A new kind of low...

[OO7MIKE]

Enter rant mode:

So I've been jobless for the last 6 months. I was laid off from working at a college as an Information Technology Technician. I am not completely jobless as I have my own photography business, but it puts me in a financial bind. I was making good money, now I do not.

Moving on from this I have been applying for career jobs. I cant afford to go back to $11/hour jobs because it wont be much more than what I make doing photography.

Craigslist, state, government, local newspaper.. all great sources to find jobs.

A new low... about half the jobs I apply to come back asking me questions I have already answered in my resume and letter of intent. They are obviously not reading my emails an instead sending me an automated email often linking to some website that promises jobs but never goes through with it. They often ask for personal information and other strange bits of info. I feel like there are new kind of companies trying to capitalize on the average worker trying to get a job.

I spend a great deal of time on my resume and every letter of intent I write is uniquely aimed towards that job. I take finding a career seriously.. these F@ck*s are wasting my time for who knows what reason.

I'm pissed, seriously pissed about having to put up with this $h!t for so long. G@d Damn they look like honest jobs until you receive a response from them.

I'm also pissed because i will score an interview about once a month out of the 30-40 jobs I apply for (per month) and I will will hear the words "over qualified for this position". A boon of my existence as I'm worth $15-25 an hour but they only want to hire fresh meat they can pay $12 an hour. Seriously whats wrong with being skilled? Isn't that why people go to college?

I hope you guys are having better luck out there.

/end rant

On a side note, I'm blessed to have photography to keep me going. Some people really have nothing. I only have it because I make it happen.

 

[dragonfliet]

Ouch. that sucks. Me I work a meh job I'm overqualified for while I work on my writing. I would completely know where you're coming from but I have a wife who makes bank (Nurse who works night shift=yay) so I just have to suck up my pride of only earning a pittance of her salary.

That being said, when I do apply for decent looking jobs I've gotten similar responses which is pretty annoying. The response gets my hopes up and the content is stupid and annoying. Good luck.

~Jason

 

[Jackal]

I'm also pissed because i will score an interview about once a month out of the 30-40 jobs I apply for (per month) and I will will hear the words "over qualified for this position". A boon of my existence as I'm worth $15-25 an hour but they only want to hire fresh meat they can pay $12 an hour. Seriously whats wrong with being skilled? Isn't that why people go to college?

They do this so upper managment can keep their jobs without the threat of someone who might be better. I too have had this happen and seen it happen a few times at a place I worked at. There is no such thing as "over-qualified". The fact that you are good at what you do, are eager as you are looking for a job means that you will work harder then they do because they are comfortable where they are at. Which poses a threat to them. Atleast, that's what I gathered from my last job.

And yes you are correct. People go to college to get better at a certain thing because that's what it used to be all about. Now, a simple college education isn't worth much more than a highschool degree. Just ask my ex. 4 years of college and she can't get a job because she is "over qualified" or has no experience. She finally got a job outside of her college degree working for CPS. It's bull**** I know. Maybe this isn't the case, but it sure seems like it.

"Wow, you are really good at what you do. Very professional, but we want someone who isn't as good and is cheaper". Doesn't seem to make sense.

As a side note, we finally got work again. I've been laidoff for a month now sitting around the house :/ .

If you want a decent paying job, there is always construction Good luck though.

 

[Renegade Retard]

I feel your pain, pal. My wife lost her job almost 11 months ago. She's been looking ever since, and I've been looking to get a job with a pay increase to offset the loss of her income. Now, I lost my job two weeks ago, so as of today, we're both jobless.

Luckily, she just found a new job this week and starts next week. Almost took a year to find one. I sure hope my search doesn't take that long.

Given the economical environment we're in today, employers need to save money too. They would rather hire less qualified people so they can save money. OR, the skilled jobs are going to the most qualified folks for cut rate pay.

I know that for my job type, the offered salaries for new hires is about 30% less than it was a year ago. Couple that with the fact that there are many more people looking for those jobs, and it's tough to get employed without getting screwed over.

And yeah, those automated applications are a pain in the butt. The best you can hope for is to be able to copy/paste from your resume, but pretty much all corps are doing those these days. :/

 

[DarkED]

I'm pretty much in your situation. Six months ago I was head of IT at Shutterfly.com's main HQ, here in Charlotte. My entire department got outsourced and I got the 'choice' of either moving to Thailand or getting laid off. I couldn't go to Thailand.

I lost my house and now I'm working at Burger King to get by. And yeah, I've tried Monster.com, Craigslist, local papers, and faxing my resume' to places the old-fashioned way. They either say I'm overqualified or that they can't hire me because I don't have a degree. I've also had a few companies try to hire me through some of the various temp services around Charlotte (i.e. "Okay, we want to hire you. Go to <temp service> and register with them and we'll call you.") Take it from me, DO NOT deal with the temp services. You're better off jobless.

EDIT: Forgot to mention I was homeless for Christmas week in December after I lost my house because of all that. Luckily I had some friends who took me in for a few weeks. I'm in my own place again now and working on just getting stabilized. It's hard with everything else going on but I manage somehow. Not gonna matter after the summer anyways I suppose.

EDIT2: Also forgot to mention that I owned a computer shop up until about 18 months ago. Had to close it due to the slow economy and no business. Owning your own business can suck and come back to bite you in the ass in a major way. Be careful with that, Mike.

 

[ilkman]

You guys should all team up and start your own business.

 

[DarkED]

You guys should all team up and start your own business.

I'm working on that with my mom, actually. I'm selling my car to put up the starting capital on my part. I'll be the lead designer.

If you guys have any bright ideas and need someone with extensive IT experience, hit me up. At this point I WILL travel for work.

 

[Sirius]

Wow, Glad to know I'm not alone

I got laid off a month ago as well. I am cursed with almost 13 years of experience being a Mechanical Designer which means company's don't want to hire me because they'd rather get someone with far less experience that they can pay a quarter of what I am worth.

Job searches suck. I got a ton of hits on my resume when I posted it from a bunch of temp agencies. Sorry but I would like to work for more than a month or two.

I think it's time for a career change:
Paper or Plastic?

 

[dotnetbeast]

Know what gets me pissed (a little).
Getting job offers from people that dont ask if im a male or black.

 

[kiff]

When I graduated with my CS degree I emailed, called places, employment agencies blah blag blka, the whole bit. they're all worthless IMO

I was convinced that a programmer was a fish out of water in this relatively small city, so I planned to move to phoenix. About a week before I was going to pack all of my crap into my car, I met the IT manager for a local small business and he hired me (contract) on the spot. from there I met other people, and that led me to my next job and I've been employed ever since... moral of the story: you need to make direct, personal contacts. you need to actually shake the hand of someone to even get them interested in your skills.

 

[T2A`]

If you're looking for $15/hr. and they're looking for $12/hr., it's better than nothing. Take the hit temporarily, especially since you have an alternate source of income. Having a job makes getting a new job easier. Or so I've heard. D:

 

[DarkED]

If you're looking for $15/hr. and they're looking for $12/hr., it's better than nothing. Take the hit temporarily, especially since you have an alternate source of income. Having a job makes getting a new job easier. Or so I've heard. D:

Yeah. I'm making $6.25 an hour and I can only work a few days a week because they don't even really need me. The only reason I have a job is because a good friend is the GM and he hired me as a favor.

I'd do almost anything to make $12/hr right now. It just isn't possible. Nobody seems to be hiring.

I've got experience in other things besides IT, although it's not nearly as much. Dockbuilding, carpentry, house framing, roofing, electrical, automechanical, plumbing, HVAC, home theater, and more. I can also operate pretty much any heavy equipment out there even though I'm not licensed for any (then again, if it has wheels, I can drive the hell out of it.)

My dad was a superintendent and lead architect for many major construction companies when I was growing up. In fact he designed most of the security and major parts of the structure in the Bank of America HQ tower in Charlotte. He was also the super for that build project. Before that he was the super for the Paramount's Carowinds 'Animation Station' project, before that he was the super for the Epcot Center project, and before that, the pre-90's refit of Universal Studios. You tend to pick up a few things when you're around that all the time. EDIT: Ironic as it is, nowadays my dad owns his own construction company near Asheville NC, they're called Cedar Creek. They do additions, log cabins, prefab housing, etc. And it's not doing well. Nobody has money right now.

Problem is, the only reference I have for that stuff IS my dad (and my ASE shop teacher for automechanical.) Not exactly convincing on an application/resume'. Most construction firms aren't hiring anyways, and forget about home theater, there's no money in that unless you own the business.

 

[Flak]

It's such a hard time for so many people. My friend's mom has been with the same company for 30 years and she got laid off. She's so heartbroken.

Hang in there Mike.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

I too was/am in that perdicament as well. I was laid off last March and didn't find another position till August. I would get bogus emails from "legit" companies explaining what they do, and how much they could pay me. Well aside from some obvious bad grammer and copy/paste jobs, they were from the same organization if you could call it that. But anyway the only reason I found a job was because my roommate turned down an IT position that ended up paying less than what he was making. Well being jobless, I snatched it up immediately. I was only making 10.00/hr and working 30 hours a week, but it was a job and I was almost ready to turn in my vehicle and move in with my aunt because it was too hard to keep paying the bills. Well as of today I am still at the company making 2 more dollars an hour and it is slated to last till around August/September. During this time I plan to pursue my N+ cert and hopefully , along with my degree, that will catch a couple employers eyes. If not then I guess I will be joining you all in the unemployment lines again later this year.

 

[ZenPirate]

As we in the wrench turning business like to say, two $12 per hour jobs = $24 per hour. Problem solved.

Seriously, I hope this economy picks up well before the experts tell us it will, because good people are hurting. I also kind of hope the nations we outsource to wake up and unionize, so they can get the same salary as American workers. Then we can all compete for jobs based on skill, not wage.

 

[BillyBadAss]

Damn guys. I had no idea so many people on BUF were affected. I heard on NPR that nation wide there are about 5,000,000 people currently on unemployment. That doesn't even account for the people that were on it, and theirs' expired.

 

[Zur]

The day I find out that recruiters accept interviews just to put a +1 on their paper to make their boss happy is the day I'm going to punch one of them. I don't know how to punch but I'll learn how to anyway.

Of course, I can't really complain because noone here can end up in the street if they knock on the right doors. But, still, there's no pride on living on someone else's earnings.

I know that for my job type, the offered salaries for new hires is about 30% less than it was a year ago. Couple that with the fact that there are many more people looking for those jobs, and it's tough to get employed without getting screwed over.

Well, you know what ? That is nothing short of exploiting people. Because there are so many candidates, these ****ers bet on the fact that they'll find some poor sucker to accept the lowly wage they're offering. I mean, seriously, what's the point of stydying if three years university if you get a job someone with a secondary/high school certificate would have got ten years ago ?

Boy, am I going to have fun when I get round to some serious job seeking again. The first idiot who mistakens me for being passive is going to be in for a big surprise and will probably never pull off one of those mock job interviews where guy B basically tells guy A he's a waste of space.

P.S: The MacBook Pro I bought is off a guy who has to close down is business (freelancers aren't excluded from social cover). The seller says he's in a situation where he sometimes doesn't have anything to eat on his plate. What's bad luck for some, can be good luck for others.

 

[Jacks:Revenge]

Apparently, the job market is flooded with people who are overqualified. The problem being that most of the available jobs, for those able to hire don't require such high skill sets. Companies are afraid they won't be able to pay someone what he/she was making previously, that people won't take the job because of this.

I hope you guys are having better luck out there.

While I feel your pain and personally know numerous people dealing with similar situations, I must say I'm doing just fine.

I'm worried about my future more than I am my present. I'm in college, I'm working for Congressman John Shimkus' office making Illinois minimum wage pushing papers and writing appointments down in his little black book. There's 2 kids who do this alongside me.

This job will be safe unless Shimkus loses reelection. Right now I only plan to do this until the summer. By then I should hopefully have my internship in Washington or Chicago setup. It's considered volunteer but the kids who go are paid a small stipend allowance.
Everythinh else is paid for.

Still being in college has shielded me from feeling the brute force of this crisis.

 

[Capt.Toilet]

The day I find out that recruiters accept interviews just to put a +1 on their paper to make their boss happy is the day I'm going to punch one of them. I don't know how to punch but I'll learn how to anyway.

They do that already. If they see you as not a money maker, they won't give you the time of day. Sadely temp agencies seem to be the best way to get a job at the moment.

I'm worried about my future more than I am my present. I'm in college, I'm working for Congressman John Shimkus' office making Illinois minimum wage pushing papers and writing appointments down in his little black book. There's 2 kids who do this alongside me.

This job will be safe unless Shimkus loses reelection. Right now I only plan to do this until the summer. By then I should hopefully have my internship in Washington or Chicago setup. It's considered volunteer but the kids who go are paid a small stipend allowance.
Everythinh else is paid for.

Still being in college has shielded me from feeling the brute force of this crisis.

I worry about those who have just come out of college. Unable to find a job because the profession they studied hard for isn't hiring or is going under.

 

[Zur]

Apparently, the job market is flooded with people who are overqualified. The problem being that most of the available jobs, for those able to hire don't require such high skill sets. Companies are afraid they won't be able to pay someone what he/she was making previously, that people won't take the job because of this.

Paying a low wage to someone who's "overqualified" is taking the risk of having that someone going elsewhere after a short period of time.

What being overqualified means, anyone can guess because it's a relative measure.

I guess you guys should practise reformulating your CVs so they appear just right for the job you're aiming for. If the recruiter asks more details, just reply with a yes to what they're asking for extra. What's important is getting through the first door and getting an interview. Lie if you have to. It's your life so do what you have to do.

The other problem is that those people who have the right qualifications will be taking all the accessible jobs away from those that are underqualfied or overqualified. I'm willing to bet that a large percentage of that 5,000,000 are having trouble finding a job because they don't correspond with job offers.

It's a structural problem. This might create a bigger problem in future as people finish their studies and pile onto to the existing number of job seekers. The other risk is that companies won't have the time and money to train inexperienced people and will resort to interim agencies to find the rare diamonds they're looking for. So this will create a stupid loop where you can't get a job for lack of experience but you'd really need a job to get the experience that's being asked.

For once, it sounds like the USA is going through the same problems as the other side of the Atlantic went through ten or more years ago (usually it's the reverse). You probably didn't see the same measure of economic changes in the nineties due to your strong local economy.

My advice : if you live in a region with a lot of heavy industry, get out of there as soon as you can. If the crisis keeps up, those regions will be unable to support the population in terms of jobs.

They do that already. If they see you as not a money maker, they won't give you the time of day. Sadely temp agencies seem to be the best way to get a job at the moment.

Anyone can be a money maker if they're told how and willing to put effort into it. However, people need to be given a chance and that isn't happening.

Temp agencies are ok but they're only supposed to help you find a job to fill in between long-term contracts. You're going to have a hard time building a career with job experience being peppered with periods of a few months inactivity. Plus, some of the advantages that some firms give to their long-time employees are lost.

The better alternative is probably to become a consultant (as an employee if possible). That way someone else looks for available positions and you can accumulate experience working inside different firms in a relatively short amount of time. It's either that or working for silly TupperWare-style firms hoping that you will be one of the lucky ones that makes a living. The last alternative of creating your own job is a risky one seeing that banks are less inclined to lend out money.