Last Updated on 5 years by Christopher G Mendla
I am now into day 192 of my Great Job Search. The local squirrel population is decreasing rapidly and I might have to purchase another can of Squirrel Helper ™. The robins will be arriving soon. A half dozen or so make a great robin stew.
Situation
I have been trying a variety of approaches in my job search. I am now going back to the job boards such as indeed and looking for WordPress positions. I’ve gained a lot of experience on that platform along with SEO. I have an open offer for a government contracting position but the funding is stalled.
I did get a call for what would have been a fantastic position migrating Lotus Notes application to Ruby on Rails. That is exactly what I spend two years doing previously. The position would be almost 100 percent remote.. BUT.. the recruiter didn’t offer health care. I am on short term health insurance and need to move to a real plan. Unfortunately, the next open season isn’t until November. I thought I could go back to the Chamber of Commerce and procure health insurance from them as I had in the past. When I called them they said “We don’t offer health insurance because of the Affordable Care Act”. Well that toasted that plan. After I hung up I let loose with a stream of verbiage that would make a Gunnery Sargent blush.
Observations
- There is definitely age discrimination going on. It is impossible to prove but it is real. Even if you try to sanitize your resume, all someone needs to do is a Google Search on your name.
lot of startups will put in their ads that they are looking for a ‘cultural fit’. That is a dog whistle that excludes older workers. When I was younger and hired IT positions my best team members were middle age or older. Everyone worked as a team. Here is an example of what you find when you google my name. I could try to get that listing taken down but the problem is that there are a lot of other sources. If HR departments and companies want to exclude base on age it is easy as pie (And their loss)
- The recruiting world is in a state of chaos. The recruiters for the larger companies are working in a millisecond environment.
- The smaller companies are not on the recruiter’s radar. I went back to the job boards and started searching for positions with smaller companies in the area. An overwhelming percentage of these companies are not working with recruiters. I’m beginning to think that may the best place to focus.
- The same is true for educational institutions. I have over 25 years in academia. A position on the faculty or with the IT staff would be ideal. Very few of these positions are handled by recruiters.
- Some of the job boards will ‘fade you out’ as time passes. It’s a good idea to tweak your resume and upload it to the boards. While on the board, make sure that your profile indicates that you are still actively seeking a position.
Ouch.
- One recruiter was constantly asking what my status was. Did I have any interviews? I was answering those questions candidly. Every time I did I got a twinge of “You should not have done that.” It dawned on me that I had nothing to gain by giving him that information but everything to loose. I am NOT saying this is the case but this could seriously hurt your chances of laning a position. For example “Yes, I just interviewed with Bob at XYZ company for a Full Stack Developer Positions”. “That’s great to hear Chris. good luck”. <Phone call ends> The recruiter then scans HIS applicants to see who would be a fit and sends them over to Bob at XYZ company. Again, I have no way of know if that is actually what is happening, but I’m keeping my cards a lot closer to my vest from now on.
