Definition of entry level professional work

I lurk/participate in another forum that discusses job hunting and professional job issues, so I know that the New Normal is for entry level jobs to require 3 - 5 years experience. I’ve seen that in job ads myself the last time I was job hunting. I have a 30 year career so this doesn’t affect me at all. But it still bumps my pedantometer.

In my humble opinion, entry level means you have education, perhaps a degree, but no experience in the field yet. It really irks me when jobs are advertised as entry level but claim to require years of experience. That’s NOT entry level. It’s mid-level. Anybody with me, or am I an anachronism?

I think the key is that these are professional jobs, not blue-collar. Off the top of my head, emergency management is not someone off the street could do.

Right, I’m talking about professional jobs. Software developer, accounting, marketing, etc.

Really, that is the old normal, too. At least I remember people complaining about it when I started my career a decade ago, and older people complaining about it a decade before then… Employers having inflated expectations of qualifications in job ads, and entry-level peeps ignoring those requirements and hoping to get a foot in the door anyway.

The running gag was that job ads would require “5 to 10 years experience in <technology that was invented 3 years ago>”.

I think the issue is one of description. It’s one thing to say “What used to be called an “entry level job” is now advertised as requiring 3-5 years of experience”. That’s a thing that happens. What is annoying is when the job posting itself says “Seeking accounts payable clerk for entry-level position. Must have 3 years of experience with a major accounting firm”. If it’s actually described as “entry level”, it ought not require experience.

Yeah, to me “entry-level” means it’s suitable for a person’s first job. But if the company advertising the “entry-level” position is requiring prior experience, they must just mean it’s suitable for as a person’s first job at that company.

If an organization has a very well-defined career track, I think the first rung of that track can accurately be called “entry level”, even if it requires some specific experience.

Mid-level to me implies a pretty big jump from entry-level. Mid-level implies starting to take on some management and leadership.

About 5 years ago, I saw an ad for a pharmacist job that required a PGY-2 and 5 years’ experience. Since very few people at that time had a PGY-2 (two years of a postgraduate residency, which is now becoming more common), this employer restricted their potential hiring pool to basically nobody.

I remember ads for Java Programmers around 2000-2003 requiring 10 years of Java experience. It was released in 1995.

Ridiculous job requirements contribute to the epidemic of inflated resumes.

I’m starting to contemplate Life After Grad School myself, and I’m seeing damn few private sector jobs where a PhD is sufficient. Most “Scientist 1” jobs require 2-4 years experience. Which is code for “we’ll think about hiring you after you do a postdoc”.

Even more annoying are the “Scientist 1” jobs that require 2-4 years of industry experience, IOW they don’t even want to hire the academic postdocs. Good thing big pharma has stepped up with their own postdoc programs…

Yay.