Job Market?

[CaptainZombie]

Is it me or is the job market not moving as much the last few months, especially here in Chicago. I've been looking for another job since the very tail end of April. I have posted my resume on Monster and Careerbuilder. I have also sent out a few resumes to places without going through Monster or Career. The month of June I haven't sent out much due to being extremely busy here at work.

I'm wondering if my resume also needs some more tweaking which could be one of the problems.

I was thinking of also checking out a recruiter/headhunter.

Any other suggestions?

[Graphik]

Re: Job Market?

I would say tweak your resume a bit. If you aren't getting any job offers, resumes are one of the most common problems. By the way, what type of work do you do?

[mgoblue]

Re: Job Market?

it really depends on what industry you're in. When I threw my resume on monster and careerbuilder before I moved to Phoenix, the next day I got like 15 phone calls/e-mails about my resume. I ended up taking a job through another contact I knew personally, but had I gone through the online people I would have found something pretty fast.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Job Market?

I would say tweak your resume a bit. If you aren't getting any job offers, resumes are one of the most common problems. By the way, what type of work do you do?

I work for a text book publishing company, and I'm a product manager building the strategy behind our online course content that gets distributed into online course management systems for online learning. I've been with the company for almost 7 years, 6 years of that was in our support dept. providing training/product development/technical support for instructors. In about 4 months I'll have been in this position for a year with the same company. I think that I'm just getting tired of being with this company and the crap that goes on are some of my issues.

[the_future420]

Re: Job Market?

Try getting into the dope game. You don't need no resume there.














Seriously though, I would suggest tweaking your resume a bit. If you have an idea of what type of job you are looking for, tailor make your resume for that specific position. I know this sounds like common sense, but you'd be surprised how much of a difference a few subtle changes to your resume can make. Good Luck man.

[LowerWolf]

Re: Job Market?

Tweak the resume.

I had been looking for a couple of years. Of course, I was also looking to change careers, which made it a bit harder. Overhauled my resume in March. A few weeks later, I had several interviews lined up.

And now today is my last day at my current job. I start my new career a week from Monday.

[Dice]

Re: Job Market?

Tweak the resume.

I had been looking for a couple of years. Of course, I was also looking to change careers, which made it a bit harder. Overhauled my resume in March. A few weeks later, I had several interviews lined up.

And now today is my last day at my current job. I start my new career a week from Monday.

What did you do and what are you going to do?

[LowerWolf]

Re: Job Market?

What did you do and what are you going to do?

Going from newspaper to tech writing.

Won't be as exciting, but better hours, better pay and no more daily deadlines.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Job Market?

Tweak the resume.

I had been looking for a couple of years. Of course, I was also looking to change careers, which made it a bit harder. Overhauled my resume in March. A few weeks later, I had several interviews lined up.

And now today is my last day at my current job. I start my new career a week from Monday.

Going from newspaper to tech writing.

Won't be as exciting, but better hours, better pay and no more daily deadlines.

I'll tweak the resume, thanks for the advice.

Congrats on the new job.

[funky_chicken]

Re: Job Market?

A bunch of guys at my job are not having much luck trying to find jobs online either. You also have to realize there are so many people trying to fill the same limited positions. When companies downsize it just makes it that much more difficult to find a job since more people are thrown into the people for those limited jobs.

[dave360]

Re: Job Market?

I think the job market has definitely slowed a lot. I've applied for 3 or 4 positions the last few months and gotten interviews at all of them, but they either didn't offer the position to anyone or offered it to someone who'd take much less money.

[LowerWolf]

Re: Job Market?

Another suggestion: Network as much as possible. A lot of jobs never get advertised. My now-former company is looking to replace me, but they have yet to advertise the position anywhere and probably won't advertise it. And when they hired me a few years ago, it wasn't advertised then either.

It's actually a lot more likely you'll find something from someone you know than from a job board online.

If you have a company in mind where you would like to work, send them a resume even if they don't have any openings listed. You never know.

[dieselboy]

Re: Job Market?

Lowerwolf nailed it.

Monster, Careerbuilder, Craigslist, etc, all that can only do so much.

Networking is probably the best way to find a job.

[Lintyfresh85]

Re: Job Market?

from what I've seen it's been real slow. Out of college with my resume on Monster I've only gotten one interview so far in the month I've been searching... it's frustrating because I was really hoping to find a job quickly out of college, even if it was a lower paying one... but so far, no such luck.

[mjb2124]

Re: Job Market?

Networking is the best solution.

Tweaking your resume and cover letter is another good solution.

Don't overlook your cover letter. I had an OK cover letter for a long time and got a few phone calls here and there when I submitted a resume/cover letter, but not a ton. I'd venture to guess I'd get a call on 2 out of every 10 resumes/covers I sent out. I knew my resume was good so, I sat down and re-wrote my cover letter and now I get nearly 7 calls out of every 10 resumes/cover letters I send out. Just haven't made a move on any of them yet because I either haven't been offered the job, the commute wasn't what I wanted or the offer fell through during salary negotiations (I don't have to make a move right now so I'm in a position where I can essentially set my salary).