Has anyone else been trying to get new employment?

[dlundblad]

Sometimes it’s the desired pay/ experience you already have that makes you undesirable to a prospective employer. Say you're 40 with 20 years experience in your field up against a kid just out of college with a degree in said field. He/ she is going to be cheaper and more "mold-able."

Try not to let it get you down. Easier said that done, but I've been there before too.

 

[gfh77665]

Sometimes it’s your demographic that makes you undesirable to a prospective employer. I see this in motion every day.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Sometimes it’s the desired pay/ experience you already have that makes you undesirable to a prospective employer. Say you're 40 with 20 years experience in your field up against a kid just out of college with a degree in said field. He/ she is going to be cheaper and more "mold-able."

Try not to let it get you down. Easier said that done, but I've been there before too.

You are on the money. I am working, it was more of a test fishing for salaries.

 

[Dave Hess]

Sometimes it’s the desired pay/ experience you already have that makes you undesirable to a prospective employer. Say you're 40 with 20 years experience in your field up against a kid just out of college with a degree in said field. He/ she is going to be cheaper and more "mold-able."

Try not to let it get you down. Easier said that done, but I've been there before too.

Unfortunately some companies want 5 years of experience and only want to pay as if the person just graduated college or trade school.

Look at all the videos on YouTube and TikTok of recent grads trying to find work. Some are desperate and taking jobs that pay slightly more than Chipotle just to get some experience and resume building.

My oldest sister has a small law firm and graduated back in 1992. She regularly has new law grads willing to work for $25 an hour (zero benefits) just to get some experience…… any experience.
Imagine $150K of student debt and begging for $25 an hour and 20 hours per week.

 

[tmorris1]

Unfortunately some companies want 5 years of experience and only want to pay as if the person just graduated college or trade school.

Look at all the videos on YouTube and TikTok of recent grads trying to find work. Some are desperate and taking jobs that pay slightly more than Chipotle just to get some experience and resume building.

My oldest sister has a small law firm and graduated back in 1992. She regularly has new law grads willing to work for $25 an hour (zero benefits) just to get some experience…… any experience.
Imagine $150K of student debt and begging for $25 an hour and 20 hours per week.

If they would quit spending all their time on Tik-Tok and YouTube they might have a better shot at getting a job.

 

[John105]

I look back and the advice my dad gave me was correct. Essentially he said one has to do what they want by 35. I’ve seen kids come out of college, and today, they are SVPs and if anything, they are aggressive and competitive. To me, that’s where playing sports as a kid benefits later.

Again if I could do it all over? I’d be a CPA partner, like my buddy’s dad (at the time I didn’t know what the job was, sure, accounting). Boring, geeky, but I know what the pay is today and one can take care of their families well in that position…

If I were looking for a job I’d have thick skin. It’s like dating. Even if the odds don’t seem great, all a person needs is 1 hit.

 

[userfriendly]

Cedar rapids Iowa

https://jobs.kochcareers.com

The only time you worry about Iowa farmers is when they’re not complaining about the price of fertilizer.

 

[jhellwig]

What industry, role(s), and pay range?

Which industry?

100%. In the insurance industry the bottom line rules and they think it's possible to train anyone to do the job. I am highly qualified, experience with multiple certifications that many supervisors or managers don't even posses. I sent out a 10 resumes / applications and only got 1 call back. I think I'm overqualified.

Pipelines. Any field roles are hard to fill even the ones that don't need any experience. Pays very good especially in the rural areas.

 

[tmorris1]

Pipelines. Any field roles are hard to fill even the ones that don't need any experience. Pays very good especially in the rural areas.

Probably can't pass a drug test so they won't apply.

 

[jeepman3071]

If they would quit spending all their time on Tik-Tok and YouTube they might have a better shot at getting a job.

Yeah I'm sure there are people like that, but that isn't the majority. I work at a University managing IT and have several student employees. They are great candidates as they have a good work ethic, a degree (not usually in IT) and tech support experience. One of them is a double major and still manages to work 25 hours a week. I've been a reference for a few of them, and it is still quite difficult. I'm amazed at some of the unrealistic requirements many companies have for "entry level" positions.

Many of these companies are requiring a computer science bachelor's degree and/or 6 years experience for a LEVEL 1 HELP DESK job, and meanwhile passing over candidates such as my former student employees who provided support to an organization with several hundred faculty and staff. Each of them I'd be confident in sending out into the field to deal with problems. Many of these positions start at $40k/year which would barely qualify you to rent any apartments here. It's mind blowing.

 

[Dave Hess]

I was giving someone some quality advice and they didn’t take it.
Now they can’t find a job and applying with no luck.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...iring-due-to-living-costs.386423/post-6994114

 

[JoeDirt41]

Many companies are NOT hiring but constantly posting new jobs pretending their company is growing and doing very well. They don’t want to announce a hiring freeze due to bad financial situation.

Any company can post fake jobs and do interviews with zero intention of hiring anyone.

*** Edit ***
The company I work for the past 36 years does not post fake BS job postings.
No games, just real jobs needing to be filled.

This is 100% accurate. I have a job now in retail. We ARE understaffed, we have "Now Hiring" ads posted as well as job ads on most of the websites, and you can even get an interview for a job.

But ultimately the district manager gets to decide if he/she wants to allot enough hours to a particular store to allow the store manager to hire another person. BTW, everyone's sales are trash right now. So when they are basing hiring off of performance, they are cutting hours instead of giving more, despite the fact that we are understaffed as it is.

 

[Dave Hess]

This is 100% accurate. I have a job now in retail. We ARE understaffed, we have "Now Hiring" ads posted as well as job ads on most of the websites, and you can even get an interview for a job.

But ultimately the district manager gets to decide if he/she wants to allot enough hours to a particular store to allow the store manager to hire another person. BTW, everyone's sales are trash right now. So when they are basing hiring off of performance, they are cutting hours instead of giving more, despite the fact that we are understaffed as it is.

Why are everyone’s sales trash right now ?

Are customers cutting back on spending ?

 

[RazorsEdge]

Why are everyone’s sales trash right now ?

Are customers cutting back on spending ?

People are so so tired of paying for over the top services, high price of food, etc etc.
People in general are mad the way things are going economically. I'm fed up as well.

 

[Rmay635703]

People are so so tired of paying for over the top services, high price of food, etc etc.
People in general are mad the way things are going economically. I'm fed up as well.

Little mentioned is that the higher paying jobs are currently dead, tech, finance and segments of manufacturing are receding.

People being landlocked by a home are sliding into lower paying jobs and under employment.

So while the economy looks great on paper most folks aren’t benefiting.

 

[JoeDirt41]

Why are everyone’s sales trash right now ?

Are customers cutting back on spending ?

Generally speaking, yes. People are feeling the pain of inflation and shoppers have seriously started to curb and monitor their spending. People are shopping for the lowest prices, more now that ever. It's no secret that auto parts stores prices are inflated and while we can price match other parts stores, we just can't compete with Amazon or Rockauto.

We are stable on the commercial sales side, but we are regularly missing our retail sales targets by 50% or more. And it's not specific to our store, and the sales targets aren't inflated any more than they were in the past. This is company wide, and I'm willing to bet industry wide.

The company has made some pretty desperate moves to try to cut costs and free up cash. They don't want us scanning inbound trucks because it is too time consuming. Instead they want us on the floor with customers as much as humanly possible. They also stopped printing paper flyers and revised the open/close paperwork to cut back on paper costs. They set our thermostats in the stores to 82°F to cut back energy costs. They made a deal to sell off WorldPac to free up some cash flow. And as previously mentioned, they've gotten very stingy with hiring, regardless of how understaffed the stores might be.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Generally speaking, yes. People are feeling the pain of inflation and shoppers have seriously started to curb and monitor their spending. People are shopping for the lowest prices, more now that ever. It's no secret that auto parts stores prices are inflated and while we can price match other parts stores, we just can't compete with Amazon or Rockauto.

We are stable on the commercial sales side, but we are regularly missing our retail sales targets by 50% or more. And it's not specific to our store, and the sales targets aren't inflated any more than they were in the past. This is company wide, and I'm willing to bet industry wide.

The company has made some pretty desperate moves to try to cut costs and free up cash. They don't want us scanning inbound trucks because it is too time consuming. Instead they want us on the floor with customers as much as humanly possible. They also stopped printing paper flyers and revised the open/close paperwork to cut back on paper costs. They set our thermostats in the stores to 82°F to cut back energy costs. They made a deal to sell off WorldPac to free up some cash flow. And as previously mentioned, they've gotten very stingy with hiring, regardless of how understaffed the stores might be.

The Internet (and technology in general) has been a huge disrupter and will continue to be. It's not a stretch to see more and more brick-and-mortar stores to go away.

Is that good? Depends on which side of the deal you are on. Would you pay $1 or 50 cents for the same product?
My career as a business programmer is not immune. It is becoming obsolete with the rise of AI. It's coming.

 

[SC Maintenance]

US personal Savings rates are now down to where they were just before the GFC - at 2.9%. Realize this is average, so the majority of people are negative at this point. People are using up whatever savings they have to get by.

At the same time credit cards and other revolving credit is at all time highs.

Walmart and other discounters are talking about "increase in traffic" as shoppers trade down. But the fine print is average purchase $ has declined.

Talking heads on TV keep telling us "retail sales beats", but its up 2.1% from last year and not adjusted for inflation - so unit volume is down. At the same time - all costs have gone way up - utilities, labor, etc.

The economy is bi-focated. If your in the top 20%, own your house, own stocks, life looks very good. If your just the average person, rent your home, and trying to get by on a paycheck, its a very different story.

 

[bdcardinal]

I guess I am lucky. I have been at my job 17 years, and even though some days are extremely frustrating, I absolutely love what I do and the company I work for. That being said, finding competent people to fill in openings we have has been extremely frustrating.

 

[Rmay635703]

The Internet (and technology in general) has been a huge disrupter and will continue to be. It's not a stretch to see more and more brick-and-mortar stores to go away.

Is that good? Depends on which side of the deal you are on. Would you pay $1 or 50 cents for the same product?
My career as a business programmer is not immune. It is becoming obsolete with the rise of AI. It's coming.

Little talked about is that brick and mortar going away depends on low energy prices and a variety of subsidies.

Places like Amazon are very inefficient compared to Walmart on units of energy per sale. They are both less efficient on general logistics and supply chain length but also use immense amounts of energy just on their backbone server infrastructure (similar to a city). Amazon also is the largest non-defense collector of government funding which is critical to its survival.

Online purchase + Shipping products to individuals falls apart if energy prices go up and subsidies drop (freight + infrastructure). Many larger products are already net losers when shipped and that is with current energy costs.
If energy costs go up much more the schemes to eliminate brick and mortar fall apart. Pricing on many products is actually already higher online but folks aren’t noticing yet. (And clearance still happens)

I expect a lot of wining and calls for bailouts if these entities get squeezed by real world infrastructure and energy costs.