Division of potential employees

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Just wondered how people are divided in this tight market. Recently I was listening program on the radio and one caller said that even before recession people didn't have the same chance of getting the first job after getting qualifications. In some cases people had "wrong" surname - background, or not so prestigious uni, and then being foreign would be the problem and so on...
What do you think how employers treat applicants?

 

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I think once you are past the CV stage, it is down a lot to a simple case of "face fits". In the last job I had, I asked my manager about my interview with him and his superiors and the other candidates, and the difference in content was astonishing, some people got a real grilling, whilst I got an informal chat and the job.

I think the amount of people who can genuinely say they do not judge a book by it's cover at least at first are minimal.

I think it's always been that way though because during this recession I have not noticed a single difference, I have landed 2 jobs and a half dozen or so interviews in the last 4 weeks alone. It's an oddity.

 

My opinion on it is basically there are less positions with outsourcing, technology advances, companies not replacing staff and more saturation of the jobs market with people coming into IT from say uni or other areas. With this in mind employers will use any excuse to throw your CV in the bin so it's imperative to get the basics right on your CV like spelling, formatting and gaps in employment covered otherwise your on a hiding to nothing. I've seen some pretty poor CV's and think without getting that right you have no chance. Other factors are geographical location, age, sex and yes the things you mentioned and some are illegal to discriminate against but I bet it happens.

I also think now employers want a heck of a lot more from an employee. Some jobs I see advertised are just a joke like HR whacking it onto a job advert or them just trying to hire unrealistic people like wanting a MCSE, CCNA, Citrix and VCP all for a rubbish salary is in my opinion taking the weewee but that is the kind of market I think we are in at present. Being made redundant really brought home to me how fragile my career is. Before I would get 2-3 calls a week and this time around I've had 2 calls and 1 interview in 2 months hence why I'm taking a step back to think about long term goals and to make myself as attractive to an employer as possible.