Thoughts on The Job Market

I’ve been taking stock of the current job market by talking to former colleagues, friends, relatives, and current classmates. It is without a doubt a very frustrating and challenging job market right now for the professional. For those out of work, the roles they are landing are more limited in scope and at a lower salary. They are also taking longer to land a new role, with many taking “bridge jobs” to pay the bills, as their unemployment insurance runs out. Some are even giving up entirely, opting to start a small business or consultancy as a way to generate some income, especially those in the later portion of their career timeline. What roles that are out there are what I call “lateral roles”, for example, management roles that require management experience or technical roles that require a very specific skill stack. You are not going to find much opportunity to stretch your skillset.

The environment also seems incredibly competitive. I’m being told that job seekers are tailoring application documents to game whatever recruiting system they’re applying so their résumé gets seen by a human. I’m hearing success rates, meaning at least landing a pre-screen interview, hovering around one in eight job applications, and I am hearing younger people are submitting applications in the hundreds. 

There also seems to be a “rug pull” on late round interviews more often than not, which are four or five layers deep, which can be completely devastating to the applicant. One acquaintance told me they reached the final round of an interview to find out they were closing the position altogether and not hiring anyone. Another time they were not chosen for a role they were more than qualified to fulfill and felt they had aced the interviews. They later went to LinkedIn and creep-peeped the person who landed the role (we’ve all done it) and realized that person had significantly less experience. And then the “ghosting”, which has always been prevalent when job hunting, but can be frustrating especially when you get into the interview process.

Much of this job market reminds me of the Great Recession. I had the undistinguished privilege of being out of work during that time. I had to spend two years contracting before I found something full-time again. When I did, it was less money and with less scope, and it took me several years to rebound. I did so by changing jobs every few years when the economy started rebounding, taking 10% pay bumps each time, which was exhausting, but necessary.

Back then, I remember a job interview in 2009/2010 where there were a dozen or more people waiting in the lobby with me, prepping for their interview time, all of us going for the same one role. It was like a casting call for a movie, except it was for a standard financial analyst role with a five year experience requirement. I lost that role to an out of work senior finance leader with twenty years of experience who was shifting down in an attempt to ensure they could cover their mortgage. The recruiter, with an inside scoop, told me it was unfortunate because the hiring firm told them they planned on using their deep expertise but would not scale up the role in terms of title or compensation. What a brutal experience for that person and the other hopeful applicants. I hope I never have to go through that again, but glad I did, because I know what it takes to get back on your feet, and it made me appreciate stability when I finally achieved it.