Now This!

Remember when you went to apply for a job and all you really needed was your work history? Did that work for you? That was back in the 1970's. It works when you're fresh out of high school, but not for older workers who were previously laid off.

For a while you only needed three references that you could turn over after the first interview. Then potential employers expect you to turn over your references in advance, even though they may be scam artists or psychotic individuals who might be out to ruin someone's life for the fun of it.

Then, get this, some employers expect you to have other people take time out of their busy schedules to write letters of recommendation to them before they consider an interview.

I'm not going to have my associates write hundreds of letters of recommendations if I apply for hundreds of jobs.

And Now This! Employers are expecting you to spend $40 to get yourself finger printed, then spend over $100 to go to the State's Office of Professional Development and get a "Permanent Employee Registration Card (PERC) card.

I was told by my potential employer (who when asked, told me he worked for some security agency I never heard of) that it would take a couple of weeks for the prints to get through the system, then I would have to go down to the Department of Professional Regulation and apply for a PERC Card.

I never received specific instructions for this process or given the name of someone to contact. I called the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation and the recorded message repeatedly told me to visit their website to apply for a license, but there was no link for license applications to be found on their main page for a PERC card, so I called them back and listened intently through the entire recording until it told me to press '2' for other license inquiries, and it was busy.

Joe’s trouble with Illinois Skills Match

Joe has a search running at JobCentral.com that daily notifies him of jobs for which he’s certainly qualified. Most of these jobs can only be applied to through the Illinois Skills Match system of which Joe is also registered.

According to Illinois Skills Match Joe only qualified for a hotel desk clerk and four part-time check-out clerks. However, Joe entered 135 skills in their system in addition to his two college degrees and four years of exemplary active duty military service.

One day Joe went to the Illinois Workforce Development Center in Springfield, IL to figure out why, with his record of experience and education, he qualified for only a few high school level jobs. He was told by one person that there just might be too few jobs in the database.

But that doesn’t jibe with the number of jobs that show up on Jobcentral.com that claim to be registered at IllinoisSkillsMatch. Here’s a list of the most recent postings at JobCentral.com:

MEAT PROCESSOR WRAPPER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

GENERAL MERCHANDISE STOCKER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

BAKERY MANAGER ; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL) ; first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

SCANNING COORDINATOR; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

MAIL ROOM CLERK; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PT CASHIER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PRODUCE MANAGER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Chatham, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

DELI CLERK; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

OTHER PARTY LIABILITY INVESTIGATION; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

GROCERY MANAGER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PT EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PT CUSTOMER SERVICE ASSOC; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

ASST DELI MANAGER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PT PARCELLOR; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

DELI COOK; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

MEAT CUTTER JOURNEYMAN; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PRODUCE STOCKER; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM

PT FLORAL CLERK; IllinoisSkillsMatch (Springfield, IL); first acquired 2009-10-6 5:25 AM


Joe doesn’t understand why he can’t even connect with these employers for an interview. He’s certain that he’s well qualified for these positions. Here is what Illinois Skills Match has lined him up with

PT Customer Service Assoc; Springfield, IL; $8.25/hr & up
PT Checkout Service Associate; Springfield, IL; $8/hr & up
PT Checkout Service Associate; Springfield, IL; $8/hr & up
Front Desk Clerk, Springfield IL; Springfield, IL; Minimum Wage

Joe is left with little information to go on, so he assumes that there is a patronage wedge in the database at Illinois Workforce Development that skims off the decent jobs for those who have political or familial connections to existing state workers.