#JobMarket #JobSearch #CareerAdvice #JobHunt
🤔 Am I the only one that feels the current job market is all propaganda? Online, I keep seeing people say they can’t even get interviews and what not. I have a feeling it’s all being said in extremes.
The job market has always been like this. Whatever people are saying now has always been the norm, like sending out hundreds of applications, not getting calls.
Could it be the people spreading this misinformation are the ones newly getting into the field and they’re finding out it’s not an overnight scheme?
I know some people in real life who go through the process and get jobs in software engineering, cyber, etc… they just go through the process but they do get the jobs. Could it just be all propaganda or newbies finding it’s more work than it is?
Is the current job market all propaganda?
The current job market is a hot topic of discussion, with many individuals expressing frustration and skepticism about the state of the job market. But is it really all propaganda, or are there valid reasons behind these sentiments? Let’s take a closer look at the current job market to determine whether it’s truly as dire as some people claim.
Misinformation in the Job Market
It’s important to recognize that there is a significant amount of misinformation circulating about the job market, especially on social media and online forums. Many individuals who are struggling to find employment may be vocal about their experiences, leading to a skewed perception of the job market as a whole. It’s essential to approach these claims with a critical mindset and seek out reliable sources for accurate information.
The Normality of Job Search Challenges
Sending out hundreds of job applications without receiving interview offers is a common experience for many job seekers, and it’s important to acknowledge that this has always been the norm in the job market. While it can be disheartening and frustrating, it’s not necessarily indicative of a widespread issue within the job market. Persistence and adaptability are key traits for navigating the job search process.
New Entrants vs. Experienced Professionals
New entrants in the job market may be particularly susceptible to feelings of disillusionment and frustration, especially if they had unrealistic expectations about the ease of securing employment in their desired field. It’s essential for individuals new to the job market to understand that building a successful career often requires significant effort and perseverance, and it’s not an overnight scheme.
On the other hand, experienced professionals may have a more realistic understanding of the challenges associated with the job market. They have likely developed a more nuanced approach to their job search and understand that success often comes after multiple rejections and setbacks.
Real-Life Success Stories
While it may seem like the job market is overwhelmingly bleak based on online discourse, real-life success stories provide valuable insight into the true state of the job market. Individuals who secure jobs in competitive fields such as software engineering and cybersecurity demonstrate that it is possible to navigate the job market effectively and land desirable positions. These success stories serve as a reminder that persistence, strategic job search tactics, and relevant skills are key factors in securing employment.
Navigating the Job Market Realistically
It’s crucial to approach the job market with a realistic mindset, understanding that challenges and competition are inherent in the process. By taking proactive steps to enhance your skills, tailor your applications, and network effectively, you can improve your chances of securing desirable employment opportunities. Additionally, seeking guidance from experienced professionals and career advisors can provide valuable insights and support as you navigate the job market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while there may be elements of exaggeration and misinformation regarding the current job market, it’s essential to approach the topic with a critical mindset and seek out reliable sources of information. The job market has always been characterized by challenges and setbacks, and success often requires perseverance and strategic planning. By learning from real-life success stories and adopting a realistic approach to the job search process, individuals can enhance their prospects of securing fulfilling employment opportunities. Instead of succumbing to the belief that the job market is all propaganda, focus on developing valuable skills and leveraging available resources to advance your career.
The only real way it seems is to just talk to people that have the job or get you the job. I feel like 20 professionals is a decent amount to get a rough opinion. Im with you working on breaking into the field as well. Im currently on professional 3. It has been discouraging but there is light and mostly it was the amount of work required to get the job seems under inflated. It seems like jobs exist but you really have to prove u can work and it’s partially luck of being in the right place and knowing the right ppl. Ig we’ll have to see lol
Been in the field for 28 years and have seen a few changes / cycles during that time. I don’t see any value in a “it’s bad / no it’s not” conversation, but will offer an observation. We have had a cycle over the last several years where we have experienced incredible efficiencies in the administration and engineering fields due to technological and process advancements such a devops, automation, cloud and virtualization, containerization, single pane of glass management and configuration management. At the same time we’ve also had several economic downturns in other industries which has attracted a lot more people into this field increasing competition for a limited amount of jobs. Additionally we’ve had a period of low interest rates followed by higher rates which increased then decreased the amount of money businesses could borrow/leverage. All of these things combined would tend to increase competition for jobs while at the same time decrease the amount of jobs available. Of course different regions and sectors within this field will have different experiences but as a whole, it appears the market has contracted and people may find it harder now than a few years ago to secure positions.
I’ve had two successful interviews in Q4, I think one in October and another in December.
Did a drug test for the one in October with an offer in hand, budget got pulled last minute so the position got canceled.
For the December one, I had interviewed successfully and recruiter was expecting an offer as we were working on finalizing rates, and the budget got pulled for that one too.
While I wouldn’t have problems getting a job in this market, it’s rather unusual for job openings to get cancelled like that, twice in a row nonetheless.
It’s a rough market for many, an impossible one for some.
I sure hope it is, buddy
2020/2021 was an anomaly. Blame ads pushing a plus and network plus means starting at 100k a year with no expierance.
Like most industries, getting started is the hardest part.
Software engineering can get you started making 80k remote if you have the skill. But I consider it seperate since you make a product.
Entry and even mid level positions are getting bombarded with applicants lately. It’s really coming down to a numbers game unfortunately where you have to apply in bulk and hope to hear back at all.
I just got my first job. With a felony on my record too. I got rejected from 2 jobs before that at the final stretch. (The background check). My chances were much slimmer than most.
It is entry level, $40k in a growing small/medium size company. I’m not done with my degree yet so I can only grow from here.
There’s so many variables, but it is possible. It probably helps that I’m in a Midwest city that has a lot of tech opportunities compared to the population size (or so I’ve heard). It also has to do with how much time I put in to finding a job.
I started at step 0 in 2020 and just got my first real job last month.
I also got tons of interviews with a novice resume. I think my resume was just crafted very well. I had help from my bootcamp advisors. Again, tons of variables and I really got hired because of my resume but also they got a strong sense that I was a good culture fit.
I was very polite and curious in my interview which worked out well. Maybe for other companies it wouldn’t. Who knows.
I see a vast quantity of folks who cite instagram and sales experience as IT, while expecting a junior or even senior role. More pointedly they want the income and benefits, without doing the groundwork.
I mean we barely feel comfortable interviewing one in every 100 applicants because of the amount of automated, or garbage resumes we are sent. Folks aren’t presenting the full picture when they complain online, I promise.
They are horrible on paper or are saying sketchy stuff during the interview process. A small percentage may be genuine in their experience applying to more serious roles, but let’s be honest how many of these “I have A+ why won’t a red team hire me?” posts have we seen.
Our org is hiring for an onsite desktop support position and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality of resumes and cover letters is very poor. We had one person who was “detail oriented” have misspellings in their cover letter and in one sentence the “I look forward to sharing my skills and experience with the team at XYZ” when our org is ABC. They didn’t change out the company name as they sent the cover letter around, and they’re probably complaining about how they’ve sent out hundreds of applications without an interview.
I haven’t read through all the comments here yet,. but here are my thoughts:
1) the past few years (especially through the pandemic) has topsy-turvey’d the job-market in ways it’s really never (ever) seen. (w/ rise of remote work and WFH and etc). We’re in new territory. Companies and employees are still adapting and that could take a decade or more.
2) a lot of the complaints you see online.. are a biased sample. (IE = only the people who struggle are going to complain). That doesn’t tell you much if you can’t accurately tell what percentage of the overall whole is complaining (which you can’t really ever know.. since the job market is constantly changing and evolving).
3) I sat in on a Resume Review recently. Out of the 20 x Resumes I looked at,. given the criteria we clearly laid out in the job-description. .I could only pass forward 6 of them to the 2nd stage (interviews). The biggest mistakes I saw were:
* a lot of the Applicants.. were applying to something that was WILDLY outside their job-history. Like, not even close in skillsets.
* Many did not follow clear instructions. If the job-listing says “answer these 6 things in your cover letter”,. .you better answer those 6 things. I saw some cover letters that were nothing but maybe 1 paragraph about themselves (boilerplate “I’m a hard worker looking for a growth environment” kind of vaguery)
I mean.. 6 out of 20 is basically 75% fail rate. Now I don’t know if that’s “normal” (given I’ve only sat on 1 recently). But it shows you the problem isn’t always on the Hiring-side.
4.) There is a lot of unfair dynamics in the job market. Like companies posting jobs and then budgets get pulled and “the job postings were fake” (never to be filled). I don’t know how much of this is intentional or just “poor management”. But I do think that dynamic exists.
When I changed jobs recently (about 8 months ago now).. I think the 2 big things that worked for me were:
* Attention to detail regarding my Resume (spelling, grammar, following directions, etc)
* Applying for an opening that was in the exact skillset I have about 10 years of experience in.
* Maybe a 3rd .. however well I did in the Interview. Maybe (no idea) my visual presence and personality was better than others ?
I accepted the job even with them clarifying it would require me to pack up and move 1,600 miles (Colorado to Oregon). Even at that, they still choose me over others (I have no underlying information what made them do that). But they did for some reason.
I do consider myself “lucky”.. but I do think “luck is made” (by making smart choices, paying attention to detail, being flexible and putting in effort when the universe presents opportunity)
Everyone complaining has zero experience. It’s always been hard with no exp
I’m only 3 years in the field, but we have a very small team (supposed to be 12, but we’ve been stuck around like 6 due to promotions, leaving for new jobs, etc). Over the past like 6 months though we’ve hired on 5 people just on our team alone
Personally, I don’t understand the concept of applying for hundreds of jobs.
I’ve probably only put in 30 or so applications over my 34 years of being alive, and working since 16 yrs old.
I’ve always gone for quality over quantity, so when I’m applying, I’m going for jobs that have the highest likelihood of me being qualified in specific areas where I excel.
I turned to networking as I saw all the cybersecurity jobs being advertised by schools. Thought “Well this field is going to get flooded.”
I’m a mid career level and I’m in a weird place that I don’t have enough experience or I have too much for the positions posted. I got declined on a position in the last stage because they said I knew too much. The thing is, it was a sideways move. The reason I wanted it was full remote and the ability to move out of the current US state I’m in. Such is life.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Its partially exaggerated the people complaining about not get jobs are applying to positions that they aren’t qualified for, or just have terrible resumes, no degree or certs. The IT field is actually way better than most industries right now. I have colleagues in other industries like finance, trades and teaching with years of experience that haven’t had work since 2021. Its just the state of the economy right now.
Nah. I’ve never been without work for longer than two weeks. Hell I’ve never even had to send more than a few resumes to get a bite. But lately I haven’t heard back on much of anything in the 50 or so I sent out last year to jobs that sounded interesting. The market is definitely slowed down in the last couple years
I literally just started a new role, here are my thoughts. I was on LinkedIn and saw this job posting (my current new job) and saw about 1000 applicants for the role. I added someone from the team I was applying to on LinkedIn and asked them if the role was worth applying to still since there were so many applicants. That person actually turned out to be the manager for the role and told me to just send my resume directly to him because he couldn’t keep up with all the applicants. Had I not reached out to him directly, my application most likely would’ve been lost in the sea of applicants.
As individuals, we can only speak to our own experiences.
Some people do manage to “break in”. Could be better built resume, networking, right place right time. Really couldn’t tell you since my experience has been wildly different.
What I have seen is that any sort of co-op or internship during education is BEYOND vital. The people who managed to gain that are the only ones I know who are working in my field. This can be a source of great frustration since, on paper, we are all the same at that point.
There’s also the matter of certifications. These seem to hold more value to employers than college or university, at least from what I’m seeing. It can be tough for certain people to gain these, not due to the toughness of the exams, but financially. This provides a feeling of socioeconomic gatekeeping. Not saying it’s correct to feel that way, but it is a presence that doesn’t get talked about enough.
“Work on your resume” is the thing I see the most often and, for the most part, is probably somewhat correct. Again, my experience is that my resume has been poked and prodded more than Asa Akira. So, in my mind, such a suggestion is not helpful and only suggests a lack of people wanting to actually consider that there might be hiring problems. Same for “work on interview skills”: useless if no interviews occur.
I don’t know if there is any solution to people struggling to get their foot in the door. My experience tells me there is a problem, has been a problem even before 2020, and is getting worse, while people who are already inside insist there is no problem, everyone’s hiring, you only got into this for money, no one wants to work, etc etc.
If IT positions truly “desperately need” to be filled, employers would do *anything* to get people, including bringing in recent grads, offering wfh when possible, and increasing training budgets. Since they are not doing these, I conclude they do not want to hire, which is a supposition supported by MY experience.
Nothing can be done on my side, but to keep applying and hoping for the best. The good news is, once I am in, I will be appreciative that it finally happened, and I won’t ignore those who are having trouble getting to where I’ll be.
Just my 5 cents. YMMV.
Recently a lot of advertisements and media influencers pushing these boot camps that “land you a 80k job” after you finish or something along those lines so a lot more people are pushing for IT from a different industry with no relevant experience.
I think also Covid shut down a lot of companies or had them downsize so paired with the influx of people getting into IT and it being already a competitive industry with less companies it’s kind of always been like this but a bit worse at the moment.
I was unemployed back in march 2023 and found a job in July 2023 and at that time I had 2 years of experience out of college with no certs. I did not apply to hundreds of jobs and had several recruiters helping me and companies reaching out to me in LinkedIn and Indeed. I’m a good interviewer and have a great resume.
I read people struggling for like a year and claim they are good at interviewing and have a good resume but I don’t quite understand it, because that’s all you need. As long as you are actually getting responses and interviews you should land a job within like 6 months.
Was hired to do one thing.
Doing the other at the moment.
Too scared to change at the moment.
No it’s actually pretty bad for entry level positions right now. The job market isn’t great right now, even at my IT job at most maybe 1 or 2 people get let go and that’s usually for performance reasons, legit right after Christmas they let 7 ppl go and also friends of mine is unemployed right now. Only jobs are retail and fast food, which are desperate for people. The stigma of them being low class jobs keeps people from applying.
It’s never been like this. 48 year old engineer who has never applied for more than 5 jobs at any period of my life. I’ve put in 500 in the last 7 months. The market is garbage. Perhaps it’s only bad for specific demographics, but I’m not heading down that rabbit hole.
There are jobs, a plenty around the country. I think much of the limiting factor is where they are, how much they are paying! Most of the Jobs I am seeing for I have to move to a larger city compared to where I live. But they are there.
The truth of the matter is that there are a surplus of candidates for limited positions at companies. Many people cannot get jobs in their fields due to high levels of competition and biases at companies. The people you know are but a minority of job seekers who have the skills and social acumen to pass the screen tests and interviews. Most job seekers today are having difficulties finding suitable work.
The “job market” is something that can vary quite a bit by location too.
100% false. The CS and IT market hiring rates have become OBJECTIVELY (we have hiring data for 2023) worse than the last 5 years. (In fact hiring rates are *almost as low as some of the metrics reported in 2008. )
(So basically the only other “harder” time to land an entry level role in CS or IT was likely in 2008)
Which is really not optimistic metrics to say they least
It’s not in your head. Hiring rates have actually declined (at least for SWE) by 67% compared to just 2022 as based on Levels.fyi
Source, I’m a hiring manager for Robert Half.
Some of the “entry dev positions” we outsource for actually have jokes cracked around the office because they’ll receive LITERAL thousands of applicants over the course of 24-72 hours.
…………. I have never seen that for any other profession I have ever been hired to fill. Ever.
And I also don’t remember such a demand and euphoria over SWE positions just 2-3 years ago.
I think bootcamps as well as positive media surrounding SWE has created this hyper competitive environment where even Ivy League prior FAANG interns are now accepting $80k a year LCOL south Austin tech jobs.
I’ve been getting a good amount of interviews, but the salary ranges are definitely lower than what they were a year ago.
I imagine if I were at the entry level, I would be having a much more difficult time right now.