Covid career search. Job market getting better?

Ive been applying to jobs since April. As you might be aware, 2020 was a pretty terrible year for job searching. I didn't lose my job, I just hate my job. Great company and great role turned terrible with management change. I'm an engineer in product development, and turns out hiring a director of engineering who doesn't actually understand engineering, is bad move. I've gone to the VP numerous times trying to make him understand how bad it is, with zero results. 

I've applied to I can't tell you how many jobs since then, with 3 interviews. Nothing in person, always over the phone. In the past 2 weeks, I've had 8 interviews. I don't know what changed, but something has flipped and engineering jobs are hiring again. 

I had my first in person interview today, with a company that makes commercial indoor agriculture equipment. I'll let you use your imagination to guess what they might be growing. We ended the interview with how much I make, and HR will be getting in touch. 2 hours later I had an email from HR wanting to schedule a time to talk. 

I can't wait to get out of this job. The light at the end of the tunnel is finally here. 

That's awesome hope it works out! I was just in an HR class last week and they said that asking how much someone makes is actually not an allowed question in many states, proper verbiage now asks how much you expect to make. I laughed, "all of it" is the answer to that question.

Glad to hear your getting into a budding industry.

Put your current joint behind you and blaze your way to another one.  

Besides getting a new motor running or having our kids, a new job was the most exciting to me. Congratulations and don't worry about burning bridges in the exit interview. I once was told I not only burned the bridge but tore out the pylons from the water & tore up the road in both directions. Was fun though.

Been submitting resumes since April 2020. Had two interviews. I stopped submitting resumes in December. 
Yesterday I get a response on a resume I submitted months ago. So yeah, things might be improving out there. 
i wish you the best!

Congrats!

"How much do you make" is one of my biggest pet peeves. Why the berkeley does it matter what I make?  How much are you paying to fill the role you are hiring for?

Don't say that. It's a question you have to answer whether you hate it or not. 
 

But it represents poor choices on the part of the hiring employer in my opinion. 

I think it depends. I am switching jobs in another week. Thisis my second change since september of last year. Here locally the job market is begging people to come work. 

I'm also an engineer in GA. I was in a similar situation as you with my old job, frustrated with management. This year has been so weird. The economy is supposedly doing bad, yet I'm making more than I ever have, got a big bonus, got a raise, switched to a new better job, got a raise at the new job, and we still can't fill engineering positions that have been open since I got hired. K-shaped economy or something. Anyway. Congrats on the new job! (you should come autocross this weekend)

MegaCorp here. We've been hiring. Hiring has been odd as we're 100% WFH, nobody allowed in the office and it will continue that way until at least June. 

Parts of the business were negatively impacted. Parts have seen enormous growth due to the economy. Stock price has been in the E36 M3ter since the election, but that never really made sense - I think it had a lot more to do with a merger we had; the price has been making huge strides since last earning call. 

We are still hiring in my group, Tech Writers. I bet since last fall we've hired around 10 new writers between the US and Europe. 

My girlfriend has been contacted about 3 different marketing jobs in the last week. Which is good she was looking to leave because the boss is a major misogynistic A$$shole (he's run off or fired basically every woman they've ever hired) so he had someone else let her go just half-an-hour ago. 

She has a few good leads and gets a few weeks of severance, so it shouldn't be too big of deal. I think OKC has the 2nd lowest unemployment rate for a major metro area in the country.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

Congrats!

"How much do you make" is one of my biggest pet peeves. Why the berkeley does it matter what I make?  How much are you paying to fill the role you are hiring for?

Don't say that. It's a question you have to answer whether you hate it or not. 
 

But it represents poor choices on the part of the hiring employer in my opinion. 

I have been asked that before. I may or may not have understood the question so my answer may or may not have been accurate. My answer did get me a $7/hr bump in pay to change jobs.

I had a previous employer contact me about going back, and offered enough money to make it happen, and the next day I got a call from a different company needing to fill the equivalent position. Both of those holes were left by competent folks who had even better offers. Folks do indeed seem to be hiring, and paying well which is better. I'd guess that our growth is due for a correction, but I don't see it and I'm not an economist, so idk. Imma make money while i can. 
 

Ive answered the "how much do you make?" question. I answered honestly and the outcome wasn't desireable. 

I don't care about telling the VP of engineering where I'm at on salary. He has pretty much nothing to do with how much I get paid. If the position isn't in the ballpark on salary, I want to know. 

Talked with HR this morning and they are working on an offer now. Insurance is going to be a little more but that's something to negotiate with. Getting close!

On the pay question - I'll just answer it with what I'm looking for. I'll always shoot high, or what I think is high.

If they ask what I'm making now, again, I'll tell them, but I make sure that I include every dollar that I make in that response - so if my salary is $50,000 and I get a 3% 401k match and a 10% ESPP match, $2,000 bonus, and $600 deposited to my HSA, I'll tell them that I make $55,600 - and I'll also tell them that what I'm making now doesn't have much if any relevance to what I'll accept for the next position. 

In reply to SVreX (Forum Supporter) :

Instead of that, I'vehad the "what will it take to get you here" question which is equally obnoxious. "Probably more than you're willing to pay" and then smile is my normal answer. 

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

that's my normal method as well but apparently what I think is high right now isn't because they jumped on it like a starving man on a ham.

bobzilla said:

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

that's my normal method as well but apparently what I think is high right now isn't because they jumped on it like a starving man on a ham.

Its honestly all over the board so much that I can't figure out what I'm worth, and what other people are worth.

• 2015, I thought I was shooting high asking for 26% more than what I was then earning. They came back 15% higher than I asked - increase of 45%. Plus a signing bonus. Oops.
• 2017, they offered, 4% increase. I went higher - 10% increase. They accepted.
• 2018 (6 months later, I got E36 M3-canned for basically telling someone they were a moron, I should have said it more colorfully), I asked for what I had been making at the last gig, they came in lower by about 9%, taking me back to what I had been making before the place I got E36 M3-canned from. I wasn't really in a position to negotate, so accepted, but...
• Literally the next day got an interview with another company. I asked for 14% more than I had been making from the place I got E36 M3canned from- I wanted to make sure it was worth it to renege on the accepted offer. They came back 29% higher than that; 42% higher than the place I just accepted the offer from (Hey - ya know that job I accepted? Yeah, not gonna show up. Thanks though!)
• Late 2020, I applied and interviewed to a job that I knew I would love the company, but hate the work. Would have required a move to a lower COL area. I just told them what I was making now. It was too high, I think I scared them. Which was unfortunate, because the real money in that one would have been the signing bonus in the form of stock options. 

Meh. I'm happy where I am. I look for jobs at about 6 companies. If I see something I like, I'll apply, and ask for 15% more than I'm making now. 

I've never answered honestly about what it I make. I'm negotiating the best salary for me. 

I did have one place contact me, I saw their job listing and just told them flat out, "The upper range of what you have advertised isn't even close. If you aren't flexible, let's not waste our time with a phone interview."

The job market from my POV was basically non-existent from March 2020 until December.  Since then I started seeing and being contacted about jobs that actually seemed possibly interesting and/or not awful.  In the last few weeks it's really picked up. 

It feels like a very haves and have-nots situation; white colar jobs have been mostly stable over the last 12 months and a lot of blue colar jobs (with some exceptions) seem to have been pretty badly rocked.  I feel like I've come out of this pretty well all things considered.  It's been an interesting time.

2 years ago I took a pay cut to make the move.  Found it weird they even asked me as it was technically an internal move so they knew what I made but they asked anyway then offered less.  As of today Im back up to the salary I left with a lower cost of living so that worked out.

On the flip side I have 3 positions open and cannot seem to hire anyone.  I think its less a reflection on the job market and candidate pools and more on that its a very odd job description which is hard to find and with 3 positions on a team of 9 I cant afford to bring in a Jr level and train them up right now.   

But in general yeah, there are a lot of jobs out there, at least in our local area and the competition to get quality employees is fierce.   The market is pretty strong, hoping it continues.

I started a new job last May and still get an occasional response from jobs I applied for last spring.

The market for tradespeople has been strong for the last 10 years, but it's crazy right now, at least around here.

I recently saw an ad for a job with a 4 day work week that piqued my interest.  I have my resume uploaded to a local job site, but set to private, and had to unlock it to apply, which I did. The next morning while having coffee with Mrs. P I get a call from a head hunter, but he had nothing I was interested in.  I hung up and it rang almost immediately, another head hunter with similar midrange opportunities. I hung up and it rang again. This went from 9 til 10 when I realized I'd forgotten to set my resume back to private.

What surprises me, although in my experiences with HR professionals it shouldn't, is how really, really bad some of these job ads are. In a tough market, when you just can't find people, you'd think companies would take it seriously. I started looking in 2018 and a lot of the same companies are still looking.

In reply to JThw8 :

What's the job? I mean... I'm not married to Indiana. 

In reply to bobzilla :

But I'd have to move you on the Map..

nocones said:

In reply to bobzilla :

But I'd have to move you on the Map..

Hmmm... you have a point.