Holy crappy job market

[Mukik]

About 4 months ago I did more of a passive job search, and would get a hit (email or call) a week. I havent had a call or anything in like a month. I am glad and all with my job, but the reality of working for large companies and stock prices dropping like prom dresses tell me its a good time to get your finger on the job market. Denver used to have a low unemployment rate in the IT field, however now its like a shyt sammich, hold the bread. The only people that are contacting now are multi-level marketing companies and college/continuing education firms. I dunno if this post is even to see if theres a light at the tunnel, if just a rant of sorts .

[Embar Angylwrath]

Its going to be like this for the next couple of years. The only bright light is small companies, which (if they are smart and quick) can take advantage of the upheaval in the jobs situation, and really get some good talent.

Hell, we just hired a recent Brown grad. She comes with a stellar resume, dean's list and a degree in business. In my field, thats a VERY rare find.

[Mukik]

Am debating biting down and just putting up with b.s. while getting a degree. I almost feel too old at nearly 40 (few months away). I love IT, but there are parts of it that the playing field isnt and never will seem to be level.

[Torakus]

I was having the same problem, lots of lines cast out there and very few bites. The nibbles I got were for jobs that I really didn't want, or the money just wasn't enough. I also had a couple heart breakers, where I was being recruited by third party recruiters for great jobs that paid what I wanted, in fields that I wanted to be in, only to get the rug pulled out at the last minute. Finally three weeks ago a company I had never heard of contacted me out of the blue. The offer they sent after only a telephone interview almost knocked me off my feet. At last a company willing to pay me for my 22 years of experience. I start Monday =) .

[Freecare Spiritwise]

I remember the late 90's where IT people were treated like celebrities and companies had pool tables and personal chefs and such and everyone had enough stock options to buy a sports team if the company struck gold and went public, which most of them didn't.

So while we're definitely not in the glory days, I'm not seeing total gloom and doom either. There's just too much damn hardware and software out there to maintain, and most of it isn't going away. And these days even small companies are pretty much expected to have some sort of presence on the web.

And like anything else, who you know is equally as important as what you know, and keeping up your networking is especially important in this economy.

So yeah, there's not all that many companies doing backflips and high fiving each other, but there's still lots of people doing business with computers.

I work for a small consulting firm, and while I wouldn't say everything is super duper, we're doing ok and hanging in there. Certainly everyone has their game face on, and the owner is in whirlwind mode drumming up new business. But we've actually been having problems finding the talent we want. Last year we hired a guy in the Philippines and he worked out so well that his buddy from college starts next week. We just couldn't find people with 10 years of web development experience and any financial / insurance experience locally.

So I guess the higher you are up the IT food chain, the more level the playing field is /shrug.

[Select]

She comes with a stellar resume, dean's list and a degree in business. In my field, thats a VERY rare find.

So what's usually in your field? If it's that rare is there usually shit for talent in your field? o_O

[Ddrak]

We opened a few positions in our company here and are getting a stupid number of applicants. Hell, we hired a new receptionist and were interviewing a lot of people that had been laid off for the first time in their lives after 20+ years. Things aren't pretty out there, but we're on the good side of it because we can have some pretty awesome talent now.

Dd

[Klast Brell]

We just hired a new guy over in marketing. The guy had a resume that would blow you away. Just stellar. Graduated Summa, 15 years experience, all the good stuff. In another economy a guy like that would never have considered applying at a company like mine with the salaries we pay. Granted we don't pay shitty (from what I can tell from the rumor mill) but I know with a resume like that 3 years ago he could have easily landed a job at twice what we can afford to pay.

[Embar Angylwrath]

She comes with a stellar resume, dean's list and a degree in business. In my field, thats a VERY rare find.

So what's usually in your field? If it's that rare is there usually shit for talent in your field? o_O

Environmental services, hazardous materials and hazardous waste. We typically don't get Ivy League talent looking for work in this sector, unless its for a top management position.

[Harlowe]

We decided to hire someone part-time for Marketing and we received literally hundreds of applications. Most of them were way, WAY over qualified and one was idiotic enough to say they were looking for $125/hour for this 20 hour a week job. It was a huge pain for the HR Manager. In the past we'd be lucky to get a dozen or two for part-time work.

This is a Marketing entry level position.