For those of you who’ve been laid off, recently, how’s the job market been treating you?

[UltraMav]

I ask because I got laid off in October. I thought for sure I would find a new place to work soon after but it's been nearly eight months now and I haven't been gifted with a single interview.

I have nearly a decade of experience in TV news production and a couple years of teaching (English), and I haven't received a single callback for either of these fields in the interim. This is with me being required to submit multiple applications a week in order to receive unemployment, which has since ended.

I've applied for educational jobs and for (entry level) TV news jobs and haven't achieved so much as an interview.

This is insane to me, as I was certain that when I was being laid off (as a manager in TV news) that I would easily be able to find something.

I have come to the conclusion that either my resume (which is the same resume that got me all the other jobs) is now somehow obsolete, or that the job market is completely fucked.

So, I'm hoping to hear from others about their experiences. I think I'm going to hit up a temp agency in order to get something going. Please let me know if you've been in a similar spot and have some advice.

Either that or the next time you hear from me it will be from a homeless shelter. 🤷‍♂️

 

[ClivePwned]

Not laid off but I can attest that if you are experienced and aren't getting interviews, then there's a fair chance that your resume formatting needs work. I've had long spells where changing the way the job history and skills are presented made a sudden difference. Targeted resumes that zero in in the requirements for the particular job you're applying for without much of the stuff that you may have done but isn't relevant to the advertised position. Cover letters refined for each application where you can make a case for why you are the best person for that job. And then if you get an interview, never, ever bad mouth former employers.

Either that AND the job market is pretty fucked.

Other than that, all I can offer is 'keep on trucking.'

 

[Paz]

I've heard a lot of resume filtering is automated now, so it's pretty likely yours is failing some unknown criteria of the bots even if it worked great with humans in the past.

 

[y2kyle89]

Also got sacked in October and still haven't gotten a job ;_;

I had a recruiter tell me that resumes nowadays need a 'Technologies used' in each job section to shove in key words like SQL or Python and such

 

[Fallout-NL]

I've heard a lot of resume filtering is automated now, so it's pretty likely yours is failing some unknown criteria of the bots even if it worked great with humans in the past.

Click to shrink...

This would be my guess.

Still, I don't know shit as I went freelance as soon as I got my master's degree (because I couldn't land a job either, 2010, financial crisis)) and haven't had to apply for a job since thankfully, but I suspect either formatting or failing to stuff your documents with important keywords causes some issues.

You might also be overqualified for the positions you're trying to interview for.

 

[Mukrab]

Not laid off but i quit without having anything else. Really easy when you work in gastronomy. After a week i sent two emails, was told to stop by the next day and the day after that i started working there.

 

[UltraMav]

Also got sacked in October and still haven't gotten a job ;_;

I had a recruiter tell me that resumes nowadays need a 'Technologies used' in each job section to shove in key words like SQL or Python and such

Click to shrink...

This is depressing as hell.

 

[Sounds]

I ask because I got laid off in October. I thought for sure I would find a new place to work soon after but it's been nearly eight months now and I haven't been gifted with a single interview.

I have nearly a decade of experience in TV news production and a couple years of teaching (English), and I haven't received a single callback for either of these fields in the interim. This is with me being required to submit multiple applications a week in order to receive unemployment, which has since ended.

I've applied for educational jobs and for (entry level) TV news jobs and haven't achieved so much as an interview.

This is insane to me, as I was certain that when I was being laid off (as a manager in TV news) that I would easily be able to find something.

I have come to the conclusion that either my resume (which is the same resume that got me all the other jobs) is now somehow obsolete, or that the job market is completely fucked.

So, I'm hoping to hear from others about their experiences. I think I'm going to hit up a temp agency in order to get something going. Please let me know if you've been in a similar spot and have some advice.

Either that or the next time you hear from me it will be from a homeless shelter. 🤷‍♂️

Click to shrink...

Yo that's pretty crazy that you're struggling to find education jobs. Are you able to teach English? I work in Ed technology and I'm constantly hearing how school districts desperately need teachers. truly wish you the best of luck.

 

[Inki]

You are with 100% being filtered out and your resume needs to be redone to get past the ATS filters most (all?) companies are using now. Here is an article about ATS systems. Read that and then find (I've not used this particular one) a resume creator that will get you past those filters (there are several free or have X number of edits free, or free for 2 weeks, etc. sites out there).
Then I also used free AI tools (Google Gemini) to rewrite my job history to sound more professional. I also asked AI to create a cover letter for me based on my resume. You can even go so far (which is more work but everyone says its best if you go this route) as to tailor your resume and cover letter to each job you apply to. I only did it for both a general customer support position and a technical support position and only used those 2 variants when applying.
Unfortunately many companies also use AI detection software so while I used the AI to rewrite my resume I also took it as a suggestion and re-wrote it myself based on it's language and structure.
Once I made these changes I immediately started getting more feedback (unfortunately many, many, many "No thanks") emails where I wasn't receiving anything before.
I'd also suggest networking and job fair events in your area, you can easily google them and in a bigger city (2+ Mil) I see about 1x a week.

Good luck!

 

[y2kyle89]

This is depressing as hell.

Click to shrink...

I've had better luck in getting interviews but I'm not sure if I interview poorly or if there really are a lot of people that are just that much better than me...

 

[OnionPowder]

I got sacked in January 2022 and I still don't make 50% of what I did. I've applied to over 1000 jobs with no luck. I've lost all of my medication, my car is on the fritz. It's getting to the point where I'm too poor to live.

Just feels like all the jobs are gone. Not very optimistic about the future.

 

[Nothing Loud]

I haven't been but I'm applying to jobs now a little bit and I'm not getting any bites

 

[cwmartin]

I voluntarily was searching and it took me pretty much 2 months of doing nothing else but applying, researching, screening and interviewing. It was a job in itself.

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

I've heard a lot of resume filtering is automated now, so it's pretty likely yours is failing some unknown criteria of the bots even if it worked great with humans in the past.

Click to shrink...

Include a pic of some exposed circuits and tell them there's more where that came from.

 

[Tendo]

I've chosen a horrible time to get out of teaching it seems :O

Luckily it seems EMS is always hiring around me so... I should be good. I hope.

 

[NuncaBob]

I was laid off in November. I have 25+ years in software engineering. I applied to 79 jobs at or below my experience and skillset. (I applied to a handful that were aspirational and didn't get any traction and didn't include them in the rest of the numbers.) I received no response from 60. Of the 19 that responded, 9 were rejections. Of the 10 that I talked to, 4 were with companies where I knew someone and was referred. Of the 10, only those 4 lead to a second conversation. Two of those 4 lead to an offer.

It worked out fine but it took 4 months to get the offers which was a lot longer than I anticipated.

 

[nonoriri]

I just got laid off a few weeks ago and it's terrible. Tons of rejections and few interviews. There just doesn't seem to be enough jobs out there.

 

[El Buga]

Got laid off in September, still trying. A few rejections, tons of non-answers and zero interviews until now.

We shouldn't have to subject ourselves to this, merely to have the "privilege" of surviving.

 

[VorpalNonsense]

I was laid off and on the job hunt during last year and it was brutal out there. Way worse than the preceding years, pay was going down, expectations were going up, every listing was swamped. From the sound of things, the job market still hasn't recovered.
I pivoted toward some prior experience in a different field because tech was such a hot mess and managed to find something. Not the pay my experience would merit, but at least the bills are getting paid. Fortunately I do have some varied past experience, but folks with just one field of experience are having an especially hard time.

 

[UltraMav]

You are with 100% being filtered out and your resume needs to be redone to get past the ATS filters most (all?) companies are using now. Here is an article about ATS systems. Read that and then find (I've not used this particular one) a resume creator that will get you past those filters (there are several free or have X number of edits free, or free for 2 weeks, etc. sites out there).
Then I also used free AI tools (Google Gemini) to rewrite my job history to sound more professional. I also asked AI to create a cover letter for me based on my resume. You can even go so far (which is more work but everyone says its best if you go this route) as to tailor your resume and cover letter to each job you apply to. I only did it for both a general customer support position and a technical support position and only used those 2 variants when applying.
Unfortunately many companies also use AI detection software so while I used the AI to rewrite my resume I also took it as a suggestion and re-wrote it myself based on it's language and structure.
Once I made these changes I immediately started getting more feedback (unfortunately many, many, many "No thanks") emails where I wasn't receiving anything before.
I'd also suggest networking and job fair events in your area, you can easily google them and in a bigger city (2+ Mil) I see about 1x a week.

Good luck!

Click to shrink...

This is very informative while being very dystopian. Thank you for the links.

 

[NuncaBob]

This is very informative while being very dystopian. Thank you for the links.

Click to shrink...

Seriously. Humans trying to get one machine to outwit the other instead of just talking to each other.

 

[CaptainNuevo]

I got laid off in mid January and just started a new job last week (totally different industry, but still a software engineer). Took me months to land one, but it IS still possible!

 

[WascallyWabbit]

OP I paid a resume writer on a gig website (Fiverr) to redo my resume to get through those systems and it worked like a charm. Definitely got way more interviews after she reformatted it

Best $100 I ever spent

 

[Alcoremortis]

Only just got a full time job after about a year of looking (I did some consulting work during the year) and it's pretty bad out there. I've gotten so many emails from companies saying they've gone with another candidate only for them to repost the exact same job opening a week later. Then I switch to only looking in academia, get an interview within a month, in the lab next month.

 

[turbobrick]

Been working a freelance web development job until last month when they didn't need me anymore and let me go. Was only doing that because I couldn't get a full time job after 300+ applications, and someone I know gave me a hookup as they needed someone cheap with React knowledge.

At least now with more experience, and also recent experience, on my resume I think I might have better luck with full time jobs. Though actually updating my resume has been tough because I was never good at writing them.

 

[PumpkinPieAddict]

I'm not laid off but looking.

It's rough out there. I'm doing my best to wait out the market and increase my ceiling but the only bites I'm getting are recruiters emailing me for like entry level warehouse gigs for half what I'm making now.