Redundant since Jan, struggling to find anything...

Redundant since Jan, struggling to find anything...

Author
Discussion

richatnort

3,034 posts

132 months

Tuesday 7th May
quotequote all
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.

wyson

2,095 posts

105 months

Tuesday 7th May
quotequote all
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.

Edited by wyson on Tuesday 7th May 22:25

deserialisethis

Original Poster:

32 posts

14 months

Friday 10th May
quotequote all
Things may be starting to pick up. Seem to be getting a bit more interest from applications (but nothing concrete). But have what feels like a fairly solid lead on a contract gig.

Just in time too, money's starting to get a bit tight!

Kermit power

28,732 posts

214 months

Saturday 11th May
quotequote all
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!

CoupeKid

764 posts

66 months

Monday 13th May
quotequote all
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.

Babber101

85 posts

119 months

Thursday 16th May
quotequote all
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 this

Kermit power

28,732 posts

214 months

Thursday 16th May
quotequote all
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 this
Good luck with it! beer

WY86

1,339 posts

28 months

Friday 17th May
quotequote all
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.

67Dino

3,588 posts

106 months

Yesterday (07:06)
quotequote all
Think job hunting is often one of the toughest times for anyone, and since people don’t often admit it or even talk about once they have a job, it can feel like it’s only you.

A few thoughts about approach that have helped me over the years:

- Patience is key, keep reminding yourself that the number of declines is irrelevant, it’s the number of accepts and you only need to find one of those
- A benchmark is that when the market is slow it may take a month for every £10k of salary to find a job.
- If you need to cut costs to preserve your savings, do it early. You want to give yourself as long as possible to find the role without serious hardship. Personally, I often sell a car when I end a role and treat myself to a new one when I find another one
- Treat job hunting as a job, set yourself objectives and targets, set working days, hours etc. Be organised and thorough, treat it like a campaign
- Don’t do it full time though. Once you’re back in work you’ll regret not using the time off. Plus it’s tough so best not done 40 hours a week. Take a day or two off a week or start late/finish early and do something fun with the time
- Don’t wait for jobs to come to you, network like mad. LinkedIn is excellent. Let people know you’re looking and to let you know if any contacts to talk to for advice or roles they know of. Amazing how often it uncovers something unexpected or a conversation leads to an introduction.
- It’s a numbers game so aim to find at least a hundred opportunities to follow up on or apply for. You may not get there but the mental model of not having done enough yet to find the one is a good one, makes declined easier to take as you’re expecting to plough through a few. Plus effort pays off, it really does. As my Dad used to say: “you can’t catch a fish without a fly in the water”.
- Do personalise them though. You should have multiple CVs and email templates for the different types of jobs you are going for, and take time to make each as good as you can. Shouldn’t be a mass mailing, make each count
- Keep yourself fit and healthy, and socialise. It’s easy to get depressed job hunting and a positive state of mind is important to be open to opportunities and come across well. So look after yourself during it.

Hope the above is of some help and just keep reminding yourself that everyone does eventually find another role, there is one out there, and it’s just a matter of time.

Wills2

23,066 posts

176 months

Yesterday (15:23)
quotequote all
Chimaera98 said:
Feedback from an agency is that the situation for Office workers/Professionals in the last 18 months has been “dire” with lots of companies making redundancies.

Companies that are employing have a large pool job seekers to choose from.
Agreed, it's a buyers market out there and really difficult if you're in that 45-55 age bracket and can't retire, looking for that 70-80k ++ job with all the benefits you took for granted.

It's a bit of desert out there and half the jobs advertised don't even exist IMO, McKinsey turned up at the FTSE100 I worked at and chopped a whole layer of GMs out (one of which was me) I wish I'd listened to my gut rather than my boss when they first arrived, lesson learned.

Had I not had access to some money I'd have been farked, just finalising a package on an offer, it's not what I want but beggars and choosers....

I feel for the OP it's taken me 12 months, I'd say searching for a job at the moment is a st show and not a great experience.









richatnort

3,034 posts

132 months

Yesterday (17:46)
quotequote all
I've so far applied for over 80 roles and heard back form around 6 so far which is just nuts! I have 65 different login to company careers sites, so many are workday its insane!

I find it nuts the amount of information is out there about me now and i find it frustrating I have to give so much data over even things such as ethnic origin an what my parents did for jobs, i just think its a bit too much and its a tick box exercise for their diversity bks targets.

SeanyD

3,379 posts

201 months

richatnort said:
I've so far applied for over 80 roles and heard back form around 6 so far which is just nuts! I have 65 different login to company careers sites, so many are workday its insane!

I find it nuts the amount of information is out there about me now and i find it frustrating I have to give so much data over even things such as ethnic origin an what my parents did for jobs, i just think its a bit too much and its a tick box exercise for their diversity bks targets.
Genuine word of advice, I've been there, and I know how easy it is to go into panic mode when you have bills to pay, however perhaps slow down, be a bit more focussed, apply for a smaller number of best-fit vacancies, rather than a scatter-gun approach. Take the time to get acquainted with talent acquisition people, get personable with them, apply for genuine positions they may have open. Rather than apply for every vacancy advertised by every recruitment agency and every jobsite. It'll be easier on your noggin, less effort, more 'enjoyable' (if that's possible), more personal.

Appreciate it's easy to say when you're facing a mere JSA income each month, but I've been there, and learnt the hard way. The scatter-gun approach rarely works, and takes up an awful lot of time and effort chasing your tail.

Genuine best of luck and hope you find something soon.

captain_cynic

12,206 posts

96 months

richatnort said:
I've so far applied for over 80 roles and heard back form around 6 so far which is just nuts! I have 65 different login to company careers sites, so many are workday its insane!

I find it nuts the amount of information is out there about me now and i find it frustrating I have to give so much data over even things such as ethnic origin an what my parents did for jobs, i just think its a bit too much and its a tick box exercise for their diversity bks targets.
Honestly this attitude is what is holding you back.

It can't possibly be your fault, you're doing nothing wrong. Stop playing the victim card. People don't want to employ a whinger.

I'm white, male, middle class and if I weren't a filthy immigrant (from that strange and exotic land called Australia) I'd be the least diverse person possible. I had no problem getting a job.

If anything being white and male gives you a slight advantage.

Now that's out of the way, your response rate is not terrible. If you want to increase it maybe be more picky about the jobs you apply for but you're really just trying to make stats no one will ever see look better.

Take the advise on this thread.

- look at your CV. Is it bland boring and generic? Google " good CVs for <my profession>" and look.at the way they're written and formatted.

- tailor your CV, especially for jobs you want.

- consider looking at jobs slightly outside your current role, something that fits with the transferable skills you have.

- you've got to make yourself look interested in a job, especially when you're not (yep, we've all been there, work to live not live to work). It is all marketing but you've got to do it.

Don't fall into the trap of blaming something else. I guarantee you it's harder to get a job in the UK if you've an ethnic name. The big problem isnt "diversity" it's the automatic CV filters. A machine algorithm filters CVs before a human even sees them. It has to be done that way because a job will get hundreds of resumes from candidates that are utterly unsuitable, most of them outside the country so they can't even be employed here (which is why it's harder to get a job with an ethnic name, we can't say they're filtering for Indian names... But they are).

Formatting and wording your CV to get past the automatic filters is step number 1.

That's also why you have 65 logins, so many people just send junk CVs from overseas at any job that it's a necessity to have some kind of process to make it harder and more time consuming.