How is everyone's work situation these days??

Heineken Helen

Drowned Out wrote:

curious....I think I'm fairly close to the average age around here...which would mean a lot of people would have parents around the same age....ie: nearing retirement age.

How are everyone's folks fairing these days?

I worry about mine a lot more than I worry about myself (holy role reversal batman)....
They were on the cusp of retirement...worked their entire lives just to lose almost half of everything they put aside in the course of a month or two. They're busy working on revised retirement plans...I feel terrible for them. Their expectations for the golden years are much higher than mine....they'll adjust, but it's gotta be tough :(

even though my dad was already retirement age he got redundancy... so he retired with a redundancy lump sum payout he's happy... but he's savvy so he woulda been well prepared.

My new place seems pretty safe... in the past couple of months they've taken on new contracts worth over £1billion on top of the ones they already had... they're aiming for the monopoly in what they do (some of their competitors are probably going under soon cos of this) :oops: and my part of it is seriously busy... but also has great prospects. I'm actually doing something completely different to what i've always been doing so it's a change and I'm learning new stuff which is cool so fingers securely crossed. the company may be relatively safe but I'm aware that my job ISN'T so I've thrown myself into it.

_Crazy_Mary_

I am kicking myself in the ass right now and for the last 5 days because...
On Friday night I had to leave work a little early to pick up my daughter & her friend from my mom's house, so I declined waiting on a party of 12 that had an 8:45 reservation. The guy that ended up waiting on them got tipped $400!!!!! Holy crap! I could really use that $400 right now! It still pisses me off :x

Restless Soul

I haven't read the whole of this thread yet, but I just thought I'd chime in and say my work situation at the moment is DIRE. :(

I got made redundant two years ago and then kept myself in work nearly all of last year through temp jobs and contracts. My last contract ended just before easter and since then there's been literally nothing. I've only had three half-days on separate weeks, nothing long-term or ongoing.

I know it's only been four weeks really but it seems that every day there is nothing. I've spent all day everyday for the past month applying to endless jobs and contacting agencies to no avail. The agencies all say that things are "slow" at the moment, that not much is coming in, that employers aren't hiring temps etc. I really don't know what to do at the moment as I can't see things getting better for the forseeable future, due to the economy etc. I'm worried about my mortgage and loan payments and my savings are running out....

Sorry to be depressing but I think I'm going to end up on the scrapheap at this rate.

Restless Soul

bigeye21 wrote:

I'm willing to do other things but it's so competitive right now that you won't be considered for most positions if you aren't a companies' dream candidate with exactly the experience they're looking for.

This is SO true! I've noticed that as well. Also, some companies even seem to want you to do more than is required. A friend saw a job ad where they were asking for an IT worker who must have accounts skills! Talk about trying to kill two birds with one stone!

I saw one job where they wanted a basic low-level admin assistant on £18K a year to have at least three year's experience and a full range of skills, experiences and qualifications on top. For that money it was kind of ridiculous!

Good luck with the job hunt anyway. I know how it feels...:

Jeanwah

Ugh. I left my job right before the economy tanked, due to severe burnout reasons (I swear my job would have killed me if I hadn't left, I was so overworked)...I have focused on my daughter who has special needs since but have been job hunting for the past few months. It's absolutely dismal out there; there are so many applicants for every opening that it's been very difficult just getting an interview. :(

Heineken Helen

Restless Soul wrote:

bigeye21 wrote:

I'm willing to do other things but it's so competitive right now that you won't be considered for most positions if you aren't a companies' dream candidate with exactly the experience they're looking for.

This is SO true! I've noticed that as well. Also, some companies even seem to want you to do more than is required. A friend saw a job ad where they were asking for an IT worker who must have accounts skills! Talk about trying to kill two birds with one stone!

I saw one job where they wanted a basic low-level admin assistant on £18K a year to have at least three year's experience and a full range of skills, experiences and qualifications on top. For that money it was kind of ridiculous!

Good luck with the job hunt anyway. I know how it feels...:

hey, I was just getting to your point... if it had have gone on another week or two I really don't know what I would have done but when I started REALLY worrying about it, I got offered two jobs within a week. So hopefully the same will happen for you. You'll be somebody's dream candidate cos what they're asking for can be quite stupid. One job was absolutely perfect for me and good money too... but I'd TOO MUCH experience :roll: they wanted somebody pretty much new to that position. There is NO temporary work out there... I was told by 3 agencies that the next job that came up was mine... never heard back from them. Can't you go for permanent? I was looking for both ... just wanted a job.

Heineken Helen

Jeanwah wrote:

Ugh. I left my job right before the economy tanked, due to severe burnout reasons (I swear my job would have killed me if I hadn't left, I was so overworked)...I have focused on my daughter who has special needs since but have been job hunting for the past few months. It's absolutely dismal out there; there are so many applicants for every opening that it's been very difficult just getting an interview. :(

Don't worry about the applicants number. Many of the jobs I went for had 300 applicants. In one of my interviews, the guy told me he got over 200 applicants but about 170 of them had absolutely NO experience whatsoever... so the numbers are very deceptive. Just imagine you're the only one applying

dunkman

Rygar wrote:

dunkman wrote:

i have one of those books

fact no.13 - no word rhymes with 'orange'.

Yet!

yet doesnt rhyme with orange :?

Restless Soul

Heineken Helen wrote:

hey, I was just getting to your point... if it had have gone on another week or two I really don't know what I would have done but when I started REALLY worrying about it, I got offered two jobs within a week. So hopefully the same will happen for you. You'll be somebody's dream candidate cos what they're asking for can be quite stupid. One job was absolutely perfect for me and good money too... but I'd TOO MUCH experience :roll: they wanted somebody pretty much new to that position. There is NO temporary work out there... I was told by 3 agencies that the next job that came up was mine... never heard back from them. Can't you go for permanent? I was looking for both ... just wanted a job.

I really want a permanent job right now. I never thought that temp work would dry up like this. I really thought that I'd keep doing it until something permanent came up. To be honest, I was stuck in my previous job for 8 years and was burned out, so I was kind of enjoying the temp experience, never knowing what was round the corner, so I guess I took my eye off the ball for a while when it came to applying for permanent jobs. I don't think I was ready to settle again so soon but I did get a lot of new skills and experiences out of temping which I think is still valuable. I just want a permanent job now, all this waiting round is doing nothing good for my nerves!

Congratulations on your job though. The fact that people are still getting hired is at least something to cling onto! Good luck with the new job!

whitepants

Jeanwah wrote:

Ugh. I left my job right before the economy tanked, due to severe burnout reasons (I swear my job would have killed me if I hadn't left, I was so overworked)...I have focused on my daughter who has special needs since but have been job hunting for the past few months. It's absolutely dismal out there; there are so many applicants for every opening that it's been very difficult just getting an interview. :(

Your situation is similar to mine. I left my last full-time job in Dec 2007 as a Christmas present to myself because it was a soul destroying place to work at, very humiliating and just dreadful. Turnover worse than a ghetto McDonald's.

Since then, I have been at a long-term contract assignment and looking for other work is dismal here in Michigan. I've all just about gave up on applying for jobs via Monster or Careerbuilder because for every job I believe I'm qualified for, I'm sure up to and over a thousand people are applying for it, and people with Master's degrees, compared to my measley Bachelors and Associates degree b]HR studies have shown that hiring companies stop looking at resumes once they reach 100 or so - the other 900 are SOL and wasted their time applying[/b. So I'm now focusing on non-profit industry job postings, away from the eyes of the legions of people looking for work out there, also Craigslist (just be careful of the god damned scammers), and the oldfashioned newspaper ads.

It's nasty out there, but I'm confident I'll find... something.

mfc2006

mine's shaky at best right now, and we just found out that my wife was let go. she was going to resign at the end of May, but they had to make the budget cuts now. (it's a long story...they often are) so now we're both looking for jobs. we have some savings & are doing ok right now, but it's kind of scary. we're both in grad school and we need to keep saving. i may put the rest of grad school on hold & go teach, i think. don't get me wrong, i want to teach. it's just that i'd rather get all of the schooling out of the way.

it's safe to say that there's a lot on my mind today.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

mfc2006 wrote:

mine's shaky at best right now, and we just found out that my wife was let go. she was going to resign at the end of May, but they had to make the budget cuts now. (it's a long story...they often are) so now we're both looking for jobs. we have some savings & are doing ok right now, but it's kind of scary. we're both in grad school and we need to keep saving. i may put the rest of grad school on hold & go teach, i think. don't get me wrong, i want to teach. it's just that i'd rather get all of the schooling out of the way.

it's safe to say that there's a lot on my mind today.

its a scary little world out there....

its strange.....if you go to work these days and the boss tells you..."we are giving you a 10% pay cut"

YOU walk out of the room THRILLED....because at least you still have a job.....

given2fly23

are there any (a) web designers here that are looking for work or (b) freelancers who would be interested in a charitable project?

PM me if you are interested.

to answer the OP, I am employed, but looking for something better, which isnt easy. I'm an attorney at a small firm, which seems better than a large firm right now. it's not my ideal situation, but I feel like I am learning on someone else's dollar, which is fine by me. eventually I'd like to move to a better firm where I can learn more, or just start my own firm, which I want to do within a few years anyways. I actually had an interview last week, which felt like a small victory in itself.

given2fly23

non-entity wrote:

I actually had an interview last week, which felt like a small victory in itself.

within minutes after I posted this, I got a callback from the interview I had last week. crazy.

CHANGEinWAVES

I just had an interview... Where we ended up talking about pearl jam! Hehe... I really want this job!!

Jeanwah

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

I just had an interview... Where we ended up talking about pearl jam! Hehe... I really want this job!!

How did PJ makes its way into a job interview?

mfc2006

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

I just had an interview... Where we ended up talking about pearl jam! Hehe... I really want this job!!

cool! hope you get it!

given2fly23

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

I just had an interview... Where we ended up talking about pearl jam! Hehe... I really want this job!!

that's funny. same thing happened to me last week.

at the end of the interview, he asked me what I do outside of work. I told him I am die-hard Cubs fan (he mentioned he is a big White Sox fan before) and love all my Chicago teams other than the Sox, and I said I'm a big music fan.

he says, "so are you gonna go see Elton John/Billy Joel at Wrigley to combine your 2 passions?" I said no, I'm more into 90's rock. he goes "like Pearl Jam?" so I say "I love Pearl Jam." he then told me about his girlfriend who got him Ten in 1995, and he was bummed and told her he's had the CD for 4 years, then he opened it and it was signed by all 5 members. I told him that Soldier Field was the first concert I ever went to, and he goes "Wow, you were there? I'm gonna put you on the spot now...what song did they open with?"

he had no idea who he was dealing with. probably the only question nailed in the whole 3-hour interview. but hey, got a callback.

good luck CHANGEinWAVES!

CHANGEinWAVES

Jeanwah wrote:

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

I just had an interview... Where we ended up talking about pearl jam! Hehe... I really want this job!!

How did PJ makes its way into a job interview?

He asked me what I like to do in my free time, I said concerts. To which he asked who I like to go see. When I mentione pearl jam the convo took off! It's a gym and he mentioned that he plays pearl jam concert dvds there, that's when I leaned over the desk and gave him a high five :P

whitepants

That is awesome you guys had PJ connections during interviews - what a way to make a lasting impression!

Hiring PJ folk is a good business decision as we're good workers! Hell, maybe Kat and Sea can provide personal references for us.