Occupy Main-Street – Defeating Occupy Wall-Street One Lazy American at a Time.

This post marks my 19th blog entry since I’ve started writing under the Horse Boat alias. My blog is filled with eclectic perspectives on economic issues plaguing our wonderful country. I’d like to dedicate this entry to trying to defeat laziness and inefficiency in the United States of America. — Impossible task, I know!

One issue that’s ignited a plethora of discussion among Americans is this Occupy Wall-Street movement. I’ll try my very best to be as objective about this as possible, but no guarantees.

As I’m sure everyone has seen recently, Occupy Wall-Street is a grassroots campaign that’s organized a large group of people in various cities around the world. These protesters are mainly comprised of middle-class citizens in the 18-35 age range. There was an industry statistic in the Wall-Street Journal the other day, stating that approximately 40% of the protesters were recent college grads. They’re claiming that they’ve graduated from accredited universities, and yet they can’t find work since Wall-Street continually cuts jobs. Hmm… When I heard that statement from these recent grads, I became pretty upset.

Those same people are also the folks who have spent 30 minutes putting a lackluster resume together, and applied to only two different companies. Realistically, with the amount of jobs educated Americans have at their disposal, it shocks me that our college grads have a sense of entitlement. It’s mind-boggling!

Lack of motivation and a sense of entitlement have taken over like a bubonic plague in our society. Just browsing through the Fortune 500’s list of jobs, I’m able to see hundreds of thousands of open positions and a good amount of those being entry-level. Put forth an honest effort to get yourself started in an industry you find exciting. It’s been two years since this country has been in an official recession, and it’s time to start acting like it. It’s not okay to blame others for your own laziness, and start taking action in your life. The world is what you make it, and there’s no other alternative.

What separates our economy from those of Japan, Germany, France and Russia is human capital. We have some of the brightest people in the world, but we also have some of the most incompetent as well. Now, I categorize an incompetent person as someone who’s lazy and unable to find motivation in life. I’ve witnessed some people with very low IQ’s do extraordinary things in corporate America. The common denominator in success has always been effort and motivation, sprinkled with a bit of luck.

I can probably go on for the next page rambling on about how lazy American’s are bringing down our GDP, but I’d rather offer up a solution. The digital age yields many opportunities online for job seekers to network with recruiters and HR personnel from around the country.

Linkedin is the best resource to utilize when looking for a job. It gives you the opportunity to have your resume out in the open for recruiters and HR personnel to find you. However, merely having a Linkedin profile won’t get you a job! It’ll take a lot of time and effort to network with industry people, but you expose yourself to a whole new world. You can search for careers in your local area, or expand your search into different geographical areas. Become a master Linkedin user, and you’ll give yourself a fantastic opportunity to find a career.

Few tips to be successful in your job search:

1. Become Linkedin proficient.
2. Network with HR personnel at Fortune 500 companies.
3. Leverage your relationships with past colleagues, professors, etc to gain recommendations.

Most importantly, be persistent. You might need to apply to 40 different companies in order to receive one or two interviews or call-backs. Recruiters are usually a great way to circumvent the majority of that process, but the key is to enamor them. They receive thousands of requests per month from qualified people all over the country. Stand out and show them how you will affect their bottomline and add value. No major corporation wants to invest in someone who says it’ll be cool to work there. They want someone who will make them more money.

I’ve been added on Linkedin by many different recruiters, so feel free to add me as a connection and I can send you some email addresses. There’s no right way for looking for work, but there is a wrong way —Blaming others for your own situation.

Signing off,

Miran Maric

Always desire to learn something useful.
– Sophocles