After four decades of making a living at the world’s leading technology giant, David Jolles has given up on Silicon Valley.
It’s been a year and a half since he was fired from his job as a project manager at a fintech company and he estimates he’s applied to about 1,000 jobs.
“It’s a disaster. I’m still unemployed,” Jolles told Business Insider.
Now he’s getting comfortable after recently moving to the Atlanta area in search of a job – possibly a service job – and a lower cost of living.
Jolles is one of the longest-serving job seekers. It’s a daily life where getting in the morning means sorting through the exposures to see which ones should be shot and which ones might be fake. And it means finding a way to modify the CV so that it works well with the software used by large companies to screen applicants.
It’s also a world where spreadsheets are often like odometers on a frustrating journey: applications submitted, employers upset, rejections, and family finances depleted.
Weaknesses in sectors such as technology and the hiring of more people in American business have made a shocking survey in the years since hiring has declined since the pandemic, job seekers told BI.
Another reason that makes it more difficult is that even though the recession is still mild and the unemployment rate is low, the number of job openings in the US has fallen to levels not seen since the beginning of the 2021.
“If you want to find a job now, it’s a lot harder than it was two years ago,” Nick Bunker, director of North American economic research at Indeed, told BI.
No one has to tell the hunters that part. In addition to bogus jobs, there are rounds of interviews that can reach double digits and the common risk of applying and getting winded. It often increases the urge to hit.
“It’s going to take longer than in the past to find a job or hire because of the recession,” Bunker said.
Jason Henninger, managing director of Heller Search, a recruiting firm focused on the tech industry, told BI that the job search can be even more confusing because many employers are worried about hiring more people but sometimes some list the jobs they should get for a CV. .
He said: “We are in a market now that is very cautious and cautious. “The company may have a demand, and they are sending to see what they can get, but maybe they are not is the budget or final approval to hire that person until maybe next year.”
Those situations — where job seekers are working just to hear the bupkis — can give “false hope,” he said.
1,000 requests
For his part, Jolles hopes that moving to Georgia will restore his fortune and allow him to find something, even if it is outside of technology.
“Everywhere you go, it seems like they’re hiring,” he said.
However, Jolles, a self-described “mature worker” in technology, felt overwhelmed by the job search in California. He decided that the tech companies wouldn’t rush to hire quickly enough to let him stay there.
“They all said, ‘Well, we hired during Covid. Now it’s a market correction, and AI is coming, and maybe we don’t need this,'” said Jolles.
David Jolles Courtesy of David Jolles
Those are some of the challenges he said he will face when he sits down at his computer to apply for jobs. He said, to do it properly requires devoting at least four or five hours a day to the work.
Jolles has taken classes — boot camps, in the jocular language of tech — in data analytics and data visualization to add shine to his processes. And he has tested artificial intelligence tools designed to match a person’s CV and job description.
“A complete waste of time and money,” Jolles said.
Now, after he “slowed down” his search for a few months while he got his latest degree, he’s getting ready to go back on the hunt for his new home.
170 requests
A few years ago, Jenitta Averett bought from UPS after 14 years at the shipping company’s headquarters in Atlanta, where she worked primarily in HR. Averett, 46, and her husband then moved to Hampton, Virginia, to be closer to family. Then he got a job as an HR director in a small company. In August, after three years, Averett lost his job.
“It was an exciting time,” she said. “Averett believed the position was not the right fit for him, but he also knew from his experience in HR how difficult the job search can be.” how heavy.
Jenitta Averett Courtesy of Jenitta Averett
Averett hopes to find a new role in HR before his severance expires at the end of October. To that end, he submitted more than 170 applications, mostly through LinkedIn. He tracks his progress on a spreadsheet, and by his count, he’s had five interviews.
Others have gone well. In one episode, where Averett arrived late, the recruiter told him during his first interview that, no matter what happened, he would contact him and give feedback at the end of the work. When he scheduled a call with her alone – not with the next person he was supposed to meet – Averett knew he was out of trouble. However, he appreciated the feedback.
“Most of them don’t,” Averett said.
More often than not, no reason is given, he said. Bad news sometimes shows up on her phone as a private email – one she doesn’t even have to open to know it’s a rejection.
“That’s the thing, I think, that’s the most confusing,” he said. “Here’s another email.”
However, although it is not easy, that rejection can be better than not hearing anything at all. Lack of response was the main thing he encountered. As an HR professional, you find out what it’s like to be inundated with applications from job seekers like you.
“Being in HR, I understand,” he said, adding, “But it’s different when you’re in that position.”
2,200 applications
Kevin Cash, a Navy SEAL with an MBA, has been looking for work since he was laid off in November 2022 after the small consulting firm where he had worked for just six months was acquired.
In recent months, Cash has been driving for Uber and doing odd jobs on Taskrabbit. He didn’t expect that finding a new role would take so long. After all, he has five degrees, worked as an electrician during his Navy years, and later had a job in semiconductor manufacturing.
Since his dismissal, he told BI that, based on the spreadsheet he uses to track his efforts, he has applied for 2,181 positions. He now suspects that some of it was illegal.
“I spent a solid 12 ½ days applying for jobs that never existed,” he told BI.
Kevin Cash Ben Boxer
The focus of Cash’s career has been business intelligence. But, now, as he drives people around his home outside Portland, Oregon, he tries to connect — sometimes in his car, which he estimates has put 20,000 miles on in months. just a few. Those discussions, and the disbelief of the passengers that someone with his education and experience can find it difficult to work, have produced a few people who give hope but no jobs.
Cash said that in the past few months, he had exhausted his savings.
“It was all gone – like it was completely broken – from the beginning when I was 43,” he said.
Since then, the single father has been scrambling, trying to protect his daughter from a dark financial outlook by providing back-to-school clothes and paying the rent, which is about $3,000 a month.
Due to how unsuccessful his job search has been, Cash plans to call it quits soon.
“When I get to 2,200, I will stop applying for jobs,” he said. “I just don’t have it in me.”