[PLUG-TALK] Re: [PLUG] Slightly OT: PCC software engineering program

Don Buchholz buchholz at easystreet.com
Mon Aug 4 17:12:18 UTC 2003


While traveling through Jacksonville, FL last month, an article on their 
rising
unemployment rate and the amount of time people were having to look for work
caught my eye.  (A few weeks earlier, a radio station was reporting that 
Florida
has one of the *lowest* unemployment rates in the nation.)

The part which really caught my attention was the success rates of different
job hunting approaches.   The most effective avenue for finding a new 
job is
netowrking (talking to people you know, and going to event to meet new 
contact
face-to-face).  The least effective method was "Internet".  I do not 
know the
survey methods, but approx. 40% of the sample population found their new
jobs via "networking", newspaper ad rate was ~20%, agencies were about 
5-10%,
and the least effective method (less than 5%) for finding a new job is 
"using the Internet".

So, according to this article, "using the Internet" (i.e. job boards) is 
better than
watching TV, but not by much.  Granted this was for all types of 
occupations, and
our specific area probably has better success rates.   But when I was 
looking last
winter, I didn't have much success with the job boards, and am now 
working at
iMove because I subscribe to the PLUG mailling list.

- Don



Russell Evans wrote:

>I sent a number of resumes via monster, hotdog, hotjobs, dice,... All the call
>backs I got, and finally a job, where from applying directly. I think monster,
>and others like them, are being mostly used for EOE postings since most
>"request" you supply EOE information when submitting a resume.. 
>
>A large number of the postings were local candidates only, no relocation, don't
>care if you'll pick up the tab to move yourself. The most insane were the
>people wanting a CCIE for a $40,000 a year posting. The job requirements and
>discriptions are very inflated, and the worst are usually head hunters looking
>to fill an entry level position. Some even seem to have to be tailored to some
>individual inside the company because of the specific knowledge wanted. 
>
>Unless you're looking, you probably won't notice how the postings are worded to
>keep people from applying instead of trying to attract candates. This is
>probably because most postings still collect more resumes than they want. After
>a while I posted my resume to all, no matter what they wanted, or how crazy.
>You got to do what you got to do to survive. 
>
>Good luck to all that are looking,
>Russell 
>
>
>
>On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 06:28:04 -0700 (PDT), Rich Shepard said:
>
>  
>
>>   On the "User Friendly" Web site, almost every day, is a banner with the
>> number of available computer related jobs in some on-line database. Has
>> anyone investigated these? I suppose that many would require relocation, but
>> that needs to be placed in perspective to the current situation locally.
>>    
>>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>PLUG mailing list
>PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
>http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>
>  
>






More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list