Job Hunt is at a Crawl at best! (Charlotte: house, unemployment rate)

[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.

[Markh]

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.

Have you guys purchased down here yet? If you have, use your new address on your correspondence. Otherwise I found it to be tricky since nobody wants to take the time to talk to someone who 'might' move to the area. Good Luck.

[neoflex]

I say do it on your own IMHO. I have found with my own experiences in the past that when I have used recruiters and searched on my own at the same time that I always landed a job on my own before they even came close with anything for me. They were great at finding me the temporary short term gigs that were for 2-5 days but never came through with the contract to hire or full time positions. Granted this was in the NY market but I am sure it's the same all over. The other reason is that who cares more about finding you a job than yourself?
I see a ton of IT spots listed on Career builder everyday so I am sure if your husband floods the job boards with his resume something will come along. I have been complaining to my wife lately that I wish I got more involved with IT because of all the jobs I see posted, and most times the pay scale that they are offering are pretty attractive too.

[sheena]

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.

Don't wait for these recruiters most of them are scamming you when they say they have jobs. They make you come in for nothing. Then they take your resume and try to market it and then they never call you back. I'm not saying don't use them but use every resource you have and don't waste a minute. Use Monster and Career builder also. Yes this place is horrible for return calls.

[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

[catonc]

Originally Posted by Markh

Have you guys purchased down here yet? If you have, use your new address on your correspondence. Otherwise I found it to be tricky since nobody wants to take the time to talk to someone who 'might' move to the area. Good Luck.

ITA!!! My dh used our CA address for a long time and didn't get any leads. We changed it to our NC address and bought cell phones with NC phone numbers. Within 2 weeks he had 5 leads.

[ellemaew]

Definitely use the boards like Monster.com, Career Builder.com. I applied for quite a few jobs off of Career Builder.com, starting in November with a cover letter stating that I would be living in Charlotte as of February 1. Still to this day I have not received a call from a single one of them. Ironically, a recruiter saw my resume on Monster.com and called me with 2 possible opportunities 3 weeks after I moved to Charlotte. The first one hired me less than a week later. (this is the second job I've gotten from a resume posted on Monster.com, and starting with a recruiter).

[miklaur]

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

Why would I look at other areas or states when Charlotte is where we want to live? Did I miss something?

[miklaur]

Thanks to those of you for your advice and words of encouragement. Most of the comments were very pleasant and helpful and we really appreciate it.

[berryjuice4life]

Originally Posted by miklaur

Thanks to those of you for your advice and words of encouragement. Most of the comments were very pleasant and helpful and we really appreciate it.

Hey Laurie dh did it all on his own for months using career builder, sixfigurejobs.com Monster and hotjobs.com

He mainly got called from 3 out of 4....good luck