Work is Hell

[Olaf]

With a happy ending as of today (fingers crossed) at least.

Glad to hear that, man. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you guys.

[Sparky]

For those who don't follow the dictator sub forum religiously, I mentioned my wife got laid off back in March (employment and severance ran through may). She's got a job offer today so the bullet-sweating should be over for us.

The job hunt process is crazy now, some of it is the economic environment (thanks trump!) some is technology, particularly A.I. A lot/most companies now scan initial job applications with a.i. and just do keyword matching to applications to find the "most qualified." Everyone involved acknowledges there are huge errors rates and you dump a lot of qualified candidates, but every job gets so many applicants it doesn't really matter. So, of course, there's a whole cottage industry built up now of a.i. models and tips on how to game your resume to maximize the keyword hit rate for a job.

I know someone who works at a job recruiting firm and he says that the hiring rate for jobs that aren't internal candidates or referrals is 2%. In other words: if you don't have a connection, don't fucking bother even applying.

I do contract work (and am severely under-employed thanks to Trump's victory. I'm going to guess his win cost me at least $50,000 in earnings so far this year), so when my wife's work benefits ended we switched to a health care plan on the exchange. Because of our particular household demographics, we qualified for subsidies to keep our monthly premiums reasonable-ish and some other benefits and subsidies to help us out while we were under-employed. All that shit is getting cut in Trump's fucking tax bill that's passing today, so we're incredibly glad to be jumping ship now before it all begins to get stripped away.

Anyways, don't be complacent about your work situation. If you feel like things are getting unsteady, find somewhere to jump ship to before it's too late. It's a big employers market and most of the safety net stuff to help people get by is getting nuked today.

We also had a major, serious health issue with my wife during all this that I won't even get into here but suffice to say it's been a couple of months of pure hell over here. With a happy ending as of today (fingers crossed) at least.

God Bless The U.S.A.!

Great news Flex, glad Mrs. Flex was able to find a new job.

[revbob]

Sorry for the recent hardships. Hopefully some brighter days ahead for you all.

[JohnS]

Good luck Mrs Flex with the new job, and here's to better times ahead.
Keep on keeping on, Flex. Your despatches here are essential reading

[gkbill]

For those who don't follow the dictator sub forum religiously, I mentioned my wife got laid off back in March (employment and severance ran through may). She's got a job offer today so the bullet-sweating should be over for us.

The job hunt process is crazy now, some of it is the economic environment (thanks trump!) some is technology, particularly A.I. A lot/most companies now scan initial job applications with a.i. and just do keyword matching to applications to find the "most qualified." Everyone involved acknowledges there are huge errors rates and you dump a lot of qualified candidates, but every job gets so many applicants it doesn't really matter. So, of course, there's a whole cottage industry built up now of a.i. models and tips on how to game your resume to maximize the keyword hit rate for a job.

I know someone who works at a job recruiting firm and he says that the hiring rate for jobs that aren't internal candidates or referrals is 2%. In other words: if you don't have a connection, don't fucking bother even applying.

I do contract work (and am severely under-employed thanks to Trump's victory. I'm going to guess his win cost me at least $50,000 in earnings so far this year), so when my wife's work benefits ended we switched to a health care plan on the exchange. Because of our particular household demographics, we qualified for subsidies to keep our monthly premiums reasonable-ish and some other benefits and subsidies to help us out while we were under-employed. All that shit is getting cut in Trump's fucking tax bill that's passing today, so we're incredibly glad to be jumping ship now before it all begins to get stripped away.

Anyways, don't be complacent about your work situation. If you feel like things are getting unsteady, find somewhere to jump ship to before it's too late. It's a big employers market and most of the safety net stuff to help people get by is getting nuked today.

We also had a major, serious health issue with my wife during all this that I won't even get into here but suffice to say it's been a couple of months of pure hell over here. With a happy ending as of today (fingers crossed) at least.

God Bless The U.S.A.!

Hello,

As (probably) one of the more veteran (older) people on the board, the hard times you go through as a family can serve as bonds among you all. We've had some hard times but we put our heads down and moved forward. It may sound easy to say - and indeed, it's easier to say than do - but if you keep working, I'm an eternal optimist and believe you will make it through. I hope all works out for you and your family and soon you'll be saying "Remember when...".

[JennyB]

Glad Mrs. Flex found a new job. It is scary out there right now. I'm so sorry that your contract work is lower. I hope things change soon.

[Flex]

Thanks all, appreciate the kind words (and the perspectives!)

In some very, very funny timing, almost as soon as I hit "post" on that I got a call from one of my clients who dropped us last year after Trump won and they want to pick back up and actually expand their scope to include all of our Colorado democratic delegation. I'm barely reading between the lines here, but from what they said and what I can infer, they're obviously planning on a complete bloodbath in Congress now that Trump's reconciliation bill is gonna pass and want to lay the groundwork with Dems again. This'll still be a down year for me, but this obviously helps soften the pain a lot (and I expect we'll start seeing more of this as the year goes on and into next year). Ah, the parasitic relationships of the consulting class continue to both give and take away. Given the timing, maybe I should have complained on here three months ago?

Also good illustration of why my kinda work is fine on a long time horizon, but you don't really want to count on to pay the monthly bills if you can help it. I'm sure other freelancers and such can relate. You try to create enough cushion that it's not a big deal, but those steady paychecks sure are nice...

[Dr. Medulla]

Thanks all, appreciate the kind words (and the perspectives!)

In some very, very funny timing, almost as soon as I hit "post" on that I got a call from one of my clients who dropped us last year after Trump won and they want to pick back up and actually expand their scope to include all of our Colorado democratic delegation. I'm barely reading between the lines here, but from what they said and what I can infer, they're obviously planning on a complete bloodbath in Congress now that Trump's reconciliation bill is gonna pass and want to lay the groundwork with Dems again. This'll still be a down year for me, but this obviously helps soften the pain a lot (and I expect we'll start seeing more of this as the year goes on and into next year). Ah, the parasitic relationships of the consulting class continue to both give and take away. Given the timing, maybe I should have complained on here three months ago?

Also good illustration of why my kinda work is fine on a long time horizon, but you don't really want to count on to pay the monthly bills if you can help it. I'm sure other freelancers and such can relate. You try to create enough cushion that it's not a big deal, but those steady paychecks sure are nice...

You need this as a mug: