Job Hunt is at a Crawl at best! (Charlotte: for sale, real estate market)

[miklaur]

Thanks Staci

I know my dh and your dh have been playing a little phone tag. Thanks for the luck. We will take all we can get.

[JusSumGuy]

i would put my moving plans on hold until i had a job...i thought thats what most people did....till i came here.
as for the job search, they can be frustrating. My wife was very accomplished in her field of work and still had a hard time getting a job here. And it ended up being in a different industry

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by miklaur

The job hunt for my husband (IT field) is going so slowly it is terrible. People are so right about folks not even getting back to us. It is getting depressing! We don't know what to do as far as waiting out some of these recruiters (who aren't very good at returning calls) or do we just start sending his resume out on our own. We have avoided doing the monster.com, etc because we didn't want to look funny having a recruiter do the work and then hitting some of the same places on our own. Any advice? We are extremely stressed as we are getting ready to put our house on the market in 10 days. Thanks so much for all your input.

A wing, a prayer, and maybe even putting that you wouldn't require relocation expenses on your cover letter. The job market down here is oversaturated with people looking. I was never out of work more than 6 weeks in New Jersey. It took me five months of living down here to land a job back with Wachovia. I even tried getting work in retail, couldn't even get work in an area where I had 16+ years of experience in, including managerial.

For me it was terrible. I wasn't getting any callbacks and only had two interviews the whole time, one by phone and one in person. Oddly enough, I had three opportunities for work back in New Jersey in a few day span, all without really even trying. The only way I managed my way back into Wachovia was through a connection. I know of a few people who are currently having an extremely difficult time finding work as well. One of my co-worker's, her husband, who had years of banking experience, wound up driving limos for a living because he simply couldn't get a foot back in the door. Turns out he loves it but even so...

I found out today that when you apply for a job online, there's at least a thousand other people applying for that same job down here. I was also told that many recruiters use keywords to search for the "better" applicants. If your husband doesn't have that keyword in his resume then he's SOL no matter how qualified he may be. At least in banking, many times the requisition is already filled before it even gets placed online. By the time it hits online it's already been filled internally. The problem seems to be that this supposed great job market here either isn't nearly as great as some make it out to be. I'm sure it's for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is just the sheer amount of people coming down looking for that same job. There's no good time to be laid off, but after what I went through the prospect of being laid off in this state scares the hell out of me.

Unless you have a deep cash reserve do NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT come down here without a job. He'll find something eventually. He may have to settle for something different for when he gets down here and then look to upgrade, he may not. All I know is that his story is not unlike a lot of others.

[miklaur]

Originally Posted by BrianH1970

A wing, a prayer, and maybe even putting that you wouldn't require relocation expenses on your cover letter. The job market down here is oversaturated with people looking. I was never out of work more than 6 weeks in New Jersey. It took me five months of living down here to land a job back with Wachovia. I even tried getting work in retail, couldn't even get work in an area where I had 16+ years of experience in, including managerial.

For me it was terrible. I wasn't getting any callbacks and only had two interviews the whole time, one by phone and one in person. Oddly enough, I had three opportunities for work back in New Jersey in a few day span, all without really even trying. The only way I managed my way back into Wachovia was through a connection. I know of a few people who are currently having an extremely difficult time finding work as well. One of my co-worker's, her husband, who had years of banking experience, wound up driving limos for a living because he simply couldn't get a foot back in the door. Turns out he loves it but even so...

I found out today that when you apply for a job online, there's at least a thousand other people applying for that same job down here. I was also told that many recruiters use keywords to search for the "better" applicants. If your husband doesn't have that keyword in his resume then he's SOL no matter how qualified he may be. At least in banking, many times the requisition is already filled before it even gets placed online. By the time it hits online it's already been filled internally. The problem seems to be that this supposed great job market here either isn't nearly as great as some make it out to be. I'm sure it's for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is just the sheer amount of people coming down looking for that same job. There's no good time to be laid off, but after what I went through the prospect of being laid off in this state scares the hell out of me.

Unless you have a deep cash reserve do NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT come down here without a job. He'll find something eventually. He may have to settle for something different for when he gets down here and then look to upgrade, he may not. All I know is that his story is not unlike a lot of others.

Thanks for the personal perspective and sharing your experience. It is such a tough thing and more so because not only is our situation NOT UNIQUE, but there are thousands of others attempting the same thing at the same time.

[Breezer95]

I work here in Charlotte in IT and know many people in the field for all areas of the market. The best thing you can do is be aggressive and do not discount ANY method of trying to get a job. If you have not been using the online websites like monster.com or Career Builder... definitely start using them. If you are very serious about moving to Charlotte, pull no punches when it comes to hunting for a job. If you have the skills and experience, you will get a job.

As for the job market itself and saturation... my opinion of the IT market here is that it is ripe for anyone with the right qualifications with the ability to market themselves. There are very few sectors that may be tough... IT is a very broad category so it may be that his skills do not fit those needed here. That is rather unlikely if he has been working in any modern company of course. Just make sure he targets the right companies with the properly tailored resumes fit for their need. There could be a thousand resumes coming in for a job at one of the big banks for example... those without cover letters probably get axed immediately... those that are not tailored to the job are axed next... the pattern continues until they find what they want.

Every person I know who was qualified and had the right personality was hired for the job they wanted. They did their homework on the company, wrote great cover letters, called to follow up, nailed their interview... and got the job they wanted. I have seen this over and over again here with very little failure rate. What I mean is... if you take the proper steps and want the job bad enough... then go get it. If you are just throwing your resume out at at location without doing much more than that... it likely won't land you a job here. If you are competing for entry level positions... right now is probably a bad time due to the graduation market in May. There are a lot of variables to consider like the local address or proper cover letter that tend to land the next step. I am a firm believer that if you are qualified and make it to an interview, the job is yours if you want it. It is very rare that you get someone that simply sucks at the interview process so bad that you won't be able to woo them over.

Good luck in your hunting. If you need any advice on particular sectors of the IT market, I may have some further advice in the downtown area... entirely depends on the expertise of course.

[Patch2007]

We are also looking to move to Charlotte. I am from the South and desperately want to move back south.

My husband is also in the IT field and not one person has returned one of his phone calls Not even the headhunters. He has had 1 phone interview in a month and a half and nothing came of it. I know that it is frustrating but hang in there. A job will come. I do wonder if using a NC address would help?

Best Wishes

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by miklaur

Thanks for the personal perspective and sharing your experience. It is such a tough thing and more so because not only is our situation NOT UNIQUE, but there are thousands of others attempting the same thing at the same time.

Again, seriously, good luck to your husband. Believe me, I know what I went through, what a lot of others are going through, in order to land something. I had this wave of "shudder" when I was reading through these posts thinking, "Good lord I was there too".

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by Patch2007

We are also looking to move to Charlotte. I am from the South and desperately want to move back south.

My husband is also in the IT field and not one person has returned one of his phone calls Not even the headhunters. He has had 1 phone interview in a month and a half and nothing came of it. I know that it is frustrating but hang in there. A job will come. I do wonder if using a NC address would help?

Best Wishes

No, don't use a NC address if he currently doesn't have one. The best he can do is give a date that he knows he'll be absolutely be available by and that he won't require relocation expenses. If he finds something early he may have to move down for a short period of time until things are settled. Believe me, down here you do NOT want to pass up the opportunity. If you do, you have no clue as to when the next one'll pop up.

[Patch2007]

Thank you so much Brian. I am one of the last 2 out of my friends and extended family to move to Charlotte, so we are EXTREMELY eager to move.

My husband has made it VERY clear that we are not looking for relocation expenses and that he can be in Charlotte to work ASAP but so far nothing. All that we can do it wait and hope. Thank you again for the advice on not using a NC address.

[BrianH1970]

Originally Posted by Patch2007

Thank you so much Brian. I am one of the last 2 out of my friends and extended family to move to Charlotte, so we are EXTREMELY eager to move.

My husband has made it VERY clear that we are not looking for relocation expenses and that he can be in Charlotte to work ASAP but so far nothing. All that we can do it wait and hope. Thank you again for the advice on not using a NC address.

Unless he already has a NC address and a corresponding NC phone number (and is ready to move before you should something arise), don't do it. On top of everything else it's the best I can tell you. Then again, I was already here for months and still had immense difficulty just getting an interview. Either way, tons of luck. I was there so I know what y'all are going through and can sympathize immensely.