The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5) - Is the job market still tight? I've gotten 4 calls

Is the job market still tight? I've gotten 4 calls

Hey Guys,

I'm currently employed and plan on staying with my current employer unless an absolutely amazing job comes my way.

But I've received 4 calls for interviews in the last 2 months.

Has anyone else had an increase of interest from recruiters?

-michael.

michael sica (michaelsica.com)
Thursday, April 29, 2004

That is interesting. Any idea why they decided to call you? Have you been sending out resumes? Posting it to job boards? They have to get your name and number somehow.

When I was unemployed late last year I was sending out resumes and posting every week for months, but only got one interview (and a job, (a contract job) fortunately).

I did get a letter a few days ago from a company looking for engineers and asking me to check out the openings on their web site. Not personal, just a letter sent out to some list. Probably IEEE, but I don't know. [argoneng.com if anyone wants to know].

mackinac
Thursday, April 29, 2004

How much and what kind of experience do you have Michael? Where are you located? Who and how many contacts do you have?

It's these things that make a difference. Since you don't tell us these things your statement about recieving 4 calls doesn't hold much weight. I'd suspect that you have at least several years of experience with a fairly decent network of friends and that you are located in a "good" area.

If you're not entry level then of course things may look better for you, but for an entry level person it is still tough to find and obtain a position.

anon
Thursday, April 29, 2004

I probably should add that even for folks with experience it is still tough to find a position.

anon
Thursday, April 29, 2004

> How much and what kind of experience do you have
> Michael? Where are you located? Who and how many
> contacts do you have?

Some of this info is posted on his resume which is on his website...

grunt
Thursday, April 29, 2004

Recruiters focus on people who are currently employed because there's less risk for them (the recruiters). Also anyone who participates in online forums in interesting ways will come to the attention of the leeches.

A few phone calls received by one or a few people is not a valid pointer to the state of the market.

Thursday, April 29, 2004

The job market is still tight, just not as bad as it was a year or two ago.

A number of people from my company resigned to take up jobs at other companies. That's something that was not happening a year ago.

T. Norman
Friday, April 30, 2004

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_19/b3882039.htm

NoName
Friday, April 30, 2004

I lost my job back on Nov 13th. By Thanksgiving, I had 4 interviews and I started my new job on Dec 15th.

There were two months with nothing and then in mid-Feb, I get 4 calls in two weeks. This is in addition to doing some side contracting

I'm becoming more and convinced that most of the slowness of the job market is due to incompetent recruiters who A) wait forever to contact someone or B) don't match candidates to positions very well which just annoys the potential employer and employee.

My 0.02

KC
Friday, April 30, 2004

I too have noticed an increase in jobs. I am in S. Florida, with 5 years development experience. I keep my resume up to date on some of the major job boards as a job market litmus test and over the past 3 years not one call until about 6 months ago, a random recruiter called. But in the last two weeks, two more unsolicited recruiters have called.

I strongly disagree with the statement that the weak job market is the recruiter's fault. Seriously, there have been close to zero on average jobs being listed in IT at least in S. Florida since the end of 2001. There have been some, but now we are just begginning to see any significant numbers being posted. I am optimistically hopeful that this is just the begginning of a surge in the number of IT jobs. We are overdue.

Seeker
Friday, April 30, 2004

Oh, sorry. Here's some more details.

I keep my resume posted on monster.com, but I don't apply for anything. I've recently added my Project Coordinator title to the resume.

1 call was for a Project Manager/Producer with a really big company, but it was a contract with possible hire and I wasn't thrilled with the job description. 2 were for Coldfusion/Web programming jobs, and I'm not sure what the 4th's for.

I'm located in Orlando, Florida.

It's just weird that my resume has been up for a long time with no calls, now 4 in 2 months.

michael sica (michaelsica.com)
Friday, April 30, 2004

When you update your monster.com resume, that causes it to be seen by more people: because people filter, saying "show me resumes which have been updated in the last x days".

Christopher Wells
Friday, April 30, 2004

I was laid off back in 2001. At the time I got my resume in most of the local (Portland, OR) recruiter's databases.

Fast forward to yesterday: I get a call from an agent of one of those companies out of the blue asking if I'm available. That wasn't the first one, either; I've also gotten a couple other phone calls and an email or two in the last six months.

So I think things are starting to loosen up. It's still not like the boom, but we're not at the bottom anymore.

Chris Tavares
Friday, April 30, 2004

I'm also seeing this happening.

During the last 6 months, I would guess that I've gotten 2-3 e-mail messages a month, all from recruiters, and mostly from local recruiters who still have my resume on file (some pull it off my web site, but I plainly note on my web resume that I'm not looking for work).

Prior to that, it was pretty much nothing... just an occasional random one. When I was looking for work in late 2001, it took me 5 months to find it.

So, yeah, I'd say things are loosening up when the local recruiters are digging through resumes that are 3 years old, trying to fill positions.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Saturday, May 1, 2004

It is getting crazy in my metro area, Salt Lake City. I've had 7 interviews in the last 3 weeks. I have 3 more lined up for next week. One of those 3 interviews, I'm getting flown to Denver. Companies are taking a loooong time to get back after interviews though. Those that have answered are still trying lowball the salary, or doing the stock option/part ownership crap.

My skillset is not out of the ordinary (at least to me). My bag of skills is all Microsoft stuff; VB6, VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Winsock, and XML. I have 6 years experience doing Desktop/Network/System Administration, and 6 years Programming/DBA work.

Slartibartfast
Saturday, May 1, 2004