PDX employment scene: what a difference a year makes!
I was looking for a job last summer. It was dead, dead, dead out there. Couldn’t scare up anything through my network of contacts, couldn’t get firms to acknowledge my existence, and the few opportunities I finally dug up?
D r a g g e d o n n n n… I went five months from an initial interview to an offer that finally got extended after I’d already accepted a stopgap long term contract opportunity instead. I thought they’d forgotten all about me, frankly - until contacts reported they were getting reference calls from said poky employer.
It was enough to give me a complex, even though I’d heard from others that I wasn’t in the boat alone (and surely the bleak economic prospects made me feel marginally better that it wasn’t just about me.) So when my contract gig ended this past June, I trembled at the thought of the same kind of treatment, sure that I’d be in a deep depression within weeks.
Imagine my surprise to find a whole new world out there. Tons of public job postings for jobs I’d actually consider doing. A network that tossed me back leads and referrals with abandon. Employers who acknowledged your materials, contacted you personally to follow up, and kept you apprised every step of the way through an interview process. (I got my own job offer extended to me via a Sunday morning phone call from the recruiter, no less.)
And as much as I’d like to believe that it’s All About Me? It’s not about me - other job seekers reported similar findings, and got snapped up into positions or companies they’re happy to land. And recruiters, HR people, and others on the hiring front lines confirmed my findings (yes, I asked) - they say it’s easier now to transition into a new career (moving from corporate to non-profit work, for example), get face time with an employer for an informational interview, or talk honestly with a recruiter about your chances of working with their company if you don’t have a perfect background (don’t try for a mid-level management position at Columbia if you don’t have any retail and/or clothing experience, for example.)
So, I can now stop kicking myself for not throwing over the contract gig for the permanent job with Poky Employer last year. (Damn those pesky ethics, anyway!) I start the new gig next week - and it’s a pretty good bet that I won’t be back here next year, doing yet another State of PDX Employment report. Well, not from a job seeker’s position, one hopes..!
For those of you looking for work - have your experiences dovetailed with mine? For those hiring - what’s different this year vs. last year (or the year before that….)?
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My slightly less new than yours job was one of a few opportunities I had available to me. A good contractor is really a godsend (where I’m at now I am a direct hire, though) and that network of people to hook you up, that’s really nice.
I was lucky in that my current position was one I wanted, not one I needed (like last time when I was two weeks from the end of my unemployment benefits and ended up taking a job for a dollar less an hour than I was getting from unemployment so I could have a job!) and that I work for a very cool company. It definitely seemed like I had more choices, but Mister Fishbones is searching now and he doesn’t see the opportunities out there. Maybe it’s because it’s tight in Financeland and not in Geekville, I don’t know…
Bah! Don’t get me started. I moved to the metro area in spring of 2001. For 3 years I could not get a tech. job. Not even desktop support, after coming off of a good run of 5 years in the field. There were of course global/economic factors plus the fact is was up against veterans looking for low level jobs. So I grabbed a ridiculous corp. job and ended up reinventing a paper pushing function in to a technical process through developing some simple apps. Hell, I made it possible for the department to eliminate a position.
Almost a year to the day I made a break. And now my contract is soon over.
I only really started looking 3 weeks ago and things are moving slowly as expected. Though I do notice that there are a lot more options and people actually contacting me without me first responding to something on a job board. I’m a bit more optimistic now than I was a year in to looking way below my bar. But nothing solid yet.
So, uhm, if anyone’s looking for a geek for hire(unix sysadmin, infosec, networking eng). Yo! Over here!
It’s not just you. I was trying to get a job in Portland *remotely* for three or more years. This year, the offers rolled in one right after the other and, when the right one crossed my path, I turned West and drove 2600 miles to PDX.
MNOLOGY: try a recruiter. They seem to have more sway here in Portland with the larger firms (which are doing most of the hiring).
That’s encouraging. I’m considering a career change and I’m still scared to venture out there as my friend had so much difficulty finding a job last year.