In the US – where companies routinely use computer algorithms to whittle down job applicants – 72% of CVs are never seen by human eyes. (The Guardian)
There is little more depressing and destructive of self-confidence than job hunting with no contacts and no one to help. When I was young I found myself in this position, trying to get a job in a marketing department of a big company for the sake of experience. I sent out dozens of job applications, with no reaction whatsoever. And this with a good degree and what seemed a reasonable CV. In the end I did get a job in a marketing department, but not before periods of fear and even despair. Good for the humility, but little else.
Now it must be even more difficult. Companies don’t want to have to train you; they want ready-made experts. And they no longer value broad education, problem solving ability or imagination, as opposed to training. This makes the role of parents, relatives, friends and friends of friends ever more important, not to mention college professors prepared to recommend you (at least for an interview). As for the interview itself, do not go into one without plenty of practice in front of experienced people prepared to critique you.
All this does little for your ataraxia. Probably, fathers in ancient Greece fixed employment for sons with their personal acquaintances. More probably, you followed your father’s profession and were trained by him. Girls didn’t figure in the world of work. Life was simple and short-term contracts unheard of. What hasn’t changed is the question all interviewers quietly ask themselves,”Can I work with this person and is he going to help me look good or be a pain in the neck?” In any event, job hunting and interviews have to be approached professionally and methodically, with advice from experienced people.
It may be even worse in Britain, which has the worst social mobility in the developed world. Despite relatively low unemployment, many people are stuck doing jobs they are probably over-skilled for. This is because the jobs they should be doing are currently performed by under-educated people who are there due to contacts and social links. This isn’t helped by the private education system, which can give people contacts useful later in life, though obviously at the expense of the state educated who will lack such contacts.
What I’m very grateful we don’t have in Britain is the sorority/fraternity system, which many American university students join to gain the sorts of contacts British students may gain at school. Not only does this encourage you to join a gender-segregated and potentially unpleasant social group, which you may have to live with, there are also problems with the sororities/fraternities themselves. Some are misogynistic, others are racist (or at the very least disproportionately include people from a particular ethnic group). At best they hinder you from meeting a wider variety of people, which is good in its own way, even if it doesn’t necessarily lead to a better career.