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When the job search becomes impossible

jeffwofford.com

321–330 of 469 posts

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#321
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What could potentially put an end to the current hiring "winter"? We have an increasing amount of immigrants coming over in hopes of getting a white-collar job, in combination with the tech sector shrinking, as well as companies as a whole being much more careful when hiring. There would need to be some explosion in the amount of tech jobs, in order for everyone to be able to get one. However, I just cannot see what…

[flagged]

>You can't imagine the death of an elderly figure pushing questionable tariffs that undermine financial planning happening suddenly in the near future?

The masses are asses. People largely get the govt they deserve, Germans included . Directing your anger at politicians is really lame.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#322
Four months? Six months? Is that supposed to be a long time? I know people that have been in this situation for nearly two years now. Forget hopeless, it's a bottomless pit of despair. I don't know how to help them, and neither does anyone else. But they keep trying and doing whatever they can.

The argument of "have hope, almost everyone picks themselves up eventually!" doesn't work when you're the one who is actually homeless.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#323

Four months? Six months? Is that supposed to be a long time? I know people that have been in this situation for nearly two years now. Forget hopeless, it's a bottomless pit of despair. I don't know how to help them, and neither does anyone else. But they keep trying and doing whatever they can. The argument of "have hope, almost everyone picks themselves up eventually!" doesn't work when you're the one who is actuall…

1.5 years for me

Still searching for some reason!

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#324
post #111

The thing that bothers me so much about this post is that it reeks of privilege by treating unemployment as if it were mainly just a bad trigger that you talk to your expensive therapist about once a week. For most people in the real world, psychological burn out is NOT the problem with unemployment. The problem is becoming homeless.

>psychological burn out is NOT the problem with unemployment. The problem is becoming homeless.

Thanks. You hit the nail on the head.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#325
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strict honesty here has always been a losing proposition. The "requirements" section of a job posting has almost never been accurate. It's more of an image they're painting. An honest applicant is one who reads the whole description to understand as best they can what the company is looking for, and sort of holistically matches their own expertise against that picture. If the job posting lists requirements A-F and yo…

Well, there are people who hate the idea of lying, and can't bring themselves to do it, even it's applying for a job where they don't meet one of the requirements. Most likely this isn't an attribute that most employers actually want, though.

I have seen several companies lie about the requirements they posted.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#326

This essay just makes me feel so hopeless about our society. I don’t feel it’s right that employment has such weight in people’s lives that the search causes psychological damage.

I think a lot of people simply don't know what to do with themselves when they don't have a job. There are many psychological needs that jobs often provide for you that you have to sort out yourself when you don't have traditional employement. This is a problem you face through unemployement, but also self-employment and early retirement. At least in part, it's not so much not having a job as not having daily structu…

>I think a lot of people simply don't know what to do with themselves when they don't have a job.

Partly true. But today there is no way to live off the land either, as people used to in the past by raising cattle and pigs. Either it's illegal or you owe the govt taxes.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#327
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life used to be even worse than this, though. I know it's going to be deeply unpopular -- it always is -- but I never understood how reasonable people don't find bringing children into this world to be an act of abject cruelty.

I mean, if it's so cruel, then why wouldn't you just commit suicide? The reason why it's not cruel (IMO) is that there's hope for a better future, if you don't have kids, you will never be able to know. That's choosing to just not play the game, total darkness. There isn't an alternative universe to choose from.

>The reason why it's not cruel (IMO) is that there's hope for a better future,

This part is correct.

>if you don't have kids, you will never be able to know.

This part is incorrect from _my_ point of view. Most people believe that they somehow live on through one's kids. I don't.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#328
post #274
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What could potentially put an end to the current hiring "winter"? We have an increasing amount of immigrants coming over in hopes of getting a white-collar job, in combination with the tech sector shrinking, as well as companies as a whole being much more careful when hiring. There would need to be some explosion in the amount of tech jobs, in order for everyone to be able to get one. However, I just cannot see what…

Presumably the end of such a winter would involve the tech sector growing. According to wikipedia[0] there doesn't seem to be any significant uptick in H1Bs. Is that what you were referring to by "immigrants coming over in hopes of getting a white-collar job"? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa#H-1B_visa_tables_and...

In Australia, it refers to

https://www.education.gov.au/international-education-engagem...

So basically Australia wants to force the cost of employing workers down.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#329
From the comments here, now super tough to get a job. Much different when I started, and can draw a lesson:

Started my career as a "physicist" at the NIST in research on the "Lamb dip" in the wavelengths of He-Ne lasers, got into the numerical analysis of ill-conditioned matrices, and, thus, got a career in scientific computing.

For a job, just look in the 'Help Wanted' section of the Washington Post, send a few resume copies, get a few interviews, and get 1-3 offers, all in less than 2 weeks. No problem.

The DC area was awash in organizations trying to get into computing and were desperate for anyone who could type in code and have it run.

A guess is that there was a larger plan: Some Big Shots in US National Security were really big on getting the DC area really moving on computing so pumped in big bucks with the theme, "If they look like they have aptitude and interest, then make them an offer they won't refuse and have them learn on the job." I.e., the Big Shots tweaked the supply and demand curves -- considering the money they were spending on military hardware, getting young guys into computing was small potatoes with a big gain.

Soooo, from the posts here, now we are at the other extreme: Way too many people and way too few jobs.

Part of the problem is the concept "geographical barrier to entry". E.g., there around DC, the Big Shots wanted to hire people already in and around the local area of DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland and, thus, the employees had for competition a "geographical barrier to entry" -- no one outside that local area would compete.

So, I got a good career going, Camaro with 396" engine, the best restaurants, fancy food cooking hobby, violin practice on a decently good, new violin, a sack full of Nikon camera equipment, self-study in math, furniture, clothes, wife in grad school, in computing with also, crucially, some math, Fourier theory, numerical analysis, Navier-Stokes equations, etc. With that success, to improve that career, got an applied math Ph.D. -- ruined my career, never recovered. My brother warned me, "Each year in your Ph.D. program will leave you 1 year behind in your career" -- CORRECT.

Now, with the Internet, often no barriers to entry.

Curiously, people mowing grass, removing trees, installing roofs, repairing driveways, installing HVAC, electricians, plumbers, painters, real estate agents, insurance agents, ..., do have a small geographical barrier to entry. E.g., in my neighborhood, a guy mowing grass has two, nice, new 4-door pickup trucks with some nice trailers for the equipment. They have useful tools, e.g., pickup trucks, riding mowers, leaf blowers, wrenches, saws, volt/amp meters, etc. and are good at using them.

Now there are computers, useful tools, with people who know how to use them. Sooo, find some uses with some barriers to entry.

Uh, can't not notice, that looks like it's time to move to the other side of the table, be an employer instead of an employee.

Re: When the job search becomes impossible

#330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something fundamentally broken about this entire user journey and industry. There are lots of jobs to fill. But hiring managers don't find people reading through resumes submitted in a form. People don't get jobs by submitting resumes into a form. The opportunities happen from talking on the phone, meeting someone for coffee. I feel like this entire resume submission industry should just be deleted.

3 out of 3 jobs that I've had after college have been from submitting resumes into a form... It's not perfect but it can work

agreed. And guess what? I was able to get a job without a network, right out of college in 2015!

My last search was in late 2022 and I got a job with my (great) employer via an online form as well.

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