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How to Navigate Job Hunting During a Period of Layoffs and Extreme Unemployment

29 points by markhall 7y ago

RickJWagner 7y ago
"Don’t constantly listen to news or TV programs that repeatedly harp on the economic challenges - just take action and stay focused on your goals" Perhaps the hardest of the suggested things to do, but the most productive.
- davesque 7y ago
  This. I think at times there's a certain mind trick you have to play on yourself. You have to believe something is possible for your own reasons irrespective of popular opinion. The insight is that popular opinion is often wrong or exaggerated or less relevant to your personal situation than you realize.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  You are an individual. Nation-wide statistics are somewhat relevant - there can be more or fewer jobs available, and more or fewer people looking, and that does matter - but in the end, you only need one job.
mlthoughts2018 7y ago
It seems kind of a sham to write this for a generic audience when specific job sectors are likely to be much worse hit. If you’ve built a career in management at a large retailer for instance, and all the large retailers are hurting the same, your resume probably doesn’t matter at all in this downturn. When will you get a chance to elevator pitch someone while on lockdown? What do you do if you don’t like data privacy practices or dark patterns of platforms like LinkedIn or social networks? In reality this article is written only for white collar workers in industries likely not as strongly impacted by the recession who are looking at job options at other white collar positions also not heavily impacted. And in that case the advice basically boils down to “do what you would normally do.” In that sense it’s kind of a frustrating article masquerading as though it’s helpful to people hitting hard times.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Well, it's Forbes. They aren't really writing for blue-collar or retail workers, or even for lower-level retail managers.
- wolco 7y ago
  Switching sections might help. Managers are needed in mask building factories.
- markhall 7y ago
  OP here: While I appreciate the feedback and understand parts of it, I think writing general pieces that can help broader audiences still can be valuable. The piece wasn't designed to cover simply today's reality but tomorrow as well.
angarg12 7y ago
My piece of advice is this: if you are fortunate enough to keep your job during a recession, be ready to look for a new job quickly after the recovery. I kept my job during the 2008 meltdown, and I suffered from a bad case of salary compression [1]. Although we didn't lose our jobs, our salary froze during the first 4 years. Our bonuses got cancelled, so effectively our income went down. On the fifth year we started getting meagre raises, and when I finally left after 7 years, my salary went up dramatically. I estimate that when I left I was getting paid easily half of market rate. Moral of the story, I could have left after a couple of years in a recovering economy rather than keep the same grossly underpaid job for so long. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=salary+compression&oq=salary+compression&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.2523j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=salary+compression&oq=salary...
pdubs1 7y ago
Submitter MarkHall is also the article's author. Looking at his user history, he submits articles he writes here, despite their irrelevance to this community I don't see any value in this article posted here. 1. It's general content 2. It's not related to technology (or other STEM knowledge/innovations) 3. Many tech companies are hiring 4. covid is not effecting many software engineers as much as other occupations since we can work from home.
- markhall 7y ago
  OP here: While I do share my articles here often, I think the content can be valuable to folks who recently lost their jobs or are looking for jobs. Regarding point 1, sometimes general advice is still practical. Regarding point 2, not all HN content is tech specific. 3: I included the links to tech companies hiring.
  - pdubs1 7y ago
    No worries, I just wanted to point out some things I felt were factual about my experience with A. happening upon at largely tech/stem-irrelevant news story and thinking "Gee, why is this here if it's not relevant? I want Tech/STEM -relevant news, which is the purpose of HN." and then B. clicking your HN username and seeing you've been doing this for a while. and then C. realizing "Hey, this is misuse, and I am going to point it out." I think given that this is "Hacker" News, founded by YCombinator, an technology incubator ("seed accelerator"), that the spirit of this forum is to keep the discussion purely Tech, STEM & Tech/STEM-business related. Not articles which have no clear emphasis on these core topics. In respect to Social Contract, I'd prefer that YCombinator isn't flooded by every blogger who thinks their non-tech or STEM article should be posted on a Tech/STEM related news forum. I'd prefer that you don't consider this a traffic outlet to boost your articles' views & visits, especially then they're not Tech/Stem relevant. In terms of links to tech companies hiring-- If I were blogging and wanted views from a Tech/STEM news forums' visitors, I would make the clear, overarching focus of my article Tech/STEM related. I think this approach is would be more respectful to the purpose & visitors of this forum. OP: "Doo daa doo... let me just go post my article on HackerNews just because I need some views"

29 points by markhall 7y ago

"Don’t constantly listen to news or TV programs that repeatedly harp on the economic challenges - just take action and stay focused on your goals" Perhaps the hardest of the suggested things to do, but the most productive.

davesque 7y ago
This. I think at times there's a certain mind trick you have to play on yourself. You have to believe something is possible for your own reasons irrespective of popular opinion. The insight is that popular opinion is often wrong or exaggerated or less relevant to your personal situation than you realize.
AnimalMuppet 7y ago
You are an individual. Nation-wide statistics are somewhat relevant - there can be more or fewer jobs available, and more or fewer people looking, and that does matter - but in the end, you only need one job.

mlthoughts2018 7y ago

It seems kind of a sham to write this for a generic audience when specific job sectors are likely to be much worse hit. If you’ve built a career in management at a large retailer for instance, and all the large retailers are hurting the same, your resume probably doesn’t matter at all in this downturn. When will you get a chance to elevator pitch someone while on lockdown? What do you do if you don’t like data privacy practices or dark patterns of platforms like LinkedIn or social networks? In reality this article is written only for white collar workers in industries likely not as strongly impacted by the recession who are looking at job options at other white collar positions also not heavily impacted. And in that case the advice basically boils down to “do what you would normally do.” In that sense it’s kind of a frustrating article masquerading as though it’s helpful to people hitting hard times.

AnimalMuppet 7y ago
Well, it's Forbes. They aren't really writing for blue-collar or retail workers, or even for lower-level retail managers.
wolco 7y ago
Switching sections might help. Managers are needed in mask building factories.
markhall 7y ago
OP here: While I appreciate the feedback and understand parts of it, I think writing general pieces that can help broader audiences still can be valuable. The piece wasn't designed to cover simply today's reality but tomorrow as well.

angarg12 7y ago

My piece of advice is this: if you are fortunate enough to keep your job during a recession, be ready to look for a new job quickly after the recovery. I kept my job during the 2008 meltdown, and I suffered from a bad case of salary compression [1]. Although we didn't lose our jobs, our salary froze during the first 4 years. Our bonuses got cancelled, so effectively our income went down. On the fifth year we started getting meagre raises, and when I finally left after 7 years, my salary went up dramatically. I estimate that when I left I was getting paid easily half of market rate. Moral of the story, I could have left after a couple of years in a recovering economy rather than keep the same grossly underpaid job for so long. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=salary+compression&oq=salary+compression&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l7.2523j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 https://www.google.com/search?q=salary+compression&oq=salary...

pdubs1 7y ago

Submitter MarkHall is also the article's author. Looking at his user history, he submits articles he writes here, despite their irrelevance to this community I don't see any value in this article posted here. 1. It's general content 2. It's not related to technology (or other STEM knowledge/innovations) 3. Many tech companies are hiring 4. covid is not effecting many software engineers as much as other occupations since we can work from home.

markhall 7y ago
OP here: While I do share my articles here often, I think the content can be valuable to folks who recently lost their jobs or are looking for jobs. Regarding point 1, sometimes general advice is still practical. Regarding point 2, not all HN content is tech specific. 3: I included the links to tech companies hiring.
- pdubs1 7y ago
  No worries, I just wanted to point out some things I felt were factual about my experience with A. happening upon at largely tech/stem-irrelevant news story and thinking "Gee, why is this here if it's not relevant? I want Tech/STEM -relevant news, which is the purpose of HN." and then B. clicking your HN username and seeing you've been doing this for a while. and then C. realizing "Hey, this is misuse, and I am going to point it out." I think given that this is "Hacker" News, founded by YCombinator, an technology incubator ("seed accelerator"), that the spirit of this forum is to keep the discussion purely Tech, STEM & Tech/STEM-business related. Not articles which have no clear emphasis on these core topics. In respect to Social Contract, I'd prefer that YCombinator isn't flooded by every blogger who thinks their non-tech or STEM article should be posted on a Tech/STEM related news forum. I'd prefer that you don't consider this a traffic outlet to boost your articles' views & visits, especially then they're not Tech/Stem relevant. In terms of links to tech companies hiring-- If I were blogging and wanted views from a Tech/STEM news forums' visitors, I would make the clear, overarching focus of my article Tech/STEM related. I think this approach is would be more respectful to the purpose & visitors of this forum. OP: "Doo daa doo... let me just go post my article on HackerNews just because I need some views"