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It's simple supply and demand economics. There's more qualified and experienced workers than there are jobs right now, even in specialized fields like finance and healthcare, so naturally this will drag wages down.
My advice would be to not fore-go a decent full-time job that paid $40k in the hopes that a $50k job will come along sometime soon (as an example). From experience, this is a foolish move, and really playing with fire in a labor market like this. Worst case scenario is you get desperate a couple months down the line and end up taking a lower paying job anyway (that you could have had today/now and been making money at), which is a crumby feeling.
I'm currently on a temp assignment that pays in the mid-20s. Most of my assignments pay no less than $17/hr. I really need the flexibility and days off to interview and run errands, so this is just what works for me for now. I live below my means, have a supportive fiance/savings account and am over my head busy with interviews/applying/working as of now..plus, I have tons of doc appts. Gotta take care of my health before insurance runs out..I turn 26 in less than 3 months! Yikes
Times have changed and it'll continue to change. Right now supply is more than enough to satisfy the demand hence crappy pays but it all depends in industry. While it's easy to say that finance industry is recovered doing well, blah blah, it actually isn't doing the best or recovering well as others and still hurting. Plus finance industry have changed up their employment process quite a bit in recent years since the 2007/2008 and use interns very heavily, more so than before to fill their ranks to do grunt work that typically would have been done by entry level (fresh out of college) hires. Many companies will now give take on new folks on cheap and in return promise them with potential raises/bonuses. Honestly you never know but it's what you take chances with in hopes that company does pull through on their end.
Majority of companies have changed their attitude about perm employees vs. consultants too. What I mean by that is typically companies would have looked to see if the individual would be worth investing their time and money into for long run that they can possibly grow to fill the needs of upper ranks or more critical skills. Now they don't use as many and fill that role with consultants because it's cheap on short-run. Don't gotta pay overhead for administrative costs, health costs, and you don't have to keep them around, train, mentor them, etc. Once contract is over or before contract is over, you can show them the door and kick them out.
Anyway, all in all if you think the company you are getting into does reward the employees financially and you believe you are capable of being success story for the company. Go for it. If not, then don't. Personally if I was in my early or mid 20s and was opportunity to work as say top of line companies for lowball pay. I would gladly do so because if I'm good, I work hard, it'll pay off in long run because of upside potential in experience and money. It's pretty norm for people to grind and work their butt off in NYC for lower standard of living and after gaining some experience or lot of experience. Moving out to other cheaper to live locations for similar pay for hellulva lot of improvement in living standard.
Personally I'd recommend you look at things in big pictures in long term because time goes by so fast and time is one commodity we can't gain more of. Especially in NYC...
......I must have bumped my head. Are we living in NYC or Bumblefunk, Louisiana? The last time I checked, it costs $1,500 to rent a decent one-bedroom in Brooklyn.
I've been looking on Craigslist, Monster and the likes. I see MANY positions that require extensive experience AND a Bachelors degre. They're paying an average of $35,000/year. WHAT?!?!?!?! I repeat, THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE A 4-year degree!!!
I am not sure about you guys, but I'm hardballing it and waiting for something that pays at least $50,000/year. I know I didn't go to college to be eating Top Ramen for the rest of my life. Employers CAN afford to pay a few more thousand a year, but with so many people coming to NYC in search of their "dream" and "lots of jobs & money", I guess they have the upperhand on us, huh? (Give it a few more business quarters. Things ARE improving and this *hopefully* should NOT last for long...knock on wood.)
Am I being unreasonable to want $50,000/year???? I prefer not to mess up my resume and job hop, so holding off seems like the responsible thing for me to do. I'm taking temp jobs at the moment for flexibility to interview. Of course you get soooo many interviewers asking why you have been temping the last 2 years. I have had to explain to them, a million times, that I went back to college full-time. Besides that, are they TOTALLY unaware that we're in the midst of one of the worst recessions of the century???? I know MANY who have been unemployed for over a year.
Feedback? How's your job search going and what is the minimum salary you're willing to accept? How do you feel about things here in NYC? How much do you feel one has to make in order to live comfortably?
I say it takes a reasonable 50k/year, unless you're in a relationship and have a partner that is making an equally good salary as well. Even on 50k, you'll be able to pay the bills and have some fun, but you won't be putting much in your savings account at the end of the day. Retirement looks like it will be happening, for me, when I'm 95, if these NYC employers don't stop being a bunch of cheapskates.
You really need a good recruiter. I get asked all the time if I know someone who is looking since I'm not in the business any more. My friend's company, where I used to work, has been sending out emails asking for employee referrals. And you need a recruiter with good contacts or someone who works there to tell you all the little nooks and crannies.
People are hiring again, but I think you need to really tailor your resume and cover letter for individual jobs. I'm not saying to lie because that will come out and you will be disqualified. When you submit your resume via internet to a random company, they only know you by your resume and cover letter. Most of the time, they don't even make it to the hiring manager. And the person screening resumes might not even have good knowledge of the role for which s/he is recruiting.
In my previous experience as a candidate and as someone who was in a position to hire support staff, there are so many little things on resumes that got picked over. I'm not talking about obvious stuff like typos. Everyone hates those. But I actually got grilled during an interview for an EA position because I had volunteer ESL teaching on my resume. It was under Other on my resume and I actually included it because I was grilled by a non-profit that valued experience other than the corporate experience I had. I kept it on thinking it would make me look well-rounded. The interviewer said the executive assistant position was open because the old assistant went back to school to get her MBA and wanted to pursue something else so they wanted to make sure I would be in it for the long haul. I kept saying it is VOLUNTEER work. So if I volunteered in a soup kitchen, would they be thinking I was going to leave to be a chef?
We once had a candidate who had a graduate degree in social work and the hiring managers were worried that she wanted to be a social worker. I could see from her resume that she had never actually practiced social work. She started doing admin work in college so she had experience but she chose a different path. I think she was just looking for a good job where she could make some $ and pay off her loans.
If she had come through a recruiter, her resume probably would have been submitted with a blurb to explain her situation.
Times have changed and it'll continue to change. Right now supply is more than enough to satisfy the demand hence crappy pays but it all depends in industry. While it's easy to say that finance industry is recovered doing well, blah blah, it actually isn't doing the best or recovering well as others and still hurting. Plus finance industry have changed up their employment process quite a bit in recent years since the 2007/2008 and use interns very heavily, more so than before to fill their ranks to do grunt work that typically would have been done by entry level (fresh out of college) hires. Many companies will now give take on new folks on cheap and in return promise them with potential raises/bonuses. Honestly you never know but it's what you take chances with in hopes that company does pull through on their end.
Majority of companies have changed their attitude about perm employees vs. consultants too. What I mean by that is typically companies would have looked to see if the individual would be worth investing their time and money into for long run that they can possibly grow to fill the needs of upper ranks or more critical skills. Now they don't use as many and fill that role with consultants because it's cheap on short-run. Don't gotta pay overhead for administrative costs, health costs, and you don't have to keep them around, train, mentor them, etc. Once contract is over or before contract is over, you can show them the door and kick them out.
Anyway, all in all if you think the company you are getting into does reward the employees financially and you believe you are capable of being success story for the company. Go for it. If not, then don't. Personally if I was in my early or mid 20s and was opportunity to work as say top of line companies for lowball pay. I would gladly do so because if I'm good, I work hard, it'll pay off in long run because of upside potential in experience and money. It's pretty norm for people to grind and work their butt off in NYC for lower standard of living and after gaining some experience or lot of experience. Moving out to other cheaper to live locations for similar pay for hellulva lot of improvement in living standard.
Personally I'd recommend you look at things in big pictures in long term because time goes by so fast and time is one commodity we can't gain more of. Especially in NYC...
Good points. A little over 10 years ago I switched careers and took a pay cut to take a job that started at under 40,00/yr... and I had a bachelors and 2 masters degrees ! Things were not really much different then and many people thought it was crazy for someone(me) with 2 masters degrees to work for that amount. I have no regrets about my decision.The big picture is all important.
......I must have bumped my head. Are we living in NYC or Bumblefunk, Louisiana? The last time I checked, it costs $1,500 to rent a decent one-bedroom in Brooklyn.
As someone from "Bumblefunk", Louisiana I resent this.
The constant demand of new people wanting to live here has driven many greedy people (landlords) to chase greater profits for their apartments.....why. Because they know that the demand to live here will always mean that they will have a steady stream of tenants to rent their apartments. The price to live in this city has always meant that companies (in most cases) had to pay an employee according to the outrageously high cost of living in this city.
Unfortunately now there are thousands of people out of work for every one job opening so they know that desperation will cause people to accept a much lower salary. I have asked a few times on different threads discussing this same topic......why are there so many people (many who were not born here) who behave like NYC is the only place on earth they can live? Just basic economics....if the demand to live here goes down so will the prices.
My heart goes out to all the folks out there, struggling to make it in the city. It's definitely the conditions and this recession will take a good 5 to 10 years to reverse.
The metrics are out there in the housing market, it's heading for the rock bottom and it's been a gradual decline. Pundits keeps speaking about bottoming in 2013/2014, which means the downtrend is going to be prolonging and won't be quick. Housing is key to an economy.
Why don't some of you move out of the area? Some states seem to have been recovering faster. I recommended CO to someone and he's been living great since. One can actually get richer in other states, rather than struggling here with tools who tend to exploit the unemployed workforce. Just saying...
I been out of college for 3 years now. But luckily I had a full time since sophmore year college. Unless you're lucky or had a job before the economy tanked, its very hard to get a nice decent paying job. A lot of my friends are in really ****ty jobs. Some jobs require a grad degree paying like 30k.
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headhunter
Good points. A little over 10 years ago I switched careers and took a pay cut to take a job that started at under 40,00/yr... and I had a bachelors and 2 masters degrees ! Things were not really much different then and many people thought it was crazy for someone(me) with 2 masters degrees to work for that amount. I have no regrets about my decision.The big picture is all important.
