Although you match what we are looking for...

in a successful candidate for this line of work, we feel we have found someone more qualified for this position. Thank you for your application and time.

Everyone knows by now that I'm unemployed (if you don't, check some back posts). Well, I just recieved an email for a Board Op job I applied to, telling me, although I have an extensive career and meet some of the requirements, I am unequivally unqualified for the job. I originally submitted my info because I met everything listed and then some.

What I don't understand is, how exactly am I unqualified for a board production position at a radio station, when I have a degree in Communication and have ample years experience (10+)? Who else in today's market, given fresh graduates, can say they can splice tape with ease, use a reel to reel machine, understand how to take the pops and clicks out of recording vinyl (to digital) to make it sound "new" and know how to dial on an ISDN line? College kids these days aren't being trained on the programs I was, or even the machines my predecessors learned on. I am from the age where you could still learn on reels, if you're lucky, but professors leaned more on Pro Tools and Adobe Audition to fix mistakes. Years later, no one knows how to splice. Turntable and vinyl? Oh, that's something DJs use in the club to scratch and mix music with. With their Macs as back up.

Yes, the economy is sinking and the jobs are harder to find. However, I am finding the more places I apply to, the more generic emails I receive back saying I'm unqualified. Gee, thanks. My knowledge of the Digilink, Arrakis and Enco systems mean nothing. My old school learning doesn't play nice with your new school thinking. It is all the same when you get down to the dirty of it. So the knobs on the new flat screened studio boards are different. That doesn't mean when I need to pot up channel 9 so the on air host can spew his propaganda, that I can shirk the responsibility of lowering channel 5's CD track because it's too loud over him. Sorry. I forgot where I was for a moment because I actually like that song.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for people getting jobs, and I do look for my own, but it's just mind blowingly awful how you feel you meet everything stated in the posting and get a reponse saying you fail to have the experience. It's just an awful feeling. But I will truck through it and onto the next email....

I wanna know your thoughts. Make a comment or two... tell me what your experience has been. Have you been in that boat? Maybe other readers know the feeling!

Cheers,