Posted on 06/11/2002 2:14:27 PM PDT by nicholle
ever considered moving? and before all the whining about how hard it is to pack up and move, well I've been there and done that.
I am in RTP, NC, where 1.5 years ago I was getting calls to work for companies, despite being employed and not looking, and now that I am looking nothing. I am told I am over-qualified more than I can believe, and the salaries for some of the jobs I am applying for are hardly enough to cover my rent, but I am willing to take anything at this point. It is hard out there, and more and more people are being laid off every day. I am temping in clerical positions just to keep myself out there and my spirits up - I have been out of work since August of last year, but even the temp positions are far and few between, and some of them bring in less then unemployment. My expenses aren't much, but I need to be able to at lest afford to live. I bet I send out 30 resumes a week, and I am lucky if I hear from 1 or 2 applicants. I have been told that for some jobs they receive 300 + applicants.
Not only that, but they are usually dead ends that offer no chance of leading to full time employment. The reason is that if a company hires a temp as a full-time permanent employee, they have to pay a large finders fee to the temp agency. Therefore, even if they love ya, they probably won't pay for ya!
I am sorry, but I am having a hard time believing that most people could not find some sort of job within a years time.
Here is a story you might find inspiring. About 10 years ago, a friend of mine was working for a now defunct company, and he was making over $75,000 a year. The loss of his job devastated him and he couldn't find anything comparable after weeks of looking. During this time, he took a part-time job at a nearby Staples (a major office supply chain in the New England area) just to get some income rolling in and get out of the house (he was getting depressed sitting at home). During his first week, he was at the lowest ebb, and was totally disgusted with his life. But he still had his pride and his work ethic so he totally outhustled the kids he was working even though he had absolutely no intention of staying at Staples for any significant period of time. But he was quickly noticed by management and ended up getting promoted to management himself within a year and was running his own store a year after that. Now he is working at the corporate offices as a regional manager and making even more than he ever made in the computer field. His current job is nothing resembling his old career but he loves it and can't imagine going back to that line of work again.
Sometimes change is good. I wish you luck.
Youre lucky then. What city are you in?
I would look anywhere and everywhere for sources of income, I relocated from Indiana to California in my quest for a source of income enough to support my family. But that was back in 1990.
Great story, but he must have told some fibs on his Staples job application.
I can't see a guy who put down his last salary as $75,000 getting hired at Staples.
lol, luck had nothing to do with it, more like desperation. I currently reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Exactly right. My wife was a computer consultant for a time during the mid-1990s and ran into the same problem. She was sent to a company that she really liked (and they liked her) but they wouldn't hire her because of the fee they'd have to pay to her consulting firm. My wife even offered to quit consulting and apply for a full-time position on her own but the company was afraid they'd be sued for tampering (and they probably would).
Consulting does pay pretty well. But you can go weeks or months between job assignments. Eventually she went back to working as a full-time employee.
Quality assurance. Testing new systems during their development. Kinda like a one-man focus group. It's a pretty important job.
Some don't have a clue...
You've got that right.
It's easy to sniff at the unemployed when you're in a secure position, own your own (profitable) business or are retired and out of the rat race. Jobs are hard to get in many areas, age discrimination is rampant (tough luck if you're much over 35) and the low-end employers don't want anyone too old (over 40), educated or coming off a good-paying profession as they assume you'll either leave quickly or won't take supervision from a 20-year-old high school dropout. Being willing to work is important but it's no guarantee of a job. It's clearly an employers market and they even expect a college degree for commission sales jobs.
To the gainfully employed it always looks easy and 'get a job' rolls off the tongue along with 'do whatever you have to do' except that when the employers have their pick of applicants it isn't quite that easy. The hi-tech jobs are the worst. I still see age discrimination as the real employment killer. If you're over 40, it's tough. Over 50? You can just about forget it. Every job-loss is different in every era. Low end jobs have become rather scarce and the good jobs are harder to find. Been there, done that. I know of which I speak and I resent the implication that anyone unemployed is simply lazy or too fussy. Easy to say when your paycheck is secure but the reality for the unemployed is quite different. Some folks need to lose their assumptions and knee-jerk reactions.
I don't plan and can't afford to live on unemployment. I will grab almost anything untill the job market gets better...(I HOPE!). I took my last personal day today from work and spent all day on the internet and on the phone..and I'm not even layed off yet..so I am determined.....something has to come up ....I'm not going to be spending the days at the beach :}
Thanks for the luck.
But might my friend have been exaggerating his salary to me? Maybe. I've never told anybody but my wife what I make exactly. Everybody else thinks I make more and that's fine with me.
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