Redundant since Jan, struggling to find anything...
Discussion
Interesting thread as I am also a senior Product Manager / Product Owner and have been applying for roles and have had nothing but rejections.
It seems the tech area is super competitive and therefore companies are wanting people in the office and that's a stipulation, they're able to go with candidates that are wanting lower wages, etc.
I reckon i'm going to be made redundant and started to apply for roles around February and have had 2 interviews in all that time. It feel like its bonkers at the moment so i feel for those of you out of a job and looking, i'm finding it really demoralising.
It seems the tech area is super competitive and therefore companies are wanting people in the office and that's a stipulation, they're able to go with candidates that are wanting lower wages, etc.
I reckon i'm going to be made redundant and started to apply for roles around February and have had 2 interviews in all that time. It feel like its bonkers at the moment so i feel for those of you out of a job and looking, i'm finding it really demoralising.
RustyMX5 said:
I think the tech space is going through a number of changes driven by fashion and ego. The last place I worked at went from Waterfall to Agile, then to Kanban before finally settling on Scrum. All the BAs (me included) were re-branded as Product Owners and were answerable to the Product Managers. We were expected to manage the Project Management side of delivering whatever features were being worked on within the sprint(s). The vast majority of Project Managers were axed and only a couple were retained for 'large deliveries'. It didn't take long before Product Managers became more hands off and shoved more on the POs. At that point I decided to move on but I kept in touch with some of my former colleagues. The POs all took voluntary redundancy and the Dev teams were expected to do all the PO work and deliver the same amount of work. Let's just say that it ended up with a number of devs buggering off elsewhere.
All of this was driven by a couple of CTOs who went to conventions where a lot of this streamlining was sold as being the holy grail. And guess what, a lot of this came from the big consultancies who have a vested interest in selling this to businesses. To make matters worse, the CTOs / CIOs of the world seem to swallow this BS despite everything their staff tell them.
They probably don't, but are under pressure to deliver cost savings, management consultancies will oblige for a fee, and then the C Suite can hide behind the consultants. What was that saying? No one ever got fired for following McKinsey advice? Quite a lot of C suite revolve in and out of big management consultancy firms and they scratch each others backs. The economist Mariana Mazzucato did a book recently exposing these cosy relationships, to the detriment of the real economy, building capability and delivering stuff that works etc.All of this was driven by a couple of CTOs who went to conventions where a lot of this streamlining was sold as being the holy grail. And guess what, a lot of this came from the big consultancies who have a vested interest in selling this to businesses. To make matters worse, the CTOs / CIOs of the world seem to swallow this BS despite everything their staff tell them.
Edited by wyson on Tuesday 7th May 22:25
A few questions for you...
1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of b
ks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription!
8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of b
ks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription! 8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
Things might be picking up for me...
I had an interview for an internal promotion on Friday to team manager. I've mixed feelings about it because it would be a change of responsibilities but I'd be the manager of a team that doesn't need much managing.
I was also approached about a job at a client company. My contact there is leaving. I emailed him this morning and he said he had thought about tipping me off because I could do the job and he'd put in a good word if I was interested. Big shoes to fill, on the other hand he'd leave before I joined so there'd be no handover but I know their system already.
Bit of a dilemma. My head says stay, for the pension and security. My heart says leave and get the sort of job I've wanted for a long time.
I had an interview for an internal promotion on Friday to team manager. I've mixed feelings about it because it would be a change of responsibilities but I'd be the manager of a team that doesn't need much managing.
I was also approached about a job at a client company. My contact there is leaving. I emailed him this morning and he said he had thought about tipping me off because I could do the job and he'd put in a good word if I was interested. Big shoes to fill, on the other hand he'd leave before I joined so there'd be no handover but I know their system already.
Bit of a dilemma. My head says stay, for the pension and security. My heart says leave and get the sort of job I've wanted for a long time.
Kermit power said:
A few questions for you...
1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of bks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription!
8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
Really good post. Couple of things I’m going to action off the back of this1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of b
ks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription! 8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
Babber101 said:
Kermit power said:
A few questions for you...
1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of bks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription!
8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
Really good post. Couple of things I’m going to action off the back of this1. Have you signed on? If not, do so, even if it makes you feel like even more of a failure, if not for the laughable pittance you'll get after all the tax you've paid in over the years, then because it at least makes sure you don't lose out on a year's NI contributions towards your state pension.
2. Have you done a tax return? Depending on how much you were earning and how your tax code was calculated, if you've been out of work since January, you may well find you're owed quite a chunk back from HMRC.
3. Have you thought about applying for a job with the job centre? If that sounds facetious, it's honestly not! I was out of work for 6 months last year and it was about the only concrete suggestion my "advisor" at the job centre could actually come up with. In the end I got a relevant job first, but in briefly looking, there did seem to be a depressing number of vacancies there.
4. Scarily, it feels like you really need to make your own vacancies these days. The vast majority of interviews I got were through intros from friends and former colleagues on LinkedIn, so worth reaching out if you're not already. Even scarier - but what have you got to lose? - if you see a role you think is right for you, have a stab at identifying who you think might be the hiring manager on LI and reach out to them directly. Say you've seen the role, think you might be right for it and would appreciate a chat. Worst case is they ignore you or just point you at recruitment, best case is they may appreciate the initiative and engage.
5. It felt to me like recruitment consultants are as good as dead now! Many times I saw a role with "your contact X works here" and I hadn't the foggiest who X was! More times than not it was someone I connected with as a recruitment consultant who'd been driven in house because direct recruitment on places like LinkedIn had eaten their lunch.
6. Don't be too demoralised when you see "247 applications in the past 37 minutes" on LinkedIn! I happened to mention this to my now boss after I'd started and he said they'd not had anything like as many applicants as LinkedIn claimed. We dug a bit further and from what we could tell, they were counting anyone who'd opened the job ad as an applicant!
7. Whilst there's a lot of b
ks out there about "getting your CV ATS ready". Whilst it mostly is just that, I did find Jobscan quite useful as a way of personalising my CV to specific opportunities. I'm sure you've got dozens of skills, many of which can probably go by several names, so it can't do any harm to use a tool which can help you quickly optimise which of your skills to highlight and what to call them for any given role. You'll probably realise you start to do it automatically after while though, so don't forget to cancel the subscription! 8. Do you need to appear as old as you are? I dropped O and A levels altogether since their only relevance now is to tell people I'm old enough to have done O levels, and also dropped the year of my degree, both on my CV and LI profile. I also dropped the first decade of my career, as it contained nothing I didn't have in the following couple of decades, so again did nothing but age me. So long as you're not lying, there's absolutely no reason not to optimise your CV!
Good luck!
Just have persevere, the job market is getting better, i have been unhappy in my current role since the start of the year, applied for a few roles but no success. then a recruiter i had dealt with previously called me up about a role, 3 interviews this week and a contract in my inbox this morning. 40% pay increase similar percentage in commission plus equity. Sometimes the roles will find you.
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