Job Hunt is at a Crawl at best! (Charlotte: home, college)

[miklaur]

We definitely want to make it clear to potential employers that although relo help would be appreciated, we are not looking for it at all.

We are just going to have to keep our noses to the grind stone. DH definitely has experience and skills on his side (like all other folks looking I am sure) we just have to believe the right job is out there for us with his skill set and qualifications.

[Khayla007]

Also try www.indeed.com I just typed in IT and 10 pages showed up. Indeed pulls from many different job sites.

[Mrs. P]

Originally Posted by mm_mary73

To coin a popular book title: "maybe they're just not into you". We are really fortunate to have a 4.3% (I think most current) unemployment rate. Summer is also slow time for hiring, plus all the community colleges (#at least 6) / universities (#5) in the Metro Charlotte / Unifour area are graduating newbies.... There are other areas and states that may benefit from your spouse's expertise. Good luck to you

Come to think of it I think you're right. When I started looking for a job it was in August, and it took me 4 weeks to even get one interview...I was stressing about it, but my mom said, wait mom, you'll see September after the kids are back in school, you'll find a job. And I did! Hated, it, and quit, and found another job, which is way better, and I love it.

I think it's stressful, to put a house up for sale, and come down to a place and not have a job waiting on you though. I was lucky and had family here to stay with, but it was stressful just the same, especially being over 50...a double whammy.

[miklaur]

Originally Posted by Khayla007

Also try www.indeed.com I just typed in IT and 10 pages showed up. Indeed pulls from many different job sites.

We will definitely check this out, thanks so much!

[miklaur]

We found indeed.com very interesting and helpful. We are reignited in our search. Thanks so much for the motivation everyone!

[thegeek74]

Originally Posted by miklaur

We found indeed.com very interesting and helpful. We are reignited in our search. Thanks so much for the motivation everyone!

Good luck with that! Out of curiousity, what exactly does your husband do in the IT field? PM me if you would like. My husband and I just moved here from Michigan a few months ago...he works for a great IT company, and they may have spots available. I just need to know what type of experience your husband has.

-Tracie

[MrConfigT]

I agree with everything Breezer has said. I've got some insight as well on the IT industry in the Charlotte area, and I can probably provide some local companies that would be a good place to start.

PM me the IT field and I'll let you know if I can help.

[berryjuice4life]

hey Mik,
Im so glad our dh's finally got together...lol..I hope your dh feels a little more positive, and remember keep up the hope as well as stay focused and keep that positive attitude....

[misfit]

My dh and I just moved to Charlotte 6 months ago from NJ (building in Fort Mill SC, so will be moving again in a few days) We decided to sell our house first, prior to dh getting a job, due to the horrible real estate market there (took us 9 months to sell)

Anyways, we moved without a job for my dh (I don't work). We had lots of equity from our home, so we were not worried about paying our bills. My dh ended up getting a job within 6-8 wks.

It is MUCH easier to get a job once living here. Most recruiters seem to want nothing to do with you unless you are here..

That being said, it depends on what your financial situation is!! Good Luck!!

[niknaxx]

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.

Although I'm in the legal field, there is a lot of competition here for jobs. People moving here, changing jobs, unemployed, graduating, etc. I looked for several weeks and decided to take a job that an old boss had been bugging me to come back to work for him. I finally caved at $10/hour less than I was making in Tampa, a 45.45% cut. From my research, legal secretaries actually make more here than Tampa! But this area is saturated with resumes and candidates looking for work and it easily drives down salaries.

So I figure something is better than nothing and it gives me a local reference and a rehire on my resume. Maybe I'll outlast the other two girls and he'll pay me more, or land something better in the meantime. He'd been bugging me to come back to work but I made it clear that he is a short term fix. I don't want him to think that he's my only option here. He may very well be for the moment but I will not concede that to him...