10 ms·

I'm about a year into a mid-effort level job search. I work in a somewhat specialized technical field and am fairly senior (I think in FAANG-ese I'd be an maybe

by bane 2y ago

I'm about a year into a mid-effort level job search. I work in a somewhat specialized technical field and am fairly senior (I think in FAANG-ese I'd be an maybe an L7 if I understand their levels correctly). So this means I'm looking for management, director, deputy CTO or CTO positions depending on the company. I have a track record making my company lots of money, and opening up new opportunities worth many multiples of that. So the deck is already stacked against me as most positions are for jr or mid engineers, but I have a proven track record of growing responsibilities and (in my market) fairly recognizable success stories. The search has been absolutely atrocious. Unlike anything I've ever seen before in 30 years of working in tech. * I used to be able to simply pull on my network and get a position within 2 or 3 tries. Total job hunt time, under a month. * The last time I had to go through this was pre-COVID, and I used a mix of my network and cold applications (around 50). I only heard back from 2 of the cold submissions and my network pulled me in to where I am today. Total job hunt time, around 4 months. * I'm almost exactly 1 year in now, over 700 applications, people in my network can't even get responses for referrals. I've made it to 4 interview funnels, including stupidly exhausting FAANGs, for positions ranging from CTO to consultant filling a contract slot. 2 solid offers, both at least 40-60% below my current market rate. One executive recruiter ghosted me after we started discussing Total Compensation Packages. I even had a friend post a position at their company, using my resume as the hiring template. Then they personally referred me to that position. I never received a call, and they never received any candidates. It feels like being personally blacklisted, but it's affecting everybody I know. The furthest I've gotten has been by hunting down corporate and executive recruiters directly, but I've had two recruiters get laid off halfway through the matching process. One FAANG recruiter has even contacted me hoping I could help them find a position. Something is broken somewhere. Companies are starving for talent, and talent is starving for companies. The online applications sites are clearly filtering out people, but there appears to be massive churn in the recruiting side as well. /r/recruitinghell is very representative of things I've seen. I did notice that hiring activity has picked up since the rollover of the FY. Several 6-7 month old applications stirred somebody to contact me in the last month or so with a "great fit" that turned out to have nothing to do with my skillset. My story is finally drawing to a close however, I've just negotiated a good position at a new firm and am setting a start date.

oldpersonintx 2y ago
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goochphd 2y ago
That's great that you found a new spot. I've seen other research and discussion on this topic. Some stats that may be validating for you (and others) to hear: * There's a 0.08% job application -> offer rate when applying through LinkedIn (LI). An average of 1 in 1,250 applications lead to an offer * The linked paper on this post finds that 21% of postings are ghost jobs, but I've seen credible estimates that the proportion is as high as 50% * A Stanford survey found hundreds of fake LI profiles, AI-generated "recruiters" that are interacting with candidates and posting ghost jobs on behalf of big companies * ~75% of resumes from qualified applicants are never seen by a human * resumes get on average 6 to 8 seconds of consideration when they are reviewed by a human * 300,000 jobs are outsourced annually (with respect to the US) All this to say, you're right, something is fundamentally broken in the labor market, especially the tech labor market. And not that many people are talking about it, except for those of us who have been unfortunate enough to need to look for jobs in the past ~2 years. In my own case, my previous employer (a startup) ran out of money and laid everyone off last Fall. I was fortunate enough to find a new position, but this job search was the hardest I've faced since 2008 - and it seems worse now than it was this time last year.
dumbfounder 2y ago
I feel age has something to do with it as well. I know a lot of people around 50 in tech that have been laid off recently. They generally make more money, so it can be easier to justify.
mxuribe 2y ago
First of all, congrats on getting a new gig! With a few minor differences, your experience is similar to my own. So, clearly, you are not alone! I will note that one other blockage that you likely encountered but maybe didn't note or focus on which has hit me (in addition to other factors you cited): agism. I have been in the workforce for a little over 28 years, and 24 of those years has been in some sort of IT or digital or technical-related team...and most recently i have felt the tinge of agism ridiculously high - moreso while trying to get a job, but also in some (but not all) areas of my current dayjob. Its funny, when applying for jobs, and when speaking with some potential hiring managrers, HR, etc....you get the feeling from their questions...But when working with a team of any age, and you bring value to the team, then agism is not as much of a thing. There are times when one's aged wisdom is highly regarded and valued...and then other times - most especially during hiring processes - where it is considered a potential problem. Again, i'm so glad you got your new gig, but it sure is hell out there! :-)

by bane 2y ago

oldpersonintx 2y ago

[dead]

goochphd 2y ago

That's great that you found a new spot. I've seen other research and discussion on this topic. Some stats that may be validating for you (and others) to hear: * There's a 0.08% job application -> offer rate when applying through LinkedIn (LI). An average of 1 in 1,250 applications lead to an offer * The linked paper on this post finds that 21% of postings are ghost jobs, but I've seen credible estimates that the proportion is as high as 50% * A Stanford survey found hundreds of fake LI profiles, AI-generated "recruiters" that are interacting with candidates and posting ghost jobs on behalf of big companies * ~75% of resumes from qualified applicants are never seen by a human * resumes get on average 6 to 8 seconds of consideration when they are reviewed by a human * 300,000 jobs are outsourced annually (with respect to the US) All this to say, you're right, something is fundamentally broken in the labor market, especially the tech labor market. And not that many people are talking about it, except for those of us who have been unfortunate enough to need to look for jobs in the past ~2 years. In my own case, my previous employer (a startup) ran out of money and laid everyone off last Fall. I was fortunate enough to find a new position, but this job search was the hardest I've faced since 2008 - and it seems worse now than it was this time last year.

dumbfounder 2y ago

I feel age has something to do with it as well. I know a lot of people around 50 in tech that have been laid off recently. They generally make more money, so it can be easier to justify.

mxuribe 2y ago

First of all, congrats on getting a new gig! With a few minor differences, your experience is similar to my own. So, clearly, you are not alone! I will note that one other blockage that you likely encountered but maybe didn't note or focus on which has hit me (in addition to other factors you cited): agism. I have been in the workforce for a little over 28 years, and 24 of those years has been in some sort of IT or digital or technical-related team...and most recently i have felt the tinge of agism ridiculously high - moreso while trying to get a job, but also in some (but not all) areas of my current dayjob. Its funny, when applying for jobs, and when speaking with some potential hiring managrers, HR, etc....you get the feeling from their questions...But when working with a team of any age, and you bring value to the team, then agism is not as much of a thing. There are times when one's aged wisdom is highly regarded and valued...and then other times - most especially during hiring processes - where it is considered a potential problem. Again, i'm so glad you got your new gig, but it sure is hell out there! :-)