It’s a topic I’ve touched on before, but after thinking about it more, I want to expand it.
I don’t know if this happens in other countries, but in the US, we are all judged primarily on how we appear on paper. Whether or not this is always true, it is true enough of the time to be a frightening situation, causing people who have no real experience to get jobs they shouldn’t have while more capable people are left wondering why they should have a piece of paper that doesn’t prove they actually know anything.
Personal experience #1: By some twist of fate I wound up getting both my diploma and my GED. When asked, for college registration, to present one or the other, I asked which one they prefered. They said it didn’t matter, but when I pushed, I was told that the GED was actually a better choice. Why? Because it proved that I actually knew what I needed to graduate high school, whereas the diploma merely showed that I was there for the required minimum of days. Keep in mind, this is not about the transcripts or what grades you got, it’s merely the presentation of a piece of paper.
Personal experience #2: I didn’t learn to drive until I was 20. I was living in Michigan and when I went to get my license, I was told that I would have to take a driving test. You see, 10 years ago, in Michigan, if you took Driver’s Education classes, you were only required to take a written test in order to get your license. I don’t know if that has changed or not, but what it meant was that there were a lot of reckless people on the road who likely would not have passed a road test. Learning the theory was enough for the state to issue the licenses, they took on faith that the piece of paper issued by the (often large) classes and the parental assurance that they had clocked the number of required hours with their teen was proof enough that these kids really knew what they were doing.
The roads in Michigan are incredibly dangerous. I remember one exceptionally frightening experience, where I was passed on M-14 on the shoulder of the left lane just as the shoulder ended. The car was probably driving at least 100 mph (I was probably doing 75). This was not uncommon and was before distractions like cell phones were prevalent.
Another thing to look at on this topic is broader than just Michigan, it’s elderly drivers. As people age, they lose certain abilities. Maybe they can’t turn their head to see the blind spot, maybe their reflexes are no longer as keen as they once were. However, once you have a driver’s license, a simple written test and eye exam are all that are needed to renew the license. Again, we take that piece of paper, without tangible proof that you do, indeed, know, not only how to drive, but to drive safely.
Personal experience #3: Job interviews. With very few exceptions, every job interview I have had has been a situation of having to validate the information on my resume. Without certifications and with a degree outside of my chosen career path, I am often expected to prove that I really know what I say I know. The problem is that I can talk a better game on topics in which I have no experience than I may be able to prove, and I don’t think I’m alone in that.
The best job interview I’ve ever had was a recent one, the one that led me to my current position. Instead of asking technical questions, I was asked about the experiences themselves. "Tell me about your last job. What did you like about it? What did you learn from it? What were the primary challenges and how did you overcome them? How was the transition from an environment of 300 people to an environment of over 2000?" These are questions that gave him a better understanding of who I am and what it is that I actually do than asking me about the specifics of programs I had worked with or the specific functions of a job I did five years ago.
Let’s be honest here. I can talk a good game. If I were going to lie on my resume I would not only be able to back it up in the interview, but I could probably find 3-5 people willing to lie for me about having done things I have no hands-on experience with. I could go in the direction of using non-technical references or just have friends of mine willing to say "Oh yeah, FG is great, she really knows her stuff when it comes to [insert something I have no experience with]." But I choose not to lie, or even to mislead, out of the fear that I’ll wind up in a position that’s over my head. However, it also means that I don’t get certain interviews for jobs I know I can do, simply because my paperwork doesn’t back it up.
Moving on: I know this one situation… a friend of mine works with a guy who is incompetent in his job. Regardless of his papers, he can’t do the job for which he was hired. The problem is that he can’t be replaced because the hiring manager(s) can’t find someone qualified to do the job. This is a problem of looking for a paper doll. The job itself is something that a lot of people could do, but since they are immovable about looking for a person with skills X, Y and Z, they refuse to even consider someone with X and Y and a capability of learning Z. They put priority on what they think they can find and then try to get someone who can maybe meet the bare minimums of all three. But that’s rarely possible. When you look for something that doesn’t necessarily exist, you wind up with someone who has either lied about what they can do or who can only function at the bare minimum, at best.
Is this something new or is it something that’s been going on for a long time? On paper, I can be "Reubenesque", rather than heavy (because people get on me when I use the word "fat"), but when you meet me in person, there’s going to be a different word going through your mind. I have met people (when I did the online dating thing) who were "self-employed", but they didn’t work. I have met people who were college graduates whose REAL major (as in, what they actually learned) was partying, and they couldn’t function in a real job. I have also met people who were college, or even high school drop outs, who were beyond brilliant and, once they landed whatever job, went above and beyond what anyone ever expected from them… but those are always the ones who struggle to get the interview, let alone the job. Those are the ones whose references have to be flawless and who need that first chance just to get their foot in the door.
But we are not a society of paper dolls, and what we put on paper is rarely going to be an accurate assessment of who we are and what we’re capable of. I can take tests like nobody’s business. My SAT scores (from 14 years ago) were high, my GPA (from 8 years ago) was excellent, but those things simply do not matter when it comes to what I do.
All we are on paper is the best that we can present ourselves based on previous experience. A resume is little more than a personal ad for prospective employers. A license of any sort is the opinion of some random person we have likely never spoken with again stating that we can do whatever it is that we said we could do. Test results show that we knew what the right answers were at that point in time – not that we can apply the concepts or even that we still remember what it was we think we learned.
One day, maybe, people will look past the pieces of paper and try to see the reality of the person, whether it’s a friend, a colleague, a girl/boyfriend or a potential anything. Unfortunately, right now, we are little more than paper dolls – cardboard cutouts trying to find where we fit.
