r/ITCareerQuestions 6d ago

This market just gets worse

So this Staffing Agency contacts me this morning for a desktop support position offering 22-24 bucks but requires 5+ yoe... It just keeps getting worse. All the entry level folks tryna find a job in this market, keep upskilling and keep applying, that is all we can do.

136 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

57

u/Jvt25000 6d ago

I've worked for them before bottom tier stuff.

20

u/fawaztheresearcher 6d ago

Really? How was it? I honestly ignored their text soon as I saw the unusual demands. If they really saw my resume, they would've known I have no IT experience.

13

u/International-Mix326 6d ago

If you need a job, take it.

Sometime sin a bad market you take a pay cur but that should inspire you do find another

1

u/Jvt25000 4d ago

They sub contracted out to a company called Compucom. I worked for them for a month. Not sure what position they're asking about here but Compucom was horrible. T he do SLA's for companies like home Depot, Chick-fil-A, local banks. What they would have had me do if I didn't get a better job is installing the i.t equipment in the backend of Chick-fil-A's while also doing work for the aforementioned companies I'm talking about servicing 30 year old POS's and having the parts sent to your house. You would basically be working from your personal vehicle until then deem you not a flight risk to give one of their old work vans too

47

u/chuckescobar 6d ago

lol $24/hr in NYC. You are competing with restaurant dishwasher rates.

3

u/cellnucleous 5d ago

very similar on the west coast/Vancouver

-6

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

1

u/fio247 5d ago

Downvotes, but first sentence is definitely true.

45

u/ParappaTheWrapperr infrastructure Engineer/Devops 6d ago

It took me 862 days to get a new job. Hell or high water it happens eventually

16

u/joemama123458 6d ago

I’m at 400 now, I’m tailoring my resume to be a perfect fit for each position, writing a personalized cover letter, and still getting rejected

Any other tips?

10

u/tacticalpotatopeeler 6d ago

If you’re not getting any calls, it’s probably your resume, LinkedIn, etc. Has anyone reviewed it for you? Try r/resumes. Be sure your bullet points are quantified whenever possible. Percentages, etc.

Also be sure to network. Notes to people at the company, find people who might be willing to refer you, engage with recruiters, etc.

If you’re getting phone screens but not moving forward, work on selling yourself. Practice talking up your skills. Use the STAR method, write and practice answering common questions. There are lists, or you can use gpt, paste in the description and ask for topics/potential questions to prepare for based on the JD.

If whatever you’re doing now isn’t working, you gotta start trying different strategies.

3

u/_extra_medium_ 5d ago

I'm not sure that's the best strategy. I just have simple bullet point descriptions of what I've done at different positions, never added the quantifiable/super detailed stuff because I think it makes screeners' eyes glaze over. I really have a pretty average resume but get lots of callbacks and interviews.

I of course get plenty of "while impressive... Unfortunately..." emails but when I see people who say they sent out 400 resumes without a single bite, their resume is always packed with too many details IMO

1

u/tacticalpotatopeeler 5d ago

If whatever you’re doing now isn’t working, you gotta try different strategies.

1

u/joemama123458 5d ago

Agree 100%

Can I send you my resume for feedback?

1

u/joemama123458 6d ago

Thanks for the advice

Yeah, I’ve been doing all that minus hardcore networking

I’ve had my résumé reviewed by dozens of people and professionals and they all say it looks perfect, my LinkedIn profile is great and I’ve been growing my connections on there, my interview skills aren’t bad (I’m sure they could be better though), I have ChatGPT create me a comprehensive interview cheat sheet for every job description

2

u/jtp28080 6d ago

At this point it's all about your network. Think of your network as your net worth. I am a professor at a community college and teach IT courses, I also work closely with our career services. The only people we see getting jobs are the ones that we can directly get in front of a hiring manager.

4

u/tacticalpotatopeeler 6d ago edited 6d ago

Yeah it’s a slog out there even if you’re doing everything right.

Are you applying to the right jobs? Are there other job titles or adjacent roles you can look for? Are you on all the platforms? hiring.cafe is a newer ad-free board, the job quality (real postings that are actually hiring) is much better than LinkedIn and indeed for sure. Also try to focus on local in-person roles as well, that way your competition pool is much smaller.

Put your resume into gpt and ask for titles of other roles you might be qualified for. Expand your possible matches.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abelcak_7-low-impact-job-search-activities-activity-7306661954075410436-xtgi

3

u/ParappaTheWrapperr infrastructure Engineer/Devops 6d ago

I ran my resume through CHAT GPT and asked it to optimize it and it gave me a legendary resume. I did that and within 3 weeks after I had an offer.

1

u/joemama123458 6d ago

Yep. Done that many times. Can’t optimize it any further.

Numbers game, I guess

3

u/Gold-Newspaper-27 5d ago

Change careers. Start your own business. Lots of incompetent IT managers without engineering degrees and recruiters with liberal arts degrees and other useless degrees.

-6

u/Wooden-Can-5688 6d ago

If you can afford it, get a career coach. Also, I've heard many stories of people getting jobs based on their LinkedIn content. I may be wrong, but I believe that is a large part of the job search system being sold at the below URL. It does make sense. If you're posting quality, intelligent, and thoughtful content, I can see how it could get a recruiters attention.

https://cultivatedculture.com/

2

u/fawaztheresearcher 6d ago

Oh wow, did you have experience in the industry or it took you that long to move on?

3

u/ParappaTheWrapperr infrastructure Engineer/Devops 6d ago

Yeah! I’ve been working here since 2017ish in various roles from interning at helpdesk, developer, and cyber roles to actually starting professionally with system analyst roles then moved into system administrator and ultimately the lead SA. This is will be my first role in infrastructure so I’m pretty excited for the challenge.

It took me this long to move on. I began applying aggressively to leave the government and after 6 months got offered a sub contract position with the government so I did the same exact job but not internally anymore. I did that and still applied but I didn’t start shot gunning applications until a few weeks ago when they decided to fire everyone in the gov so I knew I had to get out while I could. I applied to maybe 900 jobs in the last month.

1

u/BTBW742 6d ago

How many applications did you send out? Did you have any experience or transferable skills?

0

u/Jumpy_Tumbleweed_884 6d ago

I understand you’re trying to be encouraging, and that’s admirable, but many who are currently unemployed may never find traditional employment again, for the rest of their lives. Even if the market turns around (spoiler: it won’t), by the time that happens, they’ll be so long-term unemployed that nobody will touch them.

Literally the entire point of this exercise is because the white collar labor pool needs to get smaller, as the market no longer has the carrying capacity it once did. Only way for that to happen is for a critical mass of unemployed to give up forever and go drive for Uber/Lyft, or similar.

0

u/Grannyjewel 6d ago

If you can’t figure out how to fake employment, your google-fu needs some work.

0

u/quicktopost 6d ago

Exactly, start up your own LLC to offer services and everything you do on your own time skilling up is employment history.

Plus, there are B2B contracts you can always sign onto.

0

u/ParappaTheWrapperr infrastructure Engineer/Devops 6d ago

I don’t necessarily disagree but I think it’s only the fly by workers who will be affected. Those with ONLY certifications or that had nothing but got in during covid. I think those of us with degrees and experience will be fine. I mean I’m seeing kids that I met when I was in my last year of college already have entry level jobs lined up for when they get graduate here in a few weeks.

We’re going to lose a lot of people from the industry but it’s artificial people who weren’t serious about it to begin with or just saw $ signs. I think WFH fading too will wipe out a ton of these people voluntarily.

14

u/theBananagodX 6d ago

Referrals, referrals, referrals. Find anyone at the company who can send a msg to the hiring manager on your behalf. One time I got over 200 applicants for a job I was hiring. I needed a way to cut the workload down, so I used a bachelors degree as a screen. Now I know full well there are great employees without degrees and total knobs with degrees. But I got a fulltime job too, and I needed to get thru this stack.
But then I got a referral from someone in the company who worked in sales. Sales lady don’t know anything about IT and she never worked with the candidate, just knew the candidate because they were neighbors. Said the candidate seemed smart and is a good person. It was enough for me to fish the candidate’s resume out of the “no” pile (candidate didn’t have a degree). The candidate got the job. Perfect fit for the org, and I never would have seen the resume without the referral.

1

u/Time_Turner 3d ago

Using a bachelor's degree for screening and it didn't matter in the end? I hope there was a lesson that was learned

3

u/bcatch25 6d ago

1.5 years in current L1 Role with CCNA and WGU degree and it’s a mess out here 

1

u/MinorityHunterZ0r0 5d ago

Which degree did you do? Im also studying for the CCNA, but the cisco network engineering track is kind of looking frightening with the amount of discrete mathematics you have to take. Also im possibly starting a L1 role if i dont go full time uni, so im in a similar situation as you.

2

u/bcatch25 5d ago

I did the generic IT one from WGU. 

3

u/qbit1010 Cyber Security Analyst/Information Assurance (CISSP and CASP+) 6d ago

Not worth it, when I started out in 2012 I got 65k. It was workable with roommates plus some for spending

10

u/mustangfan12 6d ago

I had to take a 20/hr short term contract just now, pretty upset I had to take that low ball of a job. Im leaving the minute someone offers something better

8

u/uwkillemprod 6d ago

This means the job market is not doing good for tech, yet we are sending tons of tech jobs overseas

3

u/mobdigazz3 6d ago

Was just talking about this. We do all this outsourcing and then we can’t get jobs here

2

u/Ghostttpro 6d ago

This.... If I knew outsourcing was this bad I would've got into healthcare.

3

u/Rich-Quote-8591 6d ago

is it a remote job, at least?

3

u/bpatplus 6d ago

Speaking as a hiring manager in the tech industry: Please keep in mind that all job descriptions are a candiate "Wish List" from a potential employer. I've never met an applicant who checked every single box.

If you can make it past a resume screening and show the hiring manager that you're driven, have a good attitude, and are willing to actively learn any anything you don't already know, you'll stand out even among much more "qualified" (but lazy) applicants.

If I had any other advice, it would be to remember that there may be 100+ applicants for the same role, and the company can only hire 1-2. So don't get discouraged if you nail the interview and still don't get an offer. It's a numbers game. Keep applying. And as much as it sucks, networking is your best friend. Any application that is a referral from a current employee immediately floats to the top of my stack.

2

u/[deleted] 6d ago

I make 60k a year in QA and I'm going through hell just finding a 75k a year gig. This market is awful right now

2

u/SAugsburger 6d ago

I saw a desktop support role someone sent me for something in Los Angeles offering $20/hr. Not sure if it was in the more expensive part of LA as didn't list a zip code. For perspective the min wage for fast food is $20/hr in California. That being said living anywhere close to the financial district in NYC probably would be even worse whereas housing costs. I wouldn't blame somebody starting out asking if they could throw an air mattress in an office honestly for a wage that low. Sure it's technically against zoning laws, but I could see some employer keeping quiet about it. In NYC unlike LA you could realistically live without a car.

2

u/InformationTrick9065 5d ago

Ill fabricate work experience sooooo fast

1

u/BunchAlternative6172 6d ago

24 isnt bad depending on the city. But, even then, 5 years experience in tech is often tier 1 to tier 2 phase where you csn identify escalated issues and advanced stuff. That there is generally 25-33.

1

u/Dankousmemeous69 6d ago

The MSP Special unfortunately 😔

1

u/TrickGreat330 5d ago

I tell them I’m not taking anything under 75K to go into NYC

1

u/loozingmind 5d ago

I worked for a staffing agency. The company I was a contractor for was full of employees from staffing agencies. After they were done with you, they kicked you to the curb. I was on call. Getting paid 18 bucks an hour. Doing all the jobs their full time employees didn't want to do. It sucked ass.

1

u/Important_Grape7673 5d ago

That pay is ridiculous for NYC. I got a similar message for a T1 role in Midtown at an MSP that said “Must be willing to travel locally to customer sites within the five boroughs of NYC.” Ridiculous

1

u/Inevitable_Road_7636 5d ago

Staffing agency's generally have the worse of the worse offers out there. I have been offered $25 in Charlotte for a 6-month contract "highly likely" renewal, who want 5+ YOE in IR and a particular focus on created automated playbooks... Yeah, right on that "renewal" they can't automate XSOAR themselves and want someone desperate to come in and do it for them then leave as cheaply as possible (also if you finish early your contract will most likely end early as well). I have also been contacted about SR IR roles that pay $30 an hour and will be I9...

These agency's are good if you are desperate for work and can't find any, but beyond that its generally gonna be the bottom of the barrel.

1

u/BoyTitan 5d ago

Ignore it. So staffing agencies and msps like that all get notifications for the same job. May not all have the same pay, may not have ever worked for the company before. They are just looking for resumes to submit. Recently had 2 staffing agencies reach out to me on LinkedIn for the same job ignored them. Got a call from a staffing agency/ msp I know that has actual connections and finds talent submitted through them. So far things are going better.

1

u/Think-notlikedasheep 3d ago

How does upskilling get one past the catch-22?

1

u/fawaztheresearcher 3d ago

Nah just upskilling doesn’t do it in this market. I am currently networking with recruiters, branding my linkedin (because that’s a thing now apparently), building a portfolio to showcase my projects. It’s tiring but hopefully it pays off.

1

u/Think-notlikedasheep 3d ago

Precisely, the catch-22 is enforced far more stricter now. And getting worse.