If you don’t see a poll then check back in a minute or two.
I’m just curious, how easy would it be for you to quit your current job (assuming you have one) and get another job that either:
A: Make enough to keep the house and car, buy clothes and groceries, and pay for utilities (electricity, water, etc…).
or
B: If you could not afford car or house payments, you would be able to sell your house or car and get a more affordable one.
My answer is - I could find another job, but not quickly. It would take a few months at least.
I was going to click on ‘instantly’, but I realized it’s Sunday evening, and I probably couldn’t arrange anything until tomorrow.
But your criteria for the new job are really low. I don’t want a different job that pays less. I think you’d want people to consider making at least as much as they do now, or having some offseting benefit like less commuting time or better benefits.
I could probably find another similar job in a few weeks (“pretty quickly”). I’m a biology research technician, which is usually a short term (and high turnover) position between undergrad and grad school. Most techs are hired with a modest bit of undergraduate research experience (maybe a summer or two) and a good word from the professors they worked with. I’ve now got three years experience, a good track record, connections with many academics in the area, and several respected scientists who would vouch for me. And I’m near Boston, which probably has more of these sorts of jobs than anywhere else in the country. Summer is also the time of year with the most turnover, since everyone is still working around the academic calendar. I might even find something that works out to be a promotion (“senior” lab tech, or lab manager). Plus there are a decent array of biotech and pharma jobs that I might have a shot at.
Of course in academia you can’t get any further without a PhD, so that’s what I’m doing next. Which is a lot more work with much less pay… ah well.
For this thread, I’m just curious about being able to get a job that could pay the essentials (I.E. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and utilities).
I am a teacher, so right now? Pretty easily. Even with the teacher cut-backs, I have a lot of skills and know a lot of people and am pretty sure I’d land on my feet, unless I were actually fired for cause.
If I lost my job in October? It might be much, much longer. On the other hand, it’s hard for a teacher to lose their job in October.
I have 23 years’ experience in a specialized field of civil engineering. I could probably find a position within the week, if location were no obstacle. Within a month if I had to find one in-state.
Because teachers are on contract and most schools try really hard to have all their positions filled when school starts and it is pretty rare for a teacher to leave mid-year.
Last time I was out of work it took me a couple years to find a job, but I’ve made a ton of contracting contacts at this position and I think it would be fairly easy now.
I’ve had my position eliminated 3 times since 2008. It would be nice to think there was something I was doing wrong since I would have some control over changing it. Except in every case each company was clearly struggling and I am pretty expensive to keep around if you don’t have much for me to do. Plus you don’t want to be the “new guy” in a shitty economy.
Even in the worst possible economy, it takes me on average 2-6 months to find a job. They say that it takes a month for every $10,000 you make, but I think that only applies up to about 6 months. And I’m not really pounding the pavement every day either.
It’s not difficult for me to convince a bunch of over-educated corporate management idiots to hire me. But, unless you are looking for a job as a bartender or waitress in Manhattan where you can litterally just walk down 3rd Avenue hitting every single establishment until you get hired, or you happen to know someone who is a hiring manager at a company that needs your exect skills right this second, the hiring processes at most companies is lengthy. I’m trying to hire people in my company right now, and from the time where they submit their resume, I can schedule two rounds of interviews, have them take an aptitude test and put an offer together, at BEST it will take about a month.
Places where I have been hired, the process has taken four months from the first time they contacted me to my actual start date.
Of course the trick is, once I’m hired, figure out how to succeed working for the incompetent idiot who hired me into his/her struggling, dysfunctional group where I am given a position with a lot of responsibility but not provided with any real tools or authority or budget or staff for actually acomplishing anything.
I could get a new job pretty much immediately as long as I’d consider working the overnight shift. Given that there are fewer and fewer medical technologists graduating from school, and tons of old-timers are retiring, there are always spots open. Really, if you want to find a career where you’ll pretty much never need to be unemployed, this is the field for you. If I walked out of my current job today, there are 5 other positions available for me to apply for, and I happen to know that one of those has been open for over 6 months because they can’t find anyone. Hell, there are three open positions at my employer right now! It’s reassuring to know that I could always get a new job. I may need to work overnights in downtown Baltimore, but it would be work.
If I was willing to move to another area of the country, I’d have more choices and could probably snag a day shift.
If I were looking for something similar to my current job it would take a while - as msmith537 points out more corporate positions, hired by committee, tend to take a bit longer to find.
If all I wanted was to pay the bills I could leave my office and have a position by the end of work today. I have a variety of specialized skill sets that would make this possible.
I’ve worked at this job since just before I graduated college (2000). It’s my own company. I work from home. I wear a ton of hats. I presumably have skills but I know zero about working in an office, working in a team greater than 2 people, “normal” client relationships, all that jazz. I haven’t ever written a tech resume.
So presumably I have the right skills for a lot of positions I see, but I honestly don’t know if I could get them. I might show up to an interview in my pajamas or call the boss a cocksucker. I can’t be trusted.