I am so glad I am a Union member. I would probably be homeless if i had to deal with this shit. I mean, I have almost been homeless with my union, but without it I'd be screwed.
The meta for getting jobs rn is through networking. IIRC something like 70% of job positions are not posted. I have worked in the tech industry and food industry and found this to be true in both. For tech, building a strong network is more important than any degree/cert you could get imo. I wouldn't even bother applying thru websites without a recommendation attached. I think ur time is better spent working on some sort of personal project and attending every conference/event in the area u can find for whatever ur tech domain is. Ideally if ur living in a tech "hub" or adjacent to one there usually is some sort of "area programming language/tech thing club" and joining is free. You can find them on facebook or meetup. Befriend some boomer nerds at them and eventually you'll get access to their "network" and will have a lot easier time landing a job. U can be upfront too by saying shit like "I am looking to expand my network" and this is an OK way to signal "Let me know about job openings that ur friends have" / "please introduce me to important people".
Can't relate. I work in software dev, and had to do a bout of job applications over a few weeks a bit ago.
Nearly every single job responded back asap confirming they got my application.
Most of the declines emailed me back to inform me they declined a week or two later.
I got several interviews, looking to asap connect.
Most were normal and standard process. One was way too many steps and wasted my time.
I got three offers tabled, and all were fine to give me a day or two to mull it over.i accepted the best offer and total was only unemployed for about 5 weeks total.
What I can say is hot damn has ChatGPT made the application process take like 1/10th the work lol
Did I make a simple little copy paste for chatgpt to quickly construct my cover letters? You bet your ass I did.
Did one job call me out on it? Yes they did. And they liked it and expressed that having someone who was comfortable using AI tools was actually a plus.
I sent out an LOT more than 20 applications though. I was averaging about 6 to 7 a day over 2 weeks, so prolly close to 120+ applications total.
Really curious what the dead giveaway was for using chatGPT. I feel like most cover letters are already written to sound super flowery and exaggerated.
Coincidentally I created a ChatGPT account today for the purpose of saving time writing my cover letters. Do you mind sharing your wisdom with what works for you with your creation prompts?
"In a moment I am going to ask you to generate a cover letter for me. However before that I want you to ask me any further questions that you need answered to help improve the quality of the output. My name is (name here), my address is (address), the company's address is (company address), and the job title is (job title).
This is the job posting:
(Paste the entire job posting here)
I have that whole thing in notepad filled out, copy paste the entire job posting in, then copy paste that whole thing to chatgpt.
It'll then prompt you with a bunch of extra common questions you can answer to help flesh the cover letter out, you answer what you can, and it'll generate.
Make sure to do a final pass cause it'll hallucinate sometimes, and you can hit the regenerate button if needed if it hallucinated too bad.
Main hallucination to watch for is it just shoving extra facts in there that you didn't supply. "I have an engineering degree" or whatever when you never told you you did lol.
Are they still complaining no one wants to work? I thought that reversed last year. When they WERE complaining about that, it WAS pretty damn easy to get a job. For entry level stuff anyway. I had my pick of the litter, but now finding a better job is near impossible again, the way it was before COVID.
Stop. Using. Indeed.
It's a glorified resumé scraping service for corpos. It's free to use for job seekers right? That means YOUR INFORMATION IS THE PRODUCT. All Indeed does is look at what's on your resumé, and then delivers that insight to corporations for a fee.
Go handout resumés in person. If the company does not want you to do that, submit them through their career portal on their official website.
You had me until missing an interview is not your fault. When I got an interview I wrote that date and time on everything. I couldnt go five feet without a reminder. If you miss an interview (barring medical or personal emergency) that's on you, but I guess that's an unpopular opinion.
You can't set reminders if you never knew the interview existed. It's still their fault, but it's an easy mistake to make.
I read it differently. It's an ambience. The author is not taking off actual interviews being scheduled.
Rather, replies to your applications are so few that you end up getting frustrated. Because of that, in the long run, you forget checking the website. Now, if in the meanwhile you get a reply, nobody's home to receive it.
You miss it not because you're lazy or careless, but because you're human and there's so much you can do to keep hoping.
but it's so rare for you to receive any response that you forget to check the website
This has happened to me and there's some confusion in the comments so I'll attempt to clarify here, it's not missing an interview in the way we're perceiving it. What happens is;
On indeed, you can pre-fill out an application and "quick apply" to most jobs, and that's the entire application process for that job. If you're accepted for an interview, they will message you on the indeed app or maybe via email.
But many of the jobs you can apply to on indeed don't accept quick apply and instead direct you to their website, where you apply again, and from then on must log into their site frequently checking back for responses, potential invites to interviews, recommendations for other openings etc.
So they're not missing an interview they've been notified about, they're missing the notification of an upcoming interview because they didn't check the site that notified them.
Is that still on them? Yeah, technically. But many, many sites are now doing this on indeed. Back when I was applying it didn't take me long to be signed up for indeed + DG + Walmart+ Amazon + UPS etc etc.
I'm sure I'm signed up to at least 50 different sites. 99% of those sites will never notify me of anything aside from other job openings.
So you get forgetful sometimes, checking 50 sites a day can do that to you.
Then one of them offers you an interview on their site, but you only checked 40 sites today and spent the rest of your time mass quick applying to 100 new jobs instead of checking the remaining 10 sites that had a .001% chance of actually offering you a job anyway.
I mean, yeah, the blame is still on them. If you're in desperate need of a job with nothing else going on then you should be religiously checking every site you're signed up with. However, I can see forgetting to check one or two as well because there are a fucking lot and it's a lot to remember.
I remember hating to apply to jobs that required me to use their site so, so badly, because they ALREADY had my application from indeed but instead of just using that app they want me to arbitrarily sign up for their site instead, that's likely much more of a hassle than indeed, and add ANOTHER fucking layer of difficulty to just getting a damn job.
A better way to get employees seems to be to just accept quick applications from indeed, message them on the app and just set up a damn interview. With indeed available I'm not sure why these companies even use their own sites.
Work Reform
A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.