Posted on 08/06/2023 9:32:54 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
But the COVID pandemic was a couple years ago.
The statistics, are not very accurate, or they need to be filtered by type of job. I know on the job boards were they give counts always literally hundreds even thousands of people signing up for the same jobs.
There must be a better way than a job board with hundreds of applicants. My son-in-law keeps running into things like that. As a recent college grad with a computer engineering degree but no experience, he can’t seem to break through to people who really want to hire a beginner guy at a beginner salary. He’s keeping body and soul together right now by working as a security guard. I think job hunting is a truly awful undertaking.
BTTT
Honestly I’m calling BS. The government is still paying far too many healthy and capable people to stay home and not work. So, people being what they are, stay home and don’t work. They get dropped from the unemployed rolls, making this a skewed statistic.
Imagine what it was like 45 years ago without the Internet. I subscribed to the Wall Street Journal “Careers” supplement which came out every week and landed a great job that way. I went to the library frequently to peruse the Help Wanted sections from the major newspapers around the country. I was a mechanical engineer with five years experience starting power plants. It was a real challenge to connect to the job market, especially without any sort of a personal network. You talk about isolated!
I was pounding out every single letter from scratch on an old Smith Corona portable electric typewriter that I had used in college seven years earlier. I used carbon paper to make copies. I used manila folders to keep track of who I had contacted and when.
You wrote “I think job hunting is a truly awful undertaking.” — I tell you, it’s a piece of cake today compared to the old days.
Write a generic cover letter, apply to everything, hundreds, daily even. Focus on US companies and American recruiters. Indian recruiters are total waste of time and are simply going through motions and then placing Indians and H1B. I do consulting—any contract W2 or C2C, any length, focus on remote. Apply everywhere, do periodic follow-up with anyone that responds. As they say, it is a full time job to look for work.
Yes, three are HUGE differences in industries as well as type of position in this industries. Some states rely heavily on tourism. Others on energy. Others on finance. Others on tech.
In places like California, the glut of workers is probably due to poorly educated, poorly experienced workers. In poorer states, the shortage of workers is because the jobs don’t pay much.
It’s very hard to make meaningful generalities like this article is attempting to do.
Good advice, thanks.
When I returned home to Idaho, another co-worker was selected to cover my Linux sysadmin tasks inside the closed area. I couldn't do that remotely. That went well for a few months, but ultimately he and his wife took new positions in northern Virginia where salary and housing costs allowed them to buy a house...something that was impossible for them in San Diego. I had to remotely train a new sysadmin.
The last time I applied for a job was in 1980. Pacific Telephone. I had the credentials, but the CPUC had placed a hiring freeze on Pacific Telephone. I called weekly to get a status update and eventually the freeze was lifted and I was hired.
For my current job, I was recruited. An offer was delivered to my front door. That was November 1991. I started the current position on Dec 9, 1991. It's a big company with lots of specialties. Perform well. Network. Get recruited to the next contract. All internal.
It's a bit late in the Summer, but many companies have Summer internships. That is a great way to demonstrate your skills and network within a company. Often it leads to an offer of a paid position.
Thanks .
You also run into idiots in the HR departments. I remember reading an interview with an HR person of a large high tech company about 5 years ago.She said if she receives a resume from someone that has been out of work for more than 3 months, she just throws it in the trash without reading it. Her reasoning was if they couldn’t get hired within 3 months there must be something wrong with them.
In the computer field, the applicant has to approach it like it is combat against a huge genocidal machine.
Indian firms are trying to monopolize the entire IT industry, and their goal is to eliminate ALL US citizens, and force the employers to hire only Indians.
A few years ago, after 20 years of trying to do business with and around the Hindi insects, I started blocking their emails, and avoiding any application process wherein any Hindi accents or names popped up during the process. I started getting more results, and less dead ends.
Monster, Dice, and Linked-in are too saturated with them. Indeed is still an option, but the Hindis are beating it down as much as they can.
RedBalloon.work is another possibility, geared toward the non-woke, conservative businesses and workers, although newer and smaller.
I’m going to refer my son-in-law to redballoon.work . Thanks.
Thank God the southern border is open....
The start is always bad. HR says they want a beginner with 5 years experience.
I can only tell you 2 things
1. It gets better after 5 years working
2. Tell him to get a job anywhere as IT support, eden for a small company. It’s a start.
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