I have been trying for 3 or so years to break into project management, I have a Six Sigma Black Belt Certification, but hardly any experience or ability to use this certification. I cant obtain a PMP certification because that takes anywhere from 4K to a little over 7K hours (depending on if you have a 4 year degree or not) of Project Management experience actually leading/managing the project, how can I obtain this if no one will allow me to show my ability to do this.

Also entry level positions i.e. project coordinator type roles they want 3-5 years experience, first off if I had 3-5 years experience as a project coordinator I would be making the transition to a project manager within that time frame, in my opinion anyone who stays in an entry level position beyond 3 years is unmotivated and I wonder why you would bother hiring them (I do realize that sometimes it is good to have a few people that stay in an entry level position for certain/specific reasons).

I agree that most of the recruiters/hiring managers looking through the resumes and trying to match job descriptions are inexperienced and don’t fully understand what they are looking for or even what it all means at the end of the day. I believe there are hiring managers who don’t posses some of the requirements they ask for and I know for a fact through experience recruiters have no idea for the most part what the job description even means. (I have come across many who have no idea what PMP means or what it takes to obtain, and in my opinion if you are a recruiter you should know what those types of requirements mean and determine if they are necessary or something that a candidate could work to obtain if everything else about them fits the bill).

I have also taken opportunities to have later found out that what was in the job description and what was said in the interview to no match the actual job I was doing. For example I took 2 jobs that said in the job description I would be working on projects, in the interview I had clarified, because as I mentioned before I want to be in project management, only to get the job and find out I will not be working on any projects at all. Many job descriptions and managers are misleading and this is unfortunate, a company would do itself a great service if they paid better attention to turn over rates under their managers (obviously if its high “depending on the job, sometimes specific industries just have high turn over” you may want to look into that manager).

Well those are my opinions and experiences, I hope if anything someone can gain something to hopefully help them in how to tackle the hiring process.

I agree with the implication of your first question, that the talent pool is not so large that employers can afford to automatically reject applicants over non-critical issues. Of course, for some jobs, having a certain degree or certificate is critical, but it does not sound so in your friend’s case.

Hiring well is one of a manager’s most important functions. Doing it well makes the rest of the job much easier, and doing it poorly makes the rest of the job impossible.