Sorry for the dearth of posting, but I’m back out on the job market again after eight years with the current outfit. The work is drying up and I don’t think the company will sustain much longer.
I will say, the market is much much better than it was during my last rodeo in 2011. I only started in earnest yesterday, and I already have a phone screen tomorrow, and probably one today. I remember back in 2011, hardly anyone was biting, and there weren’t a lot of senior level positions that weren’t management, and a lot of outfits were doing contract-to-hire, which seems to be less common now, thankfully.
I also think LinkedIn is a far better tool than it was back in 2011, though I need to look at some other places too. I keep seeing ads for ZipRecruiter, but I don’t know if that’s loaded up with spammy recruiters, or a tool real companies who are looking for people are using. One thing about this go around over the last, most of my network are gainfully employed, which helps. Last time a lot of my colleagues were out of work and looking too.
So I’m pretty optimistic so far. I already have a few leads and one that looks promising.
But 2011 was after recovery summer when the last president did as best he can to make the economy as good as anyone possibly could. What kind of magic wand would make things better than like back in 2011?
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Don’t know if the recruiters themselves are spammy, but the company itself is tremendously in love with mass-mailing every single person they can get a name for, at the place I work. (Our service providers and interns have nothing to do with hiring, thank you.)
Topping it off, they went from branded envelopes, to return-address only, to a *different* return address because people recognized the first one. The last 60?-ish mailing had a mix of branded and non-, all with the same address, but they’re still trickling in.
I think we only use Robert Half (for admin/accounting hires) and actual medical-specific recruiters, anyway.
All the online job sites suck. Of all of them, Indeed seems to be the least bad (but you really need to make sure your resume and what not are uploaded to all of them).
One thing they all do that annoys the crap out of me is recycle old ads so it looks like they have more active job listings than they do. So I’ll get email alerts for a job I applied to 3 months ago as though its a brand new job.
Ultimately job sites are data mining sites, not actually there to help you get a job.
Also, do some research on how Applicant Tracking Systems work … no human is going to see your application or resume first, its always going to have to make it through the algorithms and filters first. So understanding how those works is a big help.
It doesn’t hurt to learn about whatever company you’re applying with and connect with some of the people there on LinkedIn or otherwise try to contact them about the position, because once the machines look at your resume then its the HR goons turn, and they’re just about as bad as the machines.
LinkedIn is good. Indeed is good too.
ZipRecruiter sucks.
An income is good, especially if you’ve gotten used to regular meals and a place to live!
I have been using StackOverflow Jobs for a while. I have been unemployed two or three times since 2011, and I’ve used StackOverflow throughout, but when I found the position I currently am in, it was the first time I successfully found a position through them.
I think they are a little on the informal side — and sometimes that frustrated me — although sometimes it frustrated me when I clicked on an “apply” button, only to be dumped onto the company website where I had to send in a resume, a cover letter, *and* fill out an application that essentially repeated my resume.
Good luck on your job search. I hope it goes well!
Glad this is going well. I have been retired on disability for almost six years and I still get calls and email almost every day.