Job – Page 4 – Paul's Tech Talk

The Real Struggle to Finding a Job in 2024

PaulFebruary 13, 20243 Replies

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Why is Finding a Job in the US Really Hard?

I don’t say this lightly because I’ve come across so many people talking about this that isn’t even funny. Most of these people are just trying to find a job and it seems that they aren’t even able to land any real interviews. I’ve had that same problem as of late, no one wants to interview they just go to another qualified applicant and either Ghost me or tell me that I wasn’t selected for the interview.

I’ve personally been dealing with the Stress of looking for a job for over 2 weeks. It can be quite hard not to worry and think about what may come but this is just another example of what it is like to find a job in the year 2024. Even if the US Government says we have all these Jobs that were created, I seriously doubt this is going to help those who have been laid off and the one that may be lay off in the future.

Few Examples:

Linkedin Layoffs Trends By Nicole Roundy

Why Can’t People find a job?

More and More people are asking the same thing. “Why can’t I find a Job?” on Google. That seems more than plausible, if the US economy was so robust and we had all these jobs than it should be easy for everyone who was laid off to find a new job. It however isn’t that way and I hate to say it doesn’t look promising for the future. As I have been doing my research more and more people are having the same issues as I am and if people are not finding jobs and they have more qualifications than me then It just can’t be how I am applying and that I am applying. It has to be deeper than that and I believe it is.

Even now it isn’t clear on what people should do, because more and more people are asking the same thing. Even more “experts” try to give advice. I put quotations around the word to make sure you know that I don’t know if they are right or wrong or if they are actually experts or just people who know how to get a job easier.

I’m not here to tell you who I believe is or isn’t a expert in this field but to at least tell you that even if you do some of the things these people tell you to do to get a job may or may not work in your situation. I’m going to at least talk about what I am doing to try to get a job that may help you in your job search.

My Job Search Activities

What I am about to tell you is what I’ve been going through trying to do to hunt for a Job. However, This doesn’t that this is how you should do it but it is something to consider while you are looking for a job.

Setup Email Alerts on Job openings — This can be quite helpful. I’ve done this for sites like Indeed, Monster, Linkedin, Google, and even Bing to find new jobs around me that I can apply for it and it helps to keep me from spending to much time each day to look for jobs. Each of these are easy to do and you can have each site email you daily or when there is a new job that pops up that you are looking for.
Spend a Maximum of 2 or 3 hours and No more looking for Jobs — I say this because I’ve heard people say they were looking for job as if they have a job Full time and that can’t be good or healthy to the individual. There is no way you can find jobs and apply to them all day. You should spend only a limited amount of time finding jobs. That is the best approach.
Get Resume Help — This can be quite easy for some of you but others might need to search their local community to see if you can get someone to help you write your resume even better. It never hurts to get someone to check it out and give you some advice on how to get the employer to see your resume.
Apply for Jobs that you have excellent Soft Skills for — This is something that seems to be overlooked but you should always apply to jobs that match your soft skills even more. This will get employers more interested in your application. If you can show them you have the soft skills they are searching for they may want to get an interview with you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help with Friends And Family — This can be really helpful to be able to talk to your friends and family. It can help with your stress also but they may know of jobs that may be able to get your foot in the door. It’s what they call networking which has helped me in the past and this is something I am constantly doing now but still haven’t gotten past the interview stage.

As you can see these are just a few tips that I can give you to better keep you in the know of new jobs and how to deal with the rejections you may get. I’ve seen more and more of those rejections come my way but with all this it helps to keep me from getting depressed and discouraged. You should consider how you can better help yourself from getting that way too.

Are you looking for a Job? If so, we are both in the same boat but you can always subscribe and find out even more tips on Job hunting and just technology industry in general. Remember you’re not alone in this and we are all in this together.

In Depth Investigation of the Job Market and How it looks

PaulFebruary 12, 20244 Replies

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The Job Market

First and foremost we will at least talk about what I mean by Investigation of the job market. According Websters dictionary, the meaning of investigation is “to observe or study by close examination and systematic inquiry“. Now since we will study this and look into other aspects of this to see how the Job market is looking you can see this will be quite enlightening. First we need to look at the DATA of the whole situation of the Job Market for 2024. Let’s start with looking at trends and see if we see anything that shows us what it’s look like. I am going to look at what people are searching for in Google using the Google Trends that is quite useful for this data.

Recession in 2007 and 2009

According to the Federal Reserve History:

The Great Recession began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, which makes it the longest recession since World War II.

In history we are most likely going to start looking back and saying yes we are in a recession. If you look at the graph from Google Trends you can tell people stopped searching for the job market after 2009 and it started to decline. We really need to stop denying this and just buckle up and be ready to slow our spending and slow down trying to spend. If you have any debts, it is best to pay them off as quickly as possible and try to not spend to much right now. Here’s another indicator that people are starting to ask the important questions.

Understanding that people are searching for stuff like this can help you see how many people are actually asking these questions. If the Economy is so strong and working properly, then why are people asking these questions, should be your first question?

As you can see people are asking “is the job market Bad” and that is something you should consider when you look at the stats. Why are a lot of people asking the same exact question. I drilled down and looked and I see people are searching for Remote Work, WFH, Work From Home, Job Fairs, and other things that seem to indicate how many are actually looking for a job.

I am sure there are some people who will say this doesn’t mean that we will be in recession but I honestly think we will or we are in a recession right now due to how hard it is for people to find a job. This could also be considering us into a Depression that looks like a recession. I can’t tell right now but I do know Something isn’t quite right.

Biden Economics as some would say would refute this because it’s being the year of the presidential elections and they don’t want you to know this. If you haven’t looked at how it is going down then you should check it out how many people are starting to doubt that this will help them in finding work. Just to clarify what it is:

Biden described his economic philosophy via Twitter in June 2023: “Bidenomics is about growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down. Wikipedia

Conclusion and Thoughts

Finally we come to the conclusion of this because it really looks like we are not at stable as the Government is actually telling us and we should be careful to, not repeat their comments, because until you actually do your own research you will not truly understand. I’ve been researching this for the past three weeks due to my layoff. I’ve even researched, what others are saying on video. You should check out the Friday Video Posts to help you see what others are saying. I honestly think we should tighten our belts and stop spending as much as possible and try to find ways to buy food cheaper. You should try to find a job anyway you can, I have yet to find a way to do it but I have been trying and get the dreaded letter that they haven’t selected you for the next step. It can be quite depressing but it is just a matter before I find a job.

Are you jobless and have similar experiences why not leave a comment and tell people your experience so they know they aren’t alone? We are all in this together. We just need to keep encouraging people that are having the same situation and tell them you’re not alone.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more posts like this and others.

Friday Video Picks: Job Market and You!

PaulFebruary 2, 2024

Why is it so hard to Find a Job in 2024?

Is the job maketing getting worse or better? I don’t know but I suspect we will see in the coming weeks as to why it seems that way. Here are a few youtube videos that will help show you that you aren’t alone in this job searching and applying for jobs.

I personally agree with this video because there seems to be a disconnect between the employer and prospective employees trying to pay as little as they can towards the employee to do simple stuff and keep them from not finding another job down the line. According the the Bureau of Labor Statistics it is sitting at 3.7 right now.

Chart from Bureau of Labor and Statistics

As you can see the job went up doing the covid shutdown and we had a 34% unemployment that went steadily down to where we are now at 3.7% which doesn’t quite make me feel like this is going to get any better but more worse in the coming months due to everyone will eventually need to get unemployment insurance to survive and the number will rise sooner than later this year just by what I am seeing in the job market unless something happens and companies stop being picky.

The Labor Market and Job Applications

I know it has been an interesting few days for me since my lay off last week. I will even say some of this is definitely not something I would want to give to an enemy. I have been applying for jobs and trying to find a job for over a week and it looks like slim pickings right now for where I have been and where I want to go. Not to mention, that we are having so many people trying to find a job and keep a job is something that will help make your job searching any better.

The Job market and Me!

I don’t know what to say about these two videos but they were very well documenting just how hard others are having the same issue as I am and it looks to be something that will last few a while. I might have to find jobs that aren’t related to the tech industry for the time being just keep money coming in. Are you experiencing not finding a job in the the technology industry? How’s it going for you? Have you had the same issues others have had? Why not leave a comment and start a discussion on what it has been like and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog for more blog posts about my journey into finding a job. Happy Friday everyone!

Why companies are claiming Entry Level Positions on Job applications!

PaulJanuary 31, 20241 Reply

Job application by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free

Why Recruiters Try to Trick Applicants?

This is one of the ways that really makes me think this is a RED flag that you shouldn’t go to this company even if you are desperate because you will not last long. In the long run, it is something that I don’t get why they do this other than a few possible reasons. I’m going to break them down for you and try to explain it even more. Here is one Example of that I have seen in the last week:

As you can see when they called for the first level of interviews they were adamant that it was an Entry level position but I had some problems with that comment and pointed it out to the hiring manager. She avoided saying why that was but I know there was more to this than they are willing to talk about.

Cheap Labor – This is the main reason they try to tell people without posting it in their job description is that they want to get the cheapest labor they can. 9 times out of 10 this is the reason they try to get say this to get those who have the experience to go down in their amount they are wanting to get hired. This isn’t the best way to draw in applicants by making the job seem less than it is and it doesn’t help with retaining people in the long run.

Bait and Switch – This is also sometimes why they do this to get you in the door to give you even more work than you thought you would be getting into. I haven’t had this happen to me yet but I am leery of them doing this. I know they are trying to find people for certain roles but I would think they would be honest about it.

Underlying Problems

There are so many underlying problems with this approach but I won’t go into them all. I however think most companies would want the best possible talent they can get. However that isn’t how it is, most companies work for their CEO and their stock holders. They have to make money and paying people what is right to work and even inflation considerations wouldn’t work well for the ones who have the stocks and even CEO wouldn’t get as much money.

Pay for Entry Level

When they told me the pay they are willing which was 17$, I was a bit shocked because the even if they want to pay you the lowest hourly rate out there that just means they don’t value their employees and this just shows it even more. According ZipRecruiter when I looked up the pay range for It Support Specialist Salary it was more than they are willing to pay which means that I shouldn’t count on them calling me back or I should continuing looking for a new job somewhere else because they obviously aren’t looking to pay me what I deserve to be paid.

In the Meantime

Well in the mean time, I’ll apply for other jobs and consider this jobs as loss and try looking for another job that will pay me more than this previous interview. I know there must be companies out there that will value their employees. I’ll start asking more questions and tell them my pay expectations up front. I don’t want to get low balled and trying to find a job that isn’t a good fit. Each time I get an interview I am hesitant to talk about my pay requirements because they will likely trying to undercut me and give me something that isn’t even range that I might need or require to live. Are you having the same issues or problems like I am looking for a new job? Companies trying to pay you less than you deserve or maybe they aren’t even calling you back? Let’s create a discussion about this so others can find out just how hard this can be right now. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog if you like what you read.

How to get that phone call for a potential computer technician job

PaulSeptember 8, 2021

How did I get a call for a Technical Support Specialist position?

I’ll tell you what I know and It might seem down right strange but it happened. I applied to a company on Tuesday, the day after labor day. Since this was labor day weekend, most places don’t work on Monday. This job was put up on the local Indeed.com job boards, and they just put it up that morning. I applied for the job and I kid you not, they called me like 30 minutes after I applied. He even said I was the first one to apply. We Talked for like 10 to 20 minutes and it seems really promising, and he said He’ll get back with my later on this week for a possible in person interview. So How did I do it? What’s the secret? I am sure people are curious to know what did I do to get him to pick up that phone to call me.

Cover Letters

The first thing I did was construct a cover letter, telling the potential employer why I was a good match for the job and give examples to that extent. Indeed even has an example of a good cover letter to use as a template. I did use that to at least get ideas on how to make my own cover letter, you can even find some good sample cover on the web for IT support. Draw on what you have done, or what you have learned in the past to show how you can be a valuable employee to the company that you are applying to.

Have Relevant work experience

I don’t say this lightly, if you are going to try to go into technical support, then you will most likely have to something to show that you have experience working on computers or know how a computer works. I’ve heard time and time again people applying to a job and not having the experience to back up the job. They aren’t going to make you have all the requirements but they will want you to have some experience with customer service and even computers to do the job they might be looking for. This guy I talked with today he’s had people who would apply and only put down they work for burger king or some other fast food restaurant and not show they know anything about technical support for the job they are looking to hire. This might be a reason why they didn’t call back or consider your application.

Be Honest on your Resume

Some people try to embellish there job skills but a hiring manager will know when they talk to you that you might not have the experience they are looking for. You might not even get that job that you wanted because you wasn’t completely truthful on your resume. I’m not saying it will stop you from getting that job or it might not even matter in the long run, it however will be hurdle if the hiring manager suspects you weren’t completely truthful on your application or resume. So why not start off on the right foot and just be honest with them in the application process.

These are just a few things you can do to help get you that job you are looking for. I’m sure these are nothing new to some of you but I thought I would at least talk about it as I go through the hurdles of getting hired and trying to find a job that I have always wanted to do. It can be difficult to find that job and this might just help someone out that is looking into the job field.