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Two years ago I was getting six figure job offers left and right, without even trying. Mind you I had been making six figures for years prior to that. But what is strange is for the past 8 months I've applied like crazy and have not found success as easy. Why? Is it because I'm going from a tech role to a management role? Is it because I was not initially tailoring my resume and when I did do tailoring toward the end (recently), I didn't do it well sometimes? Is it because I'm getting too old and they want someone in their 20's?
Two years ago I got an offer for 3/4 jobs I interviewed for. I barely had to apply to jobs to get interviews. I had only a bachelor's degree. Granted it was mostly tech positions, but I got some management offers too, though they were harder to come by.
Now I have a Master's degree from a popular state university and I'm having a hard time finding a management gig. I've started paying close attention to tailoring my resume recently, focusing on applying to maybe 5 jobs a day doing that instead of 20 a day not tailored.
I'm starting to wonder if it is just the time I was looking perhaps? I've noticed looking back over the least 17 years, I always had an easier time finding jobs in the spring/summer time than in the fall/winter time.
If I don't find something this summer, I may have to take a drastic pay cut (155K) to something in the 80-100K range just to make the transition. Much less competition for those lower paying jobs. I figure I may just need to do that for a year or two and then start moving to higher paying jobs again.
I get that it takes longer to find a higher paying job, heck when I made half as much it sometimes took six months for a job, and that was for technical roles! But I've been applying like crazy.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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When you have a lot of tech experience, you are in demand. Two years ago or now, that hasn't changed much. As a fresh MA with little management experience it's not the same. You are now competing with people who may or may not have that same advanced degree, but have the experience managing a department or at least supervising a work group, possibly for many years. Employers have finally started to realize that a great worker is not always a great manager, and a management track record means a lot in this new pool of applicants you have joined.
Every single day that passes companies are getting more and more picky. And MUST have the perfect candidate who meets every single little qualification they have listed. I applied to a company recently and met 99% of the qualifications and had an awesome interview and they even said they all loved me and would love to work with me, BUT, I wasn't trained in their internal/proprietary software so they are going with an internal candidate. Why the heck did you even interview met then? How was I supposed to gain access and training to your proprietary software having never worked for your company?
Every single day that passes companies are getting more and more picky. And MUST have the perfect candidate who meets every single little qualification they have listed. I applied to a company recently and met 99% of the qualifications and had an awesome interview and they even said they all loved me and would love to work with me, BUT, I wasn't trained in their internal/proprietary software so they are going with an internal candidate. Why the heck did you even interview met then? How was I supposed to gain access and training to your proprietary software having never worked for your company?
This exact thing happened to me quite a few times. Recently flown to New Hampshire, they called all my references, told me I was still in the running, only to find out they went with an internal candidate who knew their industry. While interviewing I was told they didn't care about that, they needed a leader and I had those qualities.
I think it's better to get job leads from family, friends, temp agencies and your local state career center because most employers prefer referrals from people they know instead of reading a resume from someone applying from the outside.
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