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Originally Posted by db2797
So you're only point in coming back into this thread is to "prove" the "respected" publication Forbes wrong by posting an opinion piece by one of our "local hacks" as you like to call them? You keep coming back to threads in a city you haven't lived in a decade and was in for only a few short years to inject as much negativity as you possibly can. I just don't get it.
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I lived in Rochester for 28 of my years, leaving at 32 for great opportunities, like many thousands of other Rochestarians.
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You seem to be completely missing the point here. So let me spell it out for you.
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Oh wise one,
please do.
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This Forbes article is a nice change from where you constantly read about how there are no jobs in Rochester by people not actually actively looking for jobs, or they are looking for 50,000 a year jobs which require no skills.
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...or they're people with technical educations and tech skills, maybe even mid-career types, who can't find even a decent job in Rochester. Plenty of those people running around, there, and they continue to vote with their feet. Or they're young people with solid educations who can't find even entry-level work, there, something that's been a major problem in Rochester for 25+ years.
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So it's nice change from that aspect. I don't believe the article to be true either. The same reason I don't believe the articles about how some of these other parts of the country are having phenomenal economic growth. Especially after looking at the census numbers. I now know that to be complete bologna.
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So an opinion piece by Forbes, based upon a questionable and biased poll, says Rochester is the top city for jobs growth, this summer? What a joke.
I feel bad for the people who read this stuff and believe it, especially the ones who will maybe relocate to Rochester, thinking there are jobs-a-planty in that town, when that's simply not the case.
At least once a year I test the job market there, more for pure entertainment, than anything else. I'll throw an anonymous resume up on a few high-traffic jobs boards, plus contact a few head hunters I know, as well as submit my resume directly to a few employers.
Without fail, for the last 4 years running, everyone who has contacted me after they find my anonymous resume, and the rest that I contact, say that many employers there would fall over themselves to hire me, or if I'm contacted directly they want to hire me. When it comes down to brass tacks, though, the opposite is true, when you actually speak with them over the phone, say before an interview.
I find it unprofessional that a company wants to know salary/pay requirements,
up front. This appears to be a new phenomena, even for Rochester, but right off the bat it appears that HR/PR hacks (you know, some of the folks polled by
Forbes 
), ask for salary requirements over the phone. No company I've interviewed with here in the South has done that. I tell them what I expect in pay, and some of them, over the phone, pause, then ask if I'd be "willing to negotiate". "No", I tell them, there's no negotiating on pay. I ask them if they offer any relocation assistance. We all know the answer to that, few companies there in town offer it to any people underneath upper management and exec positions.
So the Rochester economy will continue to circle the drain, and be behind the curve regarding cultivating, retaining, and attracting talent. If companies there continue to flatly refuse to offer competitive pay and benefits packages, then those companies will continue to whine that they 'can't find people', a lie which has been spun for at least 15 years, there. Here in Upstate, SC, I have the pick of the litter when it comes to talent, I can be choosy, even, when I go to hire somebody, and I don't rely on HR hacks to find said talent, either. One open position at work had 300+ applicants, from 7 or 8 different states. We ended up hiring a guy from Ohio.
One company in Rochester was all hot to trot to hire me (yeah, I lead them along
), then when I inquired about health bennies, the guy (who was terribly unprofessional, I might add), tells me their family plan has an $11,000 deductible. That told me right there why the position was open, the fact that this clown and his peers there didn't do due diligence to get their employees a cheaper health plan, speaks volumes about what kind of a company they must be to work for.
Another Rochester phenomenon revolves around hacks who were laid off from the likes of Kodak (amongst how many other companies), who are plugged in to positions of 'authority', yet who can't find their derriere with both hands. I worked under two such people, plus some other severe control freaks who didn't have what it takes to run departments, and it was a huge turn-off, going back 10-15 years. So it goes in that town, inbred companies,
quid pro quo, who-knows-who, etc. Nobody wants to work for businesses where there are cliques and severe forms of favoritism, but that's how things work in places like Rochester, where for many it's hard looking for a job, and so many companies are run off of a good old boy club mentality.
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Reading the actual data and not just people's opinions definitely paints a completely different picture. Rochester is stable right now. It's economic cellar was the late 90's to early 2000's. But it is interesting looking at the data and an unsustainable situation that I think the data proves. But something I've said before and I'm confident in, is that with Rochester's natural resources with water, some of the best surrounding farm land in the country and multiple technology/science colleges/universities, we will never permanently "decay". We may not grow in the near future like some of the fast growing parts of the country, but we are already dealing with the problems that these areas will ultimately also deal with. The question is will they be able to come out the other side as succesfully as Rochester has. 
