt those expectations for her children. 

40:00 - JLee discusses her rebellious streak as a young adult and how she did well enough to get by and still rise to the top of her field. 

41:30 - HR Famous thinks the cream always rises to the top!

44:00 - KD posted a blog post on the HR Capitalist this week about a woman who reached out to him who had worked at the same call center for four years. He thinks that regardless of where anyone starts, the best will always rise and reach where they want to be. 

47:00 - Cam talks about what he thinks about taking a call center job and his hesitations. He says that he would be more willing to take a customer service entry level position if he’s joining a company that has great upward mobility and career mentoring. 

48:45 - The HR Famous crew gives their last words of advice to Cam on the job search.