sometime around when i shoot myself in the head
Guess that means job search not successful?
The unfortunate side effect of seeking a job as a creative professional is that with such a job-seeker glut out there, employers can find
exactly what they're looking for, and are then generally able to name their own price for it.
I had the inside track on a job at an architecture firm as a marketing manager, a position I held at another, larger firm in the area. I wound up getting passed over because they found someone who already had experience as marketing manager at an architecture firm.
I spoke with an expert (in the local Boston job market, anyway) a few months ago, and they reiterated what everyone else could tell you: The job market fell off a cliff late last year. They didn't see things getting much worse going forward, but they also didn't see things getting much better anytime soon. Permanent hirings are off, and companies are reluctant to even spend on temps.
Some companies have laid off people because they have to lest they bleed red ink; other companies have laid off people because everyone else around them has; and still others are just deciding to put a simple hiring freeze out there. Most job postings are for essential personnel only, and they're getting away with paying less. (Long term, this strategy stinks and slaughters employee morale, thus hurting productivity. But whatever, it's business' sworn duty to overreact to every economic downturn that comes along, making things that much worse.)
The job situation is not
dire, at least in that I could probably find a job in a reasonable time frame if I lowered my standards. The simple fact of the matter is that the unemployment payments I'm getting are generous enough to rule out most of the opportunities that I've run across. Thanks for the $25 stimulus bump, Big O. And thanks for covering 90% of my COBRA, Deval.
I've resigned myself to a long-term unemployment filled with occasional freelance work. That seems to be the new employment trend. Pay-as-you-go without a long-term contract.
Poll
