“They’re Looking for Desperation” — Former Job Recruiter Says Employers Want Applicants With Debt

Indentured servitude has never left America, according to this former job recruiter, who says that employers intentionally look for job applicants who are in debt. TikTok user Nora (@choose.the.marble) says that students who secure federally backed loans are prime targets for employers.

She delineated why this is the case in a viral TikTok that's garnered over 25,000 views on the popular social media application. And several other users on the app who replied to her video concurred with her theory.

"So here's a hot take. I don't actually believe that organizations that require a minimum of a bachelor's degree in education for their job applicants are actually looking for that level of education," she says.

Instead, Nora argues that what employers are actually looking for are workers who are more than likely in debt.

That's because people who possess college degrees have a higher likelihood of having large loan payments that need to be paid back. Forbes writes that "most college students take out student loans." Furthermore, the outlet stated that "women and people of color are more likely to have student loan debt."

So why would an employer want to know if you're indebted or not and prefer if you were? Nora explained why she believes this to be the case. "I think they're looking for debt," she declares.

And Nora's experience as a job recruitment specialist is what drew her to this supposition.

"I say this as a former recruiter as well as somebody who worked in and around the hiring process in multiple of my jobs," she informed her viewers. Next, she said it's a well-known fact that actual real-life experience specific to whatever industry a person is trying to gain employment in will always trump a college degree.

"I know that relevant job experience is 10 times more valuable than a random bachelor's degree. [And] I also say this as a person with a random bachelor's degree that never worked in the area that her bachelor's was in," Nora explains.

"I believe that it's debt that makes us more valuable to many of these companies out here," she repeated. And this hinges on the notion that if a person is indebted, they're going to be more desperate for a job, and desperate to keep it.

After all, if someone doesn't have to worry about maintaining a certain lifestyle, like an expensive rent or mortgage payment, or giving money back to the government for student loans, then they may be more selective with where they want to work.

Moreover, this extends to a person's behavior when they're at a job. For instance, if something goes down at work that you don't like, you may think twice about piping up because you're going to be afraid of not paying off the debts you've accrued to get your degree.

Which puts people in a real pickle. They've spent four years of their life pursuing a degree, maybe in a career that wasn't even their first choice. Now they're on the hook for paying back a financial institution they made a contract with before they were legally allowed to consume alcohol, which has fettered them to strive in a field or position they more than likely never dreamed of doing in the first place.

Nora went on, "Because debt makes us less likely to self-advocate in a professional context. When we are deep in debt, we have a scarcity mindset, and we go to work just saying 'Well, we gotta do what we gotta do in order to make this paycheck. In order to chip away at this monster amount of debt that we've got.'"

And her usage of the word "monster" isn't hyperbolic, either. There have been horror stories of folks who've consistently made their student loan payments for over a decade, only to see that their total balance owed hasn't moved an inch.

Moreover, she said that going into the workforce with a massive amount of debt on one's shoulders inherently pollutes the way folks approach their job-seeking process. Instead of securing positions that are going to help them enrich their lives, people are going to be looking to settle for whatever they can get in order to extricate themselves from financial burdens.

"We're much less likely to be looking at work as a way forward as opposed to a way out," Nora stated. At the end of her clip, she asked other users on the application what they thought of her supposition. And there were several people who believed that she was on to something.

"Desperation, they’re looking for desperation," one person wrote.

"Debt slaves. They are looking for debt slaves. Student loans, mortgage, and children," another person on the application wrote.

"Yes. This is also why they pretend job hopping is taboo," someone else replied.

Whereas another wrote: "They want indentured servants."