Well since I am taking more out of the system than I am putting in, now I’m all for socialism. If you really knew me, you would know that my politics change depending on what’s in my best interest.
Seriously though…I’d much rather live in a system where I can choose my own job vs one where the government tells me where to work.
Look, i don’t wanna hassle you too much, because i feel for anyone who’s out of work. But i am interested to know whether your own situation has given you any sort of new perspective on the work you did before. How did you rationalize your job then? And has that changed now, or do you still feel pretty much the same way?
I guess the way I look at it is that by helping a company save money, we are helping the company stay in business so that those who remain can keep their jobs. I have never actually been on a project where we dealt directly with a companies headcount (that’s more for the Human Capital practice). Most of my actual work was IT strategy, some corporate real estate stuff, a little of this, a little of that. Nothing really distatefull like picking which 200 people to fire.
Mostly I feel that kind of work is BS since it basically involves paying a lot of money to have a bunch of kids put together some pie-in-the-sky ideas on Powerpoint.
emulsified - I don’t know. I remember back when I graduated college (same time as you), people used to put their rejection letters on their dorm room doors as a joke. My guess is that the Internet changed all that. Part of it is that companies are so inundated with resumes that the can’t respond to each one. I can understand that. But if a company goes through the process of inviting you in for an actual interview, they owe you the courtesy of letting you know if they plan to hire you or not. To me, that almost as unprofessional as not telling a company you quit and just not showing up to work ever again.
Thx. By the way…If you want to start your Workers Revolution, please do so before I find another job.
pZott - Great links.
Here’s my typical day:
10:30am Wake up (somewhat disappointed that I actually woke up at all:()
10:35am-10:37am Help myslef to a couple packets from the giant Quaker instant oatmeal box my parents gave me on their visit
10:45-11:00am Hit some of that Internet porn the kids are talking about
11:00am-12:00pm Get Fair & Balanced FOX news update on the War in Iraq
12:00pm-2:00pm Walk aimlessly around the East Village
2:00-3:00 Sob uncontrollably at the thought of going from high paid MBA Wall Street consultant to 30 yr old unemployed loser living at parents house in suburban CT (I call this the “sad time”:()
3:00pm - Unemployed ADD afflicted drug addicted NYU student friend (AKA Kramer) calls to grap some hot dogs on St Marks Place, talk about last nights hook-ups or borrow my Jerry Bruckheimer DVDs
4:00pm-5:00pm Hit the gym to work off those chili dogs
6:30pm-7:30pm Simpsons reruns on FOX
8:00pm Set the VCR timer to record Adult Swim before I go out
9:00pm Kramer calls to go out. “go out” can mean anything from the bar at the end of our block to a weekend in Rio or Jamaca that we can’t afford.
9:00-10:00pm Change out of sweatpants into jeans and either an Armani Exchange shirt or T-Shirt over thermal long sleve T-shirt. Doesn’t matter because Kramer will probably wear the same thing.
10:00pm -3:00am Go out to local bars, get drunk on $2 beer specials and hit on NYU girls and the Bridge and Tunnel Posse. Highlight includes making out in a bar with a freshman girl who never kissed a guy before (well…at least her first was with an unemployed 30 year old ) who then made out with my friend Kramer while I hooked up with HER friend in the ladies room.
4:00am time to get to bed, taking time to reflect on how if I actually had money, I would love not working.
Another unemployed tech worker here. And I have to say, points 1 and 2 pretty much define my life.
I’m just going to ride the unemployment until it runs out, learn as much about programming as I can cram, and hope that when the dole runs out there are still some “you want fries with that?” jobs around.
I make a kickass convenience store clerk, or at least I did a couple of decades ago.
A note on this, it can and does work – but I understand the frustration. Those idiot job search books are written (or were, I imagine it is still the same drooling blithering marketeer I have my head stuffed into my colon sideways pep talk) in a manner to make you feel guilty if somehow ‘networking’ doesn’t magically get a job.
I know I am getting lots of resumes from Alums of various quals, and I do try to help out (although I need Arabic speakers with some financial and/or business backgrounds, it also helps if you can be described as a ‘risk taker’ in a real and physical sort of way), so I imagine the level of innudation through the ‘networks’ back in the States.
Still, worth a shot, keeping it out there.
I would advise the occasional fantasy of shoving the Parachute book up the author’s ass sideways. Always hated that smarmy fuck.
Well, I landed my current job via dice.com, so don’t give up all hope. Took a while, though.
Surely you don’t suggest that HR people should actually be burdened down with knowledge about what constitutes a qualified candidate ? Next you’ll be dropping hints that the ability to tailor a resume to the current fads isn’t the only reliable indicator of productivity.
Seriously, what got my blood pressure rising during my job hunt was reading ads & job descriptions that obviously hadn’t been proofread at all. For feck’s sake, everybody knows that a typo in an application letter will get it tossed - still, companies put in job ads with spelling errors, completely muddled language, contradictory demands etc. I know I’m talking uphill when applying for a job, but do you really have to rub it in ?
I recently spent 7 months on the dole. You’d better believe I sympathize. I also made the rounds of 4 temp agencies in January, and of them, two got me no results at all and one got me one job which didn’t work because the client wanted the impossible. Fortunately the other one got me a bit of work.
One of my pet peeves was the local website which talked about what great jobs they had – none of them were in my field. So, this former VB programmer is now an “Administrative Professional” but it’s a good job and, if I ever get time, I’m going build them a decent database.
One small thing in defense of people who don’t send letters. My old employer was getting around 300 applications for each job they posted. My current one got over 100 applications for my job, including several which came in during the first 3 weeks I was on it. This company was already overworked, so there simply wasn’t time to reply to every one.
As to how I got job, I had half a dozen tech recruiters, four temp agencies, and more on-line searches than I care to think about that, and I got this job the old-fashioned, low-tech way. They placed a want ad for it in the local newspaper.
Add to OP’s observation #3: Most HR pukes are barely old enough to drive. If you’ve been out of high school closer to 30 years than 30 minutes; they’ll sit there and mentally measure you for your coffin. “Can’t hire him, he’s likely to cost the medical plan for either prostate surgery or a heart attack.”
I have a serious underemployment problem myself. The chemical plant I worked at for most of my adult life was sold to a Canadian company whom the EU, in general, and the Germans, in particular,have assiduously tried to keep out of their economy.
The Simpletons of Saskatoon closed their Iowa and Nebraska plants and now wonder why the corporation they bought in 1997 has slipped in market share from being the #2 producer of nitrogen fertilizer to being #3. (Couldn’t have anything to do with the high transportation costs of moving product from Louisiana and
Memphis to the Corn Belt, could it?)
I am now working for the Nebraska university system at about 3/4 of my old wage and delivering a bi-weekly free-circulation advertising publication, as well. Of course, the University is being solely blamed for the State’s budget deficit, so I’m nervously awaiting word as to whether or not I escape the ax.
I’m not looking forward to another round of trying to convince people who were zygotes last week that this gray-haired old fart still has 15-20 good years left in him.
I haaaate my job, but just being employed makes me feel like that monocle-wearing millionaire on the Monopoly box. And I realize that when I lose this job (and no job is forever), I’ll never get hired again: I’m middle-aged, in a business (magazine publishing) that is teeming with out-of-work 20-somethings, and I am sick to death of this business anyway. I could support myself on freelance work for awhile, but what about benefits? My medications alone would bankrupt me. Two choices, I guess:
Look for a whole new career, one that a midle-aged woman can miraculously enter and make a living at.
Live gloriously off my savings for a couple of years, traveling the world, and then wait till I have just enough money left to buy the necessary pills to get out of this altogether.
I know which one I would jump at. (“Jump.” Hmmm. There’s an “H” with my name on it . . . )
Eve, you can always abandon your scholarly work for a bit and write a trashy showbiz potboiler for the Grisham/King/Koontz crowd that will make a mint.
As for me, I refuse to believe that at 41 my life is over. My life crystal may be flashing, but I have intention of submitting to the fiery ritual of Carousel. Life is change, and there is always a place for those who are willing to change as well.
What gets me about the 20-something HR people who think that over-50 folks are not worth hiring is that that unless they die young, the 20-somethings will face the exact same predicament eventually. Don’t they see that they are cutting their own throats, too?
Eve I was just getting ready to send out another resume when I read this. Now I think I’ll spend the time putting together a scrapbook. Please see that my bio is filled with fascinating, salacious details which you have my permission to invent. I’ll have to find something more prosaic and less strenuous than the trek up Hollywood Hill - maybe chain my hard dive to my ankle and step off the floating bridge.
Yes, we’ve done that. We made him look like he has only been working for 10 years or so. We still get no calls.
BTW, he designs facilities and piping for biotech, pharmaceutical, food and petrochem companies, as well as managing the drawings library. With his abilities, he can do the work of two or three younger designers, but we can’t even get the chance for him to tell this to an employer.
Meanwhile, I’m looking for a second job so that we can keep our home.
gobear - Nice use of Logan’s Run reference. I just picked it up on DVD.
At the end of June I will have hit the magic 12 month mark. Unemployment benefits and extension have run out. Fortunately, my wife makes a good salary that will keep our head above water but by only a slim margin.
In this time I have had exactly 3 phone calls in regards to my resume. 1 was legitimate and I was to have a 2nd interview but then I just never heard from the company again. 2nd required a relocation to a small agri town in Northwestern Ohio, the loss of my wife’s salary would not be replaceable there. 3rd was a complete and total joke - 100% commission for 4 months then they’ll evaluate my performance. F— you too.
I’ve talked to more headhunters than I can count. Not a single interview has resulted from any of them. They feel comfortable routinely requesting network info from me however… bastards.
The fact that I’ve been unemployed for almost a year now is getting me immediately disqualified for what few positions I find that match my background and experience - afterall, the “best” wouldn’t be out of work this long. Cock-knockers.
I’m on the outside and looking in on the only other chance I might have for employment anytime soon. I’m under-qualified for the position but have good networking contacts within this company and related industry that has gotten me in the door with some influencial recommendations. This is the 1st position, within my field of experience, and that has the potential to match (or exceed) my previous salary. I’m relying on “unorthodox” methods at this point to make the next cut in their evaluation process - a great resume and interview just are not enough anymore.
The whole time I’m killing myself to figure out how to land this job, I’m suffering a dramatic loss of confidence. It’s hard, at this point, to see anything positive happening soon.
Our dream house is still on the market but without me working we can’t touch it. Without me working, we cannot refinance our current home to lock in (from a variable rate mortgage) a lower rate today. I’ve had to sell my car already and the piece-o-crap 10 year old Honda in the driveway I was going to use has now broken down and I cannot expend the extra money to fix it at this time. Fortunately, the wife’s car is new and very reliable so not much in anticipated maintenance costs.
Yea, I’m hating life tonight… papers say unemployment claims are at their highest… firms continue to downsize… my former employer has managed to string together 2 quarters of profitability but no plans to bring back any headcount… Bush was in Ohio today stumpin’ for his economic package which makes me want to scream… so I feel for ya’ msmith, ya’ ain’t alone brother!
MeanJoe
I have been through this…and the fact is,we are in a major recession. All I can say is, DON’T GIVE UP!
I really believe that networking is the best way-get out and meet as many people as possible!
Also, target a few companies…it is better to do that than to scatter-gun.
Finally, take a part-time job, if possible. It will give you a fresh perspective, and perhapsopen some doors!
Finally, realize that all recessions do eventually pass-the only question is when!
WAIT! You guys are not being hired because you have too much experience? I get rejections because they’re “actually looking for someone with more experience in (fill in the blank with sub-field of engineering).” This is for entry-level positions. Apparently, somebody with a degree and five years of the experience they’re specifically looking for is gonna leap out of the bushes and take the jobs I’m interviewing for, at entry-level salary, no less.
That’s been my biggest frustration during my (now in month six) unemployment. I see all sorts of wonderful entry level positions that list my degree (BBA Management) as a requirement, describe job duties similar to work I’ve done in the past and generally seem perfectly suited for me. Until I read the bit that says “5 years directly related job experience required” WTF? The top portion of the ad describes this as an entry level position but some asshat has pasted a 5 year exp. requirement to the end because they know plenty of mid level people have been canned in the past 18 months and are more than willing to lower their standards a few notches in order to avoid starving to death. I still submit appliations and resumes for these jobs but I never hear back.
Come to think of I’m pretty pissed off, I’m not supposed to be out of work right now dammit. I have a degree, they told me that meant an interesting and well paying career. I worked my way through college as an IT professional, computers are the future, they told me the geeks would always have a job because of that. Lying asshats.
Like the OP I hate working, I view my job as a necessary evil that’s required in order to pay for more important things like beer, homebrewing supplies, multi-month alchohol fueled backpacking trips etc… So I fully understand the OP’s #2 point about searching for a mugger and thanking them for the privilage.
My first, and only, job after college was as a Unix Sysadmin (Linux and BSD spefically) for an ISP in Anchorage. It paid pretty well and being a small company I knew I’d get wear different hats after a while. I was correct after 6 months I’d beaten the Unix boxen into submission and had plenty of ‘spare’ time to take on other duties. I got to play around as an inside sales rep, customer mollification (service) type and eventually project manager (my favorite hat) for our largest contract. Not the best place in the world to work I admit, the owner was doing an excellent job of pissing away money on “Pinky and the Brain” inspired schemes for world domination and in general mismanaging the company into the ground. But I was only planning on working there till the end of this summer, before packing kit and leaving state. So when was I laid off (w/out notice, severence or vacation time buyout) on halloween, I wasn’t completely unprepared, just caught off guard.
So I went ahead and moved to a warmer clime in Febuary and now find myself looking for work (rather desperately now) in a major recession. I’m good for cash until the end of the summer, then I’m truely fucked. I’ve finally hit the point where I’ve registered with temp agencies and am no longer looking exclusivly looking for work that requires a bachelors degree. I’d be happy riding out the recession as an administrative professional of some sort. Fortunatly I don’t have much debt, no fancy car to pay for or mortage to worry about and have in general very frugal spending habits (I can live quite comfortably on $1200/month net - but that’s w/out being able to put any cash into the travel fund ) learned while in school.
Wow that was something of an incoherant rant but what the hell I’m feeling incoherant right now.
Since networking is supposed to the way to go I might as well start here Any Houston area Dopers have any leads for a guy with:
BBA in Management
6 years mixed bag IT experience (end user support for Win9x, NT, Netware etc…, Linux/*BSD admin, MySQL admin, PHP hack)
Employee training exp.
Interview/hiring exp.
Supervision exp.
Project Management exp.
Inside sales
and even a little documentation and tech writing exp.
Told you I wore a lot of hats! Pity I havn’t worn most of them more than six months.
Well that’s my contribution to this job search rant, and as it’s almost three o’clock it’s about time for me to start daydreaming about having a well paying job before curling up on the floor in the fetal position for my daily “hour of sobbing”
particularly wonderful since I was set to fly to Belize ten days after they laid me off, would’ve been my first ever paid vacation. Yes I still went, I wish I was still down there.
) who then made out with my friend Kramer while I hooked up with HER friend in the ladies room.
Any Houston area Dopers have any leads for a guy with: