I’m currently employed but (for a variety of reasons) am just starting to look for a new job.
We all know the economy’s been rough and the employment situation even worse, so I’m curious what I’m getting myself into here. So has anyone applied for jobs lately, and what has your experience been? Please share - I’m curious to hear the success stories as well as the nightmares.
For what it’s worth, I’m looking for white collar work, either entry level or with a few years’ experience. But people from all different fields please feel free to answer.
I can answer from the other side of the fence - I recently was the hiring manager for 2 new people. I was quite honestly shocked how few people wrote a cover letter tailored for the position. My other instant no’s - fancifully formatted/oddly formatted resumes, resumes that were obviously boilerplate and not targeted to the position and egregious typos. I would recommend saving your resume as a PDF - that way, you know it will look the way you want. Good luck on the search!
In the last year the only job I got lasted about two weeks (temp position), but I only worked 2 1/2 days. I’ve gotten an interview here and there, but still can’t find anything. I had a phone interview last week for a full time temporary position, and if I did OK I’ll get a face-to-face interview; but I’m not holding my breath.
All I can say is, the last three years has been a lousy time to try and switch job fields.
Well, since school’s on hold until January, I’m applying for various salon receptionist positions around. One of them looks promising. The manager looked me up and down and told me to apply online and she’d talk to me Tuesday.
Everything else I’ve applied for, though, I’ve been totally ignored.
I have been actively searching for about two months and interviewing about once a week.
The nightmares have been going on starting with a good first interview, getting a second, and then a third, and even a fourth before being told that it was between you and Temp and they are sticking with the Temp because of consistency. But that is only because the principals involved in those third and fourth interviews weren’t available for a week or two (or three!) and that the first person who was really impressed with you had you off-radar for over a month because the process took too long.
I am in exactly the same boat AGAIN – having gone through FIVE interviews with a company but the principal is traveling “for the entire month of October” and even though I started the process with them just before Labor Day and I am “the candidate to beat,” who will remember that when the process starts again in the beginning of November? Or, will they at that point, decide to wait until next year to fill the position? I dunno…
Phew! Well, I submitted an application tonight, and am glad to say I saved my cover letter and resume as PDFs, tailored the cover letter to the position, and don’t think the formatting I used was weird. Question: how do you feel about applicants following up after they’ve applied if they don’t hear anything?
Hmmm - I work with a very large company and resumes are submitted through an internal HR system. A candidate who submitted a resume and didn’t hear anything would need to contact HR, not me. I did get a chance to look at all the resumes posted and if someone didn’t hear anything, it would have been because I wasn’t interested to pursue.
Oh - I thought of another thing. If you make it to the interview - be prepared with at least ONE good question to ask. You know that part at the end where the interviewer says “do you have any questions?” Half the people looked at me blankly and the other half asked a question more suited to HR, none about the position or the company (I always like “what do you see as the most challenging aspect of this role?” - where you listen and answer about with your strength that would help you manage that challenging aspect).
Always end with a strong close. I would really recommend taking some notes during the interview and finishing the interview with a summary of why you are a perfect fit for the job (incorporating the tidbits you learned about the position - from your notes).
I work for a medium sized company in Michigan that is currently hiring engineers and production employees. Needless to say there has been a lot of applicants. From what I have heard from HR though, tons of applicants get weeded out right away because they don’t even fill out an application properly or turn in a decent resume. It is pretty unbelievable that in this economy people still don’t proofread or use spell check, but there you go. So if you can appear competant and professional from the start, you are probably already in the top 50%. I think we also get half-assed applications from people who don’t want the job or are obviously not qualified, just to meet their unemployment requirements. So do keep in mind that they may be 100 applicants for a position, but maybe 10-20 of them are even basic contenders. If you can get in that percentage your odds are much better. (My engineering manager says he is having trouble finding people who are even qualified. My only guess is a lot of engineers have gone elsewhere - like out of state- already?)
Also I know it is tough out there right now, but don’t come across as desperate. We had a guy in last week who pretty much camped out in reception and kind of demanded to talk to the plant manager in person ‘to sell himself.’ I know people are trying to find ways to be remembered, but you still have to go through a process. This guy did not get to see the plant manager nor did he endear himself to any of the reception staff. We did take his resume but now we remember him as the guy who was a pain in the ass.
Also, we are not a company who people have usually heard of, and you can’t tell from our name what we do. But we do have a website and if you google us you can find out something and not look like an idiot when you come in. It is hard to believe you really want this job when you don’t even know what our company produces.
Really, simple common sense things do go a long way. You are still competing with others for the job, but at least you are in the running.
I have a job but I did go on an interview back in the summer. In the interview, I was told that they had received 250+ applications for 5 secretarial positions (at a new school). The principal had interviewed 21 applicants (of which I was one).
They told me that the job paid about 15% less than my current salary (which is within the normal range for this type of job). I said that I would not take a pay cut to change jobs. The principal called me a couple days later and said that he wanted very much to hire me, but the superintendent would not budge on the salary. He said, “The super said that out of 250 applicants, we can definitely find one that will work for less money.” That was probably true, given the state of the economy. It’s definitely an employers’ market.
Yes, I succeeded in signing up with a touring theatre company, a paid job at (slightly under) industry rates, based on nothing but a B.A. in Theatre and a summer job (in something slightly better than summerstock). Score! Take that, business major friends! Employed in field of study. How many recent college graduates* can say that?
Also, if anyone has a job opening after February, love to hear back from you. Just saying.
I’m a contractor working at pharma company A and last summer I applied for a permanent position at pharma company B up the road.
All went well but unfortunately A and B have some sort of gentleman’s non-poaching agreement so while B wanted to hire me, it didn’t happen.
What happened was when the process got started in April my contract with A that expired June 30 had not yet been renewed. By the time B got me in for an interview two months later my contract had been renewed so I ultimately ran afoul of this ‘rule’ that applies even to contractors.
I still have my contractor job, which I like, at A, so the whole thing was disappointing, but not tragic. My tale of woe, such as it is.
I should add that for the past month or so I’ve been getting calls from recruiters 3 or 4 times a week, all anxious to talk to me. So it looks like, at least in web development, things are picking up and not everything is being outsourced to India.
I actually have some business going with a guy who is looking for programmers as well. But I’m not exactly sure I would refer anybody to him – I’m not happy with his business practices.
I have nightmare story after story. I found interviewers to be getting worse and worse. I can’t recall the last time I had an interview where the person talking to me didn’t stop me and take a cell phone conversation.
The mass of candidates seem to be wearing people down too. The interviewers seem to have the attitude of “not another one, I can’t be bothered with this crap.”
My favourite this month was I had an interview scheduled for 1:30pm. The controller of the hotel was to interview me and it was for an accounting manager.
The girl at the desk says "She’s really busy. The controller got around to me at 2:45p. So after waiting for an hour and 15 mintues, I go in and she says “I’m really busy, I have another appointment at 3pm. OK you got ten minutes to convince me why I should hire you.”
Oh yeah this broad would be really fun to work for. I tried, but I didn’t get called back so I guess I didn’t dazzle her
That reminds me of the company I interviewed for a few years ago. They told me they’d filled the position but they were just curious about what was out there. Yeah HR I just loved coming in on a hot August day in my itchy wool suit, ever giving me a wedgie panty hose and uncomfortable high heels. So nice of you to make me waste ten bucks and four hours of time.
Sometimes you’re better off having a bad interview so you can cross a place off your list.
I had a really good interview a few days ago. Some small tech startup formed by a bunch of ex McKinsey PhD types. I’ve already had three phone interviews and a take-home technical exam to evaluate my skillz before I even met any of them. I spent the whole day in the office talking to 6 different people. Managers. Directors. The founder. Even people I would be managing. They took me out to lunch (which really, I’ve almost come to expect from any decent company at this point). If it went well, the next step is to fly out to Silicon Valley to meet the CEO.
Supposedly according to the recuriter, I’m their top candidate. I’m not the only candidate though, and it’s a lot of fucking hoops to jump through if I don’t get the job. But I have to say they have at least been responsive and timely.
For the most part though, the interviewing process sucks. People never get back to you. It takes months for a response.
I’ve also found that because of my resume and experience and maybe because I look very polished in an interview, I’ve found that I can get job offers pretty easily. Crappy, crappy job offers with disfunctional companies in some shithole space for half my salary. I’ve had two different jobs in the past two years and my immediate thought after being hired was “why the fuck did you hire me into this mess?”
I have never met a woman manager I thought would be “really fun to work for”.
I have an upcoming interview in a city about an hour’s drive each way, starting pay of $10.00/hour, and it’s a temporary job. But I really want it anyway. It will be full time and it’s IT which I desperately need job experience in. My fingers are crossed.
