Period: 10 February 2024 to 16 February 2024
Positions applied to: I applied to 13 positions during this period. Total jobs applied to/opportunities investigated are 85 unique positions.
Rejections: I was rejected for 3 positions (22 rejections total).
Conversations:
I had one recruiter contact (who never managed to call me back).
I also had a follow-on interview for the latter of my two panel interviews last week which was with the head of the Quality Unit for the location. It was a really good call (just in general, not just for the position). I found out two things: the first was that the hiring manager had recommended that he talk to me, and that (per him) I should be hearing something early next week, something essentially confirmed by the in-house recruiter.
Job losses: Less layoffs, but some interesting notes:
LianBio (China) laid off 50 people.
Aurinia laid off 25% of its employees (no numbers).
Bayer announced they were seeking volunteers at their St. Louis plant for severance. It is reasonably sure that if volunteers do not appear, there will simply be layoffs.
Catalent announced that - last year - they had laid off 300 people. This only came out because of the annual report. This is interesting because they are currently in the process of being acquired, and these layoffs were not publicly announced before now.
Mood:
This week is the two month anniversary of my layoff. If I am completely honest, I find myself in a little bit of a slump prior to the latter part of this week. It is not surprising to me that it is taking longer than I would have liked based on my friends' experience, but that does not make it any easier to accept.
While I am continuing to apply for positions at my experience level, I am also applying more frequently to positions that are below my experience level. The pay is usually less (sometimes much less), but that is an entirely separate issue. Some income and benefits is better than waiting a very long time for a position that never appears.
As a personal note to manage my own expectations, I have not heard from the position I fully interviewed with or the position at my former employer. These, at least, I am considering effectively "closed out". The panel interview that I had for one company last week has also not had the follow on contact I expected - again, I am guiding this towards the "closed out" category - as a former coworker (also quoted below) noted, recruiters will often not contact you (the term, apparently, is "ghost") if the process suddenly stops. Thus, at the moment, I have a single stream which seems to continue to move forward.
A general note about application in general, commented on as well by a former co-worker: Linked Out allows you to see how many folks have applied for a position. The number of individuals for most jobs I am looking at are in the 50's or above, with many individuals listed as "senior" or "managers". This is true of even entry level positions as well. To quote my friend, whoever has the idea that the job market and economy is healthy has no idea what they are talking about.
It is a bit discouraging not to hear anything when the process just stops, hang in there TB. At least you're not doing a job search in China, from all that I've read that economy is starting to roil.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, this seems to be a new development, at least by my experience. In the past, when one has been in the actual interview process there was always a notification about your ultimate fate (not so much with just CV submission; that often goes into the void). One argument could be made that no news is good news; I will say that the current front runner has been in constant communication, something the others have not. That, to me, is a sign.
DeleteI note that both the UK and Japan are now "officially" in recession - which you and I know is present long before the official numbers. I suspect over the next quarters we will see those numbers increase.
We've been pretty sure for a while now that the government is lying about how good the economy is, especially where jobs are concerned.
ReplyDeleteYour experience just proves it, I think.
You all be safe and God bless.
Linda, it is always a bit of an interpretation - a friend once commented to me that "Economy, like housing, is location, location, location". And to some extent - perceptively - I think that is true. What it does not incorporate is the sense of larger trends which eventually will not hide themselves. For example, the fact that the job report is almost inevitably downgraded to a lower number, quietly and without the fanfare of the initial release, suggests something is not quite accurate or correct.
Delete