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I also completely agree with what Jukesgrrl and others have said above. Luckily, I moved here and was able to keep my job from California by working remotely at home. However, my husband is a hiring manager for a national automotive retail/wholesale company and goes through hundreds of resumes. Unless you're qualified to work as a professional in Healthcare, the U of A, or for the military, it seems most of the other jobs available are in the service industry.
He constantly complains at the quality of resumes that comes through the HR dept (through online submitting). There seems to be a lackadaisical attitude of work from many of the job-seekers he sees, since they can simply bounce from service job to service job.
Just offering a different perspective. If you're able to set yourself apart from others, I should think you'll do just fine - and even if you had to start at lower income bracket than what you're seeking, I'm hoping you can quickly move up. That is, if you decide to stick it out in Tucson. Good luck!
Just offering a different perspective. If you're able to set yourself apart from others, I should think you'll do just fine - and even if you had to start at lower income bracket than what you're seeking, I'm hoping you can quickly move up. That is, if you decide to stick it out in Tucson. Good luck!
Your post is directed at the OP, Annilyna but it is helpful to many of us.
As a back up, I am researching the Phoenix area and job market.
Here is an income demographic of Tucson (assuming it's accurate). Source is zillow, with the link at the bottom. I did not find a date.
Tucson Demographics
Population: 512,951
Tucson People Data Tucson National
Median Household Income: $30,981 $44,512
Single Males: 17.9% 14.6%
Single Females: 15.1% 12.5%
Median Age: 34 36
Homes With Kids: 26.6% 31.4%
Average Household Size: 2.4 2.6
Average Commute Time (Minutes): 23 26
Employees with bachelor's degrees who are willing to work for $12-$15/hour.
wow, spot on.
my wife has 4yr degree from a very good Univ, and a paralegal cert from a good place, for entry level for her local employers want like 8yrs experience + degrees with a ~$12/hr salary. what a joke.
its best to just not take a job like this, but, there are people who will, so the pay scale keeps sliding down.
We all have differing opinions, of course, and you'll see some great advice and not-so-great advice here and anywhere on the net. I think the best I saw in this whole thread was to just try something different. If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.
I am a Tucson hiring manager and actively filling a professional, office-based position at a good-sized (>1000 employees) company. You can take or leave any of my opinions because every hiring manager is different. But I'll share some observations, and please pardon the stream of consciousness approach.
I'm so deeply disappointed in the resumes I've seen. Deeply. HR does not filter them - I look at every single one. Part of that is me not being able to verbalize to them exactly what I'm looking for, which is a humbling fact to admit. I have a general idea, but I'm not perfect - I can admit that. Not every hiring manager will recognize that they don't know who the ideal candidate is until they see them. And part of that is that every time I post a job, even the same job a month or two apart, I get candidates with a different set of skills. I have to pick the best in the bunch, not necessarily the ideal. So yes, you might be hitting the HR black-hole. Are you on LinkedIn? Can you make a human connection (even a cyber-connection) with someone who works there? There's lots of advice on leveraging LinkedIn to get a job, advice on how to connect with recruiters, etc. Start there if you haven't already - it's worth a shot. If your recruiter or hiring manager doesn't use LinkedIn, no big deal - stick with the free membership for a while, and you haven't really lost anything.
I've seen people try to keep their resume to one-page and really short-change themselves. (A widely debated topic, I recognize, and I'm on the two-page side of the argument, particularly for experienced/mature job seekers.) A list of job titles doesn't show me *anything*. A regurgitated job description doesn't help either. A long, regurgitated job description from your job 18 years ago doesn't help. Minimize the jobs that aren't very relevant, keeping them to a bullet point or two, but keep them on there - employment gaps look suspicious. I am looking for specific skills and specific software experience (you can put them all into their own section to highlight them if you are in a very technical role) but other than a single high-level bullet of what your primary job responsibility was, I want to see *accomplishments*. What set you apart from your coworkers who are also regurgitating the same lines of a job description in their resume? What are you most proud of? Why would that employer want you back?
When I get a resume in Word format, I always turn on the Show/Hide paragraph mark thingie. (What's the real name for that? The button that shows spaces and carriage returns. I hope you know what I'm talking about...) Someone who tells me they are good at MS Word and then uses the space bar to line up their resume sections, I throw it out. Not only because I'm neurotic and have my own set of pet peeves, but because bragging about your MS Word skills when they are obviously not there shows me a lack of self-awareness. Anyone can open up MS Word and start typing, that doesn't mean it goes on your resume. If you are going to say you know MS Excel, give me specific examples. "Intermediate MS Excel including advanced formulas, pivot tables, conditional formatting"
A single typo will get your resume tossed because the roles I fill are require attention to detail. If you can't pay close attention to your resume, your first impression and perhaps your only chance to get an interview, then I can't be assured you will pay close attention on the job either. Sure, it sounds mean and perhaps unreasonable when I also frequently make typos, but remember I have a HUGE stack of resumes to go through - I have to use some criteria to start making decisions and whittling that stack down. That's the easiest one. You wouldn't go in to an interview with uncombed hair or spinach in your teeth (right? Right?!) Think of your resume as a paper "interview".
Job gaps are a huge problem. If you aren't working now, go volunteer somewhere meaningful and put it on your resume. It is harder to get a job when you are unemployed, because in the back of the hiring manager's mind they are wondering why no one else has snapped you up. That's a truth not everyone will admit. I have a resume on my desk from someone who has no work experience since 2008. Should I call her? Maybe she was home with the kids, maybe she was a missionary somewhere. There are a million good reasons that might be, but I have no idea. If her plan is to explain it in the interview... well I have a huge stack of resumes and she might not get that far.
Job hopping is a problem. Don't try to hide it by only putting the year you worked somewhere, because you aren't fooling anyone. Month and year for start date and end date, minimum.
I had a person come in who was, on paper, my last choice of the three I brought in. She almost didn't get an interview at all because she didn't have a degree (or so I thought) but of all the lousy resumes I saw, she was the third best. Turns out, she had a B.S. in a very relevant field. I asked her why it wasn't on her resume and she said that she was told people will assume you have a Bachelor's and if there's a question the hiring manager can ask in the interview. Not if I don't interview you because I don't know if you have one or not! I know people in this thread are saying to downplay your experience - in this particular case, it would have backfired big time. (She started last week and is doing awesome, btw!)
If you have an objective statement on your resume that is generic, just take it off. If I'm filling a widget-maker position at ABC Company and your objective is "to be a widget-maker at ABC Company", what is the point? You applied - I know that's your objective. It doesn't add value and uses up valuable real estate, especially if you are sticking to the one-page rule. Now, if you have a long history of widget-making but you want to become a magician for my company, then maybe an objective statement will help explain the industry-jump. But for the majority of people, an objective statement is a waste.
The last position I filled was a data entry/admin/"duties as assigned" role. Perhaps elsewhere in the country it would be considered entry-level (although we were paying $20/hr). Every person I interviewed had a college degree. I do worry about over-qualified candidates but I always bring it up in the interview, head-on, if I think someone may be overqualified. I want to know are they going for an entry-level, temp position because they want to get their foot in the door and knock my socks off so they can move up? That's awesome. I love that answer. You need to be honest in interviews and you have to hope and pray the manager is being honest too. Some jobs I hire for are less than glamorous - if I share those less-than-glamorous details it's because I don't want to waste my time bringing someone on board, taking the time to train them, and then having them quit because the job's not what they expected.
Well, I've shared lots of opinions and I hope they make sense. They are just opinions, and you know the saying about opinions... But I hope it gives some perspective to what I'm actually seeing here in Tucson. You can hop over to the Work forum if you want some other less-targeted advice.
I'm happy to take a look at your resume if you want to message me privately. I will let you know all the places where I would ask questions, either to potentially weed you out, or that I would ask in the interview. That offer stands for everyone located in Tucson. I will be honest, though, so prepare yourself! And not because *I* am perfect - far, FAR from it - but because if it's not working for you, you need an unbiased critique and a fresh set of eyes.
Yes, Tucson is a VERY tough place to get a professional job. If what you're doing now isn't working, try something different. Network and network properly!
We all have differing opinions, of course, and you'll see some great advice and not-so-great advice here and anywhere on the net. I think the best I saw in this whole thread was to just try something different. If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.
I am a Tucson hiring manager and actively filling a professional, office-based position at a good-sized (>1000 employees) company. You can take or leave any of my opinions because every hiring manager is different. But I'll share some observations, and please pardon the stream of consciousness approach.
I'm so deeply disappointed in the resumes I've seen. Deeply. HR does not filter them - I look at every single one. Part of that is me not being able to verbalize to them exactly what I'm looking for, which is a humbling fact to admit. I have a general idea, but I'm not perfect - I can admit that. Not every hiring manager will recognize that they don't know who the ideal candidate is until they see them. And part of that is that every time I post a job, even the same job a month or two apart, I get candidates with a different set of skills. I have to pick the best in the bunch, not necessarily the ideal. So yes, you might be hitting the HR black-hole. Are you on LinkedIn? Can you make a human connection (even a cyber-connection) with someone who works there? There's lots of advice on leveraging LinkedIn to get a job, advice on how to connect with recruiters, etc. Start there if you haven't already - it's worth a shot. If your recruiter or hiring manager doesn't use LinkedIn, no big deal - stick with the free membership for a while, and you haven't really lost anything.
I've seen people try to keep their resume to one-page and really short-change themselves. (A widely debated topic, I recognize, and I'm on the two-page side of the argument, particularly for experienced/mature job seekers.) A list of job titles doesn't show me *anything*. A regurgitated job description doesn't help either. A long, regurgitated job description from your job 18 years ago doesn't help. Minimize the jobs that aren't very relevant, keeping them to a bullet point or two, but keep them on there - employment gaps look suspicious. I am looking for specific skills and specific software experience (you can put them all into their own section to highlight them if you are in a very technical role) but other than a single high-level bullet of what your primary job responsibility was, I want to see *accomplishments*. What set you apart from your coworkers who are also regurgitating the same lines of a job description in their resume? What are you most proud of? Why would that employer want you back?
When I get a resume in Word format, I always turn on the Show/Hide paragraph mark thingie. (What's the real name for that? The button that shows spaces and carriage returns. I hope you know what I'm talking about...) Someone who tells me they are good at MS Word and then uses the space bar to line up their resume sections, I throw it out. Not only because I'm neurotic and have my own set of pet peeves, but because bragging about your MS Word skills when they are obviously not there shows me a lack of self-awareness. Anyone can open up MS Word and start typing, that doesn't mean it goes on your resume. If you are going to say you know MS Excel, give me specific examples. "Intermediate MS Excel including advanced formulas, pivot tables, conditional formatting"
A single typo will get your resume tossed because the roles I fill are require attention to detail. If you can't pay close attention to your resume, your first impression and perhaps your only chance to get an interview, then I can't be assured you will pay close attention on the job either. Sure, it sounds mean and perhaps unreasonable when I also frequently make typos, but remember I have a HUGE stack of resumes to go through - I have to use some criteria to start making decisions and whittling that stack down. That's the easiest one. You wouldn't go in to an interview with uncombed hair or spinach in your teeth (right? Right?!) Think of your resume as a paper "interview".
Job gaps are a huge problem. If you aren't working now, go volunteer somewhere meaningful and put it on your resume. It is harder to get a job when you are unemployed, because in the back of the hiring manager's mind they are wondering why no one else has snapped you up. That's a truth not everyone will admit. I have a resume on my desk from someone who has no work experience since 2008. Should I call her? Maybe she was home with the kids, maybe she was a missionary somewhere. There are a million good reasons that might be, but I have no idea. If her plan is to explain it in the interview... well I have a huge stack of resumes and she might not get that far.
Job hopping is a problem. Don't try to hide it by only putting the year you worked somewhere, because you aren't fooling anyone. Month and year for start date and end date, minimum.
I had a person come in who was, on paper, my last choice of the three I brought in. She almost didn't get an interview at all because she didn't have a degree (or so I thought) but of all the lousy resumes I saw, she was the third best. Turns out, she had a B.S. in a very relevant field. I asked her why it wasn't on her resume and she said that she was told people will assume you have a Bachelor's and if there's a question the hiring manager can ask in the interview. Not if I don't interview you because I don't know if you have one or not! I know people in this thread are saying to downplay your experience - in this particular case, it would have backfired big time. (She started last week and is doing awesome, btw!)
If you have an objective statement on your resume that is generic, just take it off. If I'm filling a widget-maker position at ABC Company and your objective is "to be a widget-maker at ABC Company", what is the point? You applied - I know that's your objective. It doesn't add value and uses up valuable real estate, especially if you are sticking to the one-page rule. Now, if you have a long history of widget-making but you want to become a magician for my company, then maybe an objective statement will help explain the industry-jump. But for the majority of people, an objective statement is a waste.
The last position I filled was a data entry/admin/"duties as assigned" role. Perhaps elsewhere in the country it would be considered entry-level (although we were paying $20/hr). Every person I interviewed had a college degree. I do worry about over-qualified candidates but I always bring it up in the interview, head-on, if I think someone may be overqualified. I want to know are they going for an entry-level, temp position because they want to get their foot in the door and knock my socks off so they can move up? That's awesome. I love that answer. You need to be honest in interviews and you have to hope and pray the manager is being honest too. Some jobs I hire for are less than glamorous - if I share those less-than-glamorous details it's because I don't want to waste my time bringing someone on board, taking the time to train them, and then having them quit because the job's not what they expected.
Well, I've shared lots of opinions and I hope they make sense. They are just opinions, and you know the saying about opinions... But I hope it gives some perspective to what I'm actually seeing here in Tucson. You can hop over to the Work forum if you want some other less-targeted advice.
I'm happy to take a look at your resume if you want to message me privately. I will let you know all the places where I would ask questions, either to potentially weed you out, or that I would ask in the interview. That offer stands for everyone located in Tucson. I will be honest, though, so prepare yourself! And not because *I* am perfect - far, FAR from it - but because if it's not working for you, you need an unbiased critique and a fresh set of eyes.
Yes, Tucson is a VERY tough place to get a professional job. If what you're doing now isn't working, try something different. Network and network properly!
Best of luck to you.
Excellent yellowbelle, Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough post. I am sure it could be helpful to many. You did make one typo though! Seriously though, lots of excellent advice from someone in the field.
I am a Tucson hiring manager and actively filling a professional, office-based position at a good-sized (>1000 employees) company. You can take or leave any of my opinions because every hiring manager is different. But I'll share some observations, and please pardon the stream of consciousness approach.
Yes, Tucson is a VERY tough place to get a professional job. If what you're doing now isn't working, try something different. Network and network properly!
Raytheon or Geico? who else in Tucson runs a 1000+ employee business?
what are the qualifications for your position, whats the pay and benefits?
network with who? Tucson offers very little in the way of jobs and networking. networking is not useful unless it yields an opportunity that has better pay and benefits for the same skill set.
Excellent yellowbelle, Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough post. I am sure it could be helpful to many. You did make one typo though! Seriously though, lots of excellent advice from someone in the field.
LOL, I know, right? Right in the paragraph about typos. You'd think I was being ironic. But I was not.
Raytheon or Geico? who else in Tucson runs a 1000+ employee business?
what are the qualifications for your position, whats the pay and benefits?
network with who? Tucson offers very little in the way of jobs and networking. networking is not useful unless it yields an opportunity that has better pay and benefits for the same skill set.
Who have you tried networking with? Everything from LinkedIn to homeowner's association meetings to hiking clubs present networking opportunities. I'm not talking about going into a big career fair and swapping business cards. Informal networking opportunities are all around you, putting it out there that you're looking for a position in a particular field. You could know someone who knows someone who knows someone...
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But I hope it gives some perspective to what I'm actually seeing here in Tucson. You can hop over to the Work forum if you want some other less-targeted advice.
Seriously though, lots of excellent advice from someone in the field.
