Anyone actually been HIRED in the last 3-6 months?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Just curious.

Seems to me there are still a lot of "help wanted" ads out there and I know of several folks who have gotten called for interviews, but nobody that's actually been hired anywhere. I wonder if HR departments are just trying to build a pool of prospects "just in case", or possibly to make themselves seem relevant to beancounters in this era of "downsizing".

Anyone? Did you get the same pay & benefits or did you have to take a cut? How long did it take you? Just curious.

[TimT]

I was called by my supervisor... and told there was a position available if I wanted it..

My commute would increase from 30 miles one way to 38 miles one way..

same pay.. but in that 16 mile commute increase.. the is a toll... $14

[varmint]

HR is trying to look busy so management won't notice what a bunch of loads they are.


i'm getting a lot of freelance stuff. apples to oranges compared to a real job.

[BLEW911]

I found another job the same day I was laid off. $3 less/hour and NO benefits. I took it and I look every day for a better one. A paycheck is still better than an unemployment check. That was in September and I'm still looking.

Don

[lyon]

http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=84596_0_23_0_C

An interesting article regarding the current woes of the architectural profession.

[GDSOB]

We have a new sales/estimator starting tomorrow. I've got a pile of work for him to quote as some of our competition is not getting it done.

[Laneco]

I left my previous employer at the very end of July. I had been offered a couple of positions that suited my odd little skill set in the last month with the old employer and the first month with the new one.

I knew that I absolutely HAD to leave the old employer... But the new one feels like walking on egg shells every day. Between being the "new employee" and the current state of the economy it is very easy to picture getting the axe at any moment.

Most hiring positions have been frozen. It is as if everyone is holding their breathe and waiting for whatever may come next...

angela

[austin552]

No.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by BLEW911

I found another job the same day I was laid off. $3 less/hour and NO benefits. I took it and I look every day for a better one. A paycheck is still better than an unemployment check. That was in September and I'm still looking.

Don

That's not a very American thing to do

[legion]

We just let a contractor go on Friday due to their financial problems. (Rumor was they could not make their payroll and we needed to get them out of there before their disgruntled employees started looking for ways to make quick money.) One way or another (through contractors or direct hires), we're going to need 500 - 1000 people to take over their work ASAP.

[dd74]

Yes, but freelance. The pay in most cases is a joke.

[nostatic]

We're waiting for final word on a contract and once that comes we'll be hiring a couple of artists and programmers. While there is an official hiring freeze funded projects are exempt.

[jeffgrant]

I've been effectively out of work for almost 6 months, but within the last 3 days have been given the green light on 2 rather large contracts for various Government agencies. In both cases it's because other companies have dropped the ball on the projects by using very substandard personnel and producing crap.

I'll be looking to hire a handful of developers for about 8-12 months of work, at excellent rates.

[dd74]

Originally Posted by jeffgrant

I've been effectively out of work for almost 6 months, but within the last 3 days have been given the green light on 2 rather large contracts for various Government agencies. In both cases it's because other companies have dropped the ball on the projects by using very substandard personnel and producing crap.

I'll be looking to hire a handful of developers for about 8-12 months of work, at excellent rates.

Canadian government, correct? It's not surprising Canada is feeling the pinch just as we.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The downside of the CA unemployment system is that it's completely antithetical to finding work. It basically works like this:

You take your previous year, and whichever quarter you earned the most becomes the basis of your state payout. In most cases this comes out to be about half of what you made on a month-by-month basis. So if you earned $9k one quarter last year, that comes out to $3k a month, your benefit will be somewhere around $1500 - give or take. There's a cap to this too - at most you'll stand to get $1800 monthly regardless of how well you did in excess of the cutoff.

So far so good, right? Well here's where it gets a bit screwy: If you then go out and get a part-time job or whatever, the amount you earn gets chopped right off what you get through state UI (except for a tiny "exempt" amount - $25 per week I think). So using the previous example of the guy who stands to collect $1500 monthly, if he goes out and tries to do the industrious thing and gets a P/T job (with no benefits, incidentally) for 20-30 hours a week at $10 an hour, he'll make roughly $250 a week (give or take) or $1,000 a month. The state will reward this industriousness by simply lopping $900 off his UI benefit ($25 per week is exempt) meaning he's now gotten a paycheck for $1000 from working and a UI check for $600. But he's also given up his time in order to go work and it's probably taken time away from his family or from looking for another, better job. Where's the incentive for people to work?

This is simply illogical. In order for it to be worth someone's time to go get a part time job and feel the sense of accomplishment that goes along with it rather than simply collecting an unemployment check, the amount they need to earn needs to be SIGNIFICANTLY more than they'd make off of state UI. Otherwise there's really no incentive, since the state just "takes" it anyway. It's a complete disincentive for people to go work part-time jobs.

The ONE potential upside to this is that it discourages highly-trained, highly-educated people from "settling" and taking crap jobs. It encourages them to stay home and (hopefully) to push for and/or look for jobs in their field which hopefully will put them in a position where they'll earn way more than they'd make either on state UI or working some McJob part-time someplace.

The system is whack, but that's how it works.

[Sarc]

Negative. Nothing but tumbleweeds over here in Detroit. Had an interview last month with a firm and was told that the job is mine *once* the work develops. The gig however is still in retail design so I'm not holding my breath.
This interview was unique in that they contacted me after they heard I was let go. I have yet to land an interview with a firm that I sent my CV to.

So for now my illustrating pays some bills. But the time is drawing near to consider a career change.

[Joe Bob]

The want ads in my home town have slimmed down to 2 pages. I wouldn't leave a job now unless it was a contract with a buy out clause placed in escrow.....

[UconnTim97]

I have been assured that our Bureau is hiring four new chemists this year.
We have the approval since we have been qualified as essential and those positions are actually replacing retirees and the like. In this political climate, I don't see that actually happening. The four new chemists are needed, but I don't see the salaries getting justified when the city is crying that they are broke.
Unfortunately, crime increases in poor economic times.....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea, retail architecture is dead as a doornail. I'm kinda' miffed at my former boss for pooh-poohing my concerns about it a year or so ago. I brought up the fact that (I felt) we were overly dependent on retail clients that were sooner or later going to blow up. I suggested health care (specifically) as an area to hedge ourselves into and was told by him that he wasn't interested. Arrogant prick. Personally I think the guy got addicted to the "easy money" that retail design provided when times were good and refused to see the gravy train heading for the cliff. I did actually interview with a couple other firms in the last 12 months but it never was really worth jumping ship in the end... Their client bases weren't a helluva lot better and I'd have been the "new guy" at a different firm if/when things went south, as I suspected they eventually were going to.

The biggest kick in the nads about it is that HE'S not the one who gets screwed for his arrogance and intransigence - it's me and the other people who worked for him. He'll close down or become an "office of one" for a while or whatever and live off his banked money but the rest of us are S.O.L. Blows.

I'm considering a career change too - believe me. But it's also a bit tough when you're almost in your 40s...

[UconnTim97]

I have been considering a career change, as I imagine many are. It should be really interesting when the market corrects itself, and many people change paths.