The Off Topic Topic

[Iormlund]

As high a fence the Pyrenees make, you'll find no love for gabachos here. Too many spilled strawberries stand between us.

[Admiral Yi]

Too many spilled strawberries stand between us.

??

[DGuller]

Good thing it's not blueberries.

[Valmy]

Too many spilled strawberries stand between us.

??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_FIFA_World_Cup_knockout_stage#Spain_vs_France

This defeat was so upsetting for Spaniards that they all spilled their strawberries.  This tragic loss of yummy fruit can never be forgiven.

[Iormlund]

Too many spilled strawberries stand between us.

??

It was an inside joke, I'm pretty sure Larchie and Celed got the reference.

There was a time when every other day French farmers appeared on the news assaulting trucks carrying Spanish produce as they crossed the border.

[Ideologue]

God, why can't we be more like the French?

[Sheilbh]

The youngins have more options though. They can go to school or emigrate more easily.

Older folk have obligations (kids, mortgages) and in Spain rarely speak English (French was the foreign language in school for the generations raised under Franco's tutelage).

But this all depends on the young not ageing and being replaced by a younger, cheaper generation with fewer commitments and demands for money or on the current situation not lasting very long. The young have more options now but someone who graduated in 2010 is already at least 25.

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

[garbon]

God, why can't we be more like the French?

Aren't we already wasteful enough?

[garbon]

The youngins have more options though. They can go to school or emigrate more easily.

Older folk have obligations (kids, mortgages) and in Spain rarely speak English (French was the foreign language in school for the generations raised under Franco's tutelage).

But this all depends on the young not ageing and being replaced by a younger, cheaper generation with fewer commitments and demands for money or on the current situation not lasting very long. The young have more options now but someone who graduated in 2010 is already at least 25.

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

The 27 year old will be hungrier.

[Iormlund]

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

Why not?

I find the age criterion really weird. Jobs are not forever any more. We're all mercs. Why does it matter that the guy is 24 or 29 if the odds are he'll be somewhere else in 5 years?

[garbon]

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

Why not?

I find the age criterion really weird. Jobs are not forever any more. We're all mercs. Why does it matter that the guy is 24 or 29 if the odds are he'll be somewhere else in 5 years?

Yeah. I think the factor really there is - really, this guy couldn't manage to find a job in 5 years? Why would I want someone like that?

[The Brain]

Employees should have young, firm bodies.

[Sheilbh]

Why would you employ someone for an entry-level position who's say 27 or older, without work experience, as opposed to someone who's just graduated?

Why not?

Same reasons the young are more able to bear a recession. They're cheaper, more flexible, less likely to have external commitments (so no work-life balance issues) and far more likely to stay that way. As harsh as it sounds someone in the late 20s is more likely to get married or have kids than a recent graduate. Also if they've studied something practical that knowledge is more likely to be fresh and up to date than someone who graduated five years ago and has since spent that time working in a bar in another country.

Also what garbon said.

I think it's fine if employment growth returns quickly and large-scale youth unemployment's just an aberration, but if that isn't a case and I were an employer I'd just skip a generation rather than hire the 28 year old who couldn't get a job and doesn't have useful work experience.

Also in the UK lots of employers hire entry-level positions specifically as graduate schemes, for recent graduates. Once you're out of that cohort it's tough to apply for jobs that don't require some experience already.

I find the age criterion really weird. Jobs are not forever any more. We're all mercs. Why does it matter that the guy is 24 or 29 if the odds are he'll be somewhere else in 5 years?

What I've just said. But also for him it matters. I remember reading a study of the last major recession in the UK in the early 90s and people who graduated during that earned less across their lifetime than would have been expected because they'd missed those first years of gaining experience and earning. It has an effect throughout their career.

[Ideologue]

I'm so fucked.

So, we've made stupid jokes about it: but what is the best/least likely to get caught way of hiding the fact I went to law school?

First things first, and I need to recharacterize "contract atty" as "lit support" or something similar.  This doesn't involve outright lying.

Second thing is how to fill that gap from 2008-2011.  I'm thinking my dad owned a landscaping (or similar small) business, I worked for him, he died, I sold it, put the money into a retirement fund (explaining why I live like shit now).  This may be too ambitious.  Other suggestions are welcome, and I'm not trying to be funny.

[The Brain]

Things you did to survive gave you 10-25.