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Job Market Starting To Liven Up
I've been unemployed for almost 3 months now, and it's starting to get to me. My retrenchment came at the worst time of the year possible, as very few employers hire just before Christmas, and it also takes a while after the break for things to get back on track again.
However, jobs are starting to appear here and there again now. Hopefully this is just the beginning of what is a lot more to come. I can't wait to get back into the workforce, and actually have a decent income again.
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Brash ---
Can't speak for your part of the world but I live in Dallas Texas & I can tell you that the job market is definetly heating up in Dallas. I got laid off in the middle of October & to be quite honest, I was so burned out that I only half heartedly looked for a job - there weren't all that many anyway.
I started to look for a job when I got back from my x-mas holidays & I have an interview with Microsoft tomorrow & jut spoke to another company that shall remain nameless at this time & it looks like I will be interviewing with them sometime next week....
Everyone keep your fingers crossed!
Hi Jeff,
Glad to hear things are looking positive for you too :-D . I had about half a dozen interviews at the end of last year, and I've had a few phone interviews this year, so far I just haven't had much luck yet. Three of the jobs I was shortlisted for last year were canned at the 11'th hour by the employer.
I think employers in the IT industry have just gotten a touch too picky in skillset and previous experience requirements as well. In a lot of cases they won't consider you unless you have considerable experience in IDENTICAL environments, not just similar. And all facits of their environment too, not just the core elements. It almost seems like none of them are prepared to take any sort of learning for the new role into account.
Dominic -
Well, my interview @ MS was rescheduled due to an emergency .. what really irritated me is that they waited until 10 minutes before the interview to let me know ( I was already in the building ). My tech interview a few weeks back was also rescheduled due to an emergency. Seems like this office is always in crisis mode which makes me a little leary but hey... I think it would be cool to be an IIS/FPSE/Sharepoint Support tech for them.
My friend, it is no longer an employees market anymore. I remember turning down a job that paid 85k+ because they wouldn't give me an extra week for vacation. Instead, I took a job that paid 6 figures.... :-D Unfortunatelu, I think those days are long gone. I can't tell you how many jobs I've seen that I had 8 of the 10 qualifications and they wouldn't even talk to me.
Employers have also gotten very very cheap which will bight them in the ass - as more & more jobs become available, people are going to leave the companies that are paying well below market value & go somewhere else - I know people that have been so pissed off & burnt out that they've taken new jobs that paid as little as 1500 a year more.
I have a good feeling that we'll both both gainfully employed soon!!
Anyways
Have a good weekend
--Jeffrey
Hi Jeff,
Hope they don't stuff you round too much more with those interviews. Those last minute resuffles are a real bite your tongue situtation, and you basically have to take it and pretend like it isn't any kind of hassle. I really hope we both find suitable employment soon, not only for the income and security of being employed, but also because of the social contact.
It's hard enough to get an IT job that you like paying over $50k here in Australia, and you'd be very hard pressed to find anything paying in excess of $60k. To get those high roller $80k or higher roles you basically have to be a Windows, Unix & DBA technical guru, as well as being able to design & support services such as Exchange, Citrix, Lotus Notes, IIS and Terminal Services at all levels, not forgetting to mention all levels of desktop support. Quite often also needing to be fluent in several scripting languages, and web programing such as HTML, PHP and ASP.
Although I'd be happy enough to have a roll paying between $55k~$60k, it's just kind of discouraging when my girfriend is in her first year out of uni as a civil engineer and is earning only a few thousand dollars short of what my target salary is after 8 years of being in the industry, and putting myself in almost just as much debt as my girlfriend for my tertiary education & industry certifications. It's funny actually, as we've already discussed that if we should ever have children, that I'd be the one to stay home, and she'd go out and be the bread winner as living on even my maximum likely earning potential would leave living very tight. As you said Jeff, IT just doesn't have the $$ earning potential that it did a few years back.
Got a job interview tomorrow for a product specialist based in e-mail security. Sounds like a great job, but the $$ they have listed is $15,000 under the minimum I'm looking for. So even if they offer me the job I strongly doubt I'll take it as I can't see them meeting my salary requirements.
I also should have a job interview early next week for a government contract position, which is paying about $20,000 more than I had hoped for. Not only that I should have a good shot at it as I already know it's down to me and one other person. All that even before the first round of interviews!
Location: Dallas, Tx
Joined: Oct 2003