Comments by "looseycanon" (@looseycanon) on "A Life After Layoff" channel.

  1. A friend of mine was interviewing for a position of a tram driver, after his latest position proved... disappointment. He had gone through psychotests, including an IQ test. When the interviewer came with results, she told him: "It would be a waste of your intelligence for this position" and rejected him. Friend was furious.
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  2. Yeah, that first one hit close to home. Bachelor's degree in the field, worked about two years as accountant. First job, less than minimum hourly wage, cut hours, so he could do that legally... And took subsidy from the government, cause I've had hard time getting into the field. Thank god, I didn't have student loans.
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  3. My friend, you said it yourself. Employer loyalty is dead and it's the employers, who killed it. We have to be always on the hunt anyway, because the only way to get proper promotions, is to hop jobs. So let us hunt and let us blacklist every company that ever laid us off, particularly if without notice.
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  4. Careful about that eye contact thing! As autistic person, I too struggle with keeping it. I also know, from truly impressive amount of smalltalk with HR people from my failed hiring attempts, that employers know about it being a symptom. This has two ramifications: 1) companies are showing the door to absolutely brilliant analysts, that see errors where others will overlook them 2) they invite lawsuit, should an autistic person feels, it was autism, that disqualified them.
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  5. Employees will win this one. Demographics speak for them selves. Not to mention, that some companies have been remote first since the beginning and some have shifted that way, meaning there are more companies now, that are willing to accept remote work. It's only a matter of time and it will change with changing of generations. Millenials are used to working on computers and know, that those can work from anywhere, meaning, even as managers, they will be more accepting of remote work. As Boomers die out, office will cease to be as important.
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  6. Yeah, I feel the guy. Earned degree in accounting from a good school. Ended up going from interview to interview for two years, all the time hearing, "You don't have enough experience" or "You wouldn't fit culturally in" (all woman office), or "Very sorry, we've found someone, who fit's in better." (posted the same position the next week on the same job board). I swear, until legislation is put in place, that concrete, exhaustive and true reasons are mandatory to give, with allegation of contrary being considered true until proven otherwise, nothing will change.
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  7. Job market, that is horribly broken. I myself responded to over 3000 job postings and I know, that the job board I'm using has their CV creation tool certified, so that the HR systems accept them no problem. I am thoroughly convinced, that about 90% of those CVs never made it to a human, because the system was always checking for working experience, which I had 0 at the time. And automated rejection after rejection after rejection, all worded the same from different companies, but with the same spelling mistake... Talen acquisition process is so thoroughly broken by the "need" to cut costs, it costs companie the money, because they need to train new workers anyway and to make it even worse, they waste money on the employee hunting process on repeat, because they either don't hire anyone, or hire a guner, who mastered, how to do interviews, but not fundamentals of the job they were interviewing for... Not even the stuff taught in uni!
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  8. We Czechs have a saying: "Carps won't release all the water from their pond.". C-suite has the power to make decisions. They won't make sucha decision, which would cost them money.
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  9. Man, thank god, we have our own retirement funds here in Czechia. Some companies do offer a copay into the fund, but it's yours and yours alone, meaning you only need to change, who's your employer with the bank, when you change employers. That money is actually yours, once it lands in the account. None of this 401k fraud.
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  10. I really feel, that forcing people to stay at a job, when there is a disaster warning issued should be a federal crime with penalties severe indeed for both the manager and the owner. I'm not talking just some fines. I'm talking life in prison and loss of all possessions.
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  11. Yeah, I keep policy myself, when it comes to posting. That being said, if company takes an issue with what you're posting, especially if you don't mention that company by name or give sufficient detail for third party to dig into background things (say describe processes or other actually sensitive stuff), it really speaks volumes about that company. In a tragic kind of way, doxing yourself like this can help you weed out employers, who don't respect boundaries, eg. one of the types of low quality employers. It will make your professional life harder, but I believe, that those, who will hire you will be better employers.
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  12. Yeah, I always thought, that employers need to look in to costs of living in their area and realize, that people won't work for them, if they can't afford a small creature comfort once in a while or even worse, just living. A lot of employers like this in my country, who then cry, that people aren't loyal.
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  13. Tell it to them simply, once your trial period is over. "We've talked about it, during on boarding, nine months after end of my trial period, there will be evaluation. If you attempt to move or in any way delay or cancel the meeting, or I will not receive raise I will be happy with, we'll consider it you giving me two weeks notice." and as a little extra incentive, publish your resume on job boards. Companies killed employer loyalty, treat them with outright hostility.
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  14. A few years back, I have been in a very bad place, job seeking wise. I had a bit of business in a city known well for automotive industry. I was desperate, so I called HR, told them, that I am in the city and would be willing to talk to them about some jobs. I literally stood infront of their offices and the recruiter told me, to reply to a particular position on one well known portal, that they use it for pipe-lining! Yep, directly from the recruiter I wanted a job from.
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  15. Careful with these toxic employers, mate. You'll turn into Joshua Fluke eventually!
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  16. Ah forget about side hustles. Companies demand disclosure, non-competes, which basically bar you from working in your own as well as related industries are super common and companies demand all 40 weekly hours be given to them, while not providing sufficient income. No, you need to job hop from one job to another. You only have so much time in a week to work anyway!
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  17. maybe go over your compensation package. Young people have student debt, they have to repay, so if you don't factor that in in the offer, you're setting yourself for abandonment.
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  18. Yeah, employee monitoring would have been the thing for me, which would have me break laws, to get out of the contract... I've seen this coming for a while, being interested in IT, specifically networking and watched a lot of Joshua Fluke videos... This, along with watching unhealthy amount of networking guides about Ubiquiti gear made me build my home network up to near (with one of my employers even surpassing) corporate level. All employer issued HW is on it's own subnet and, once I'll get a place of my own, will be in a separate office, completely separated from the rest of the network. My employer will not snoop around my private network, even if it were the freaking CIA!
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  19.  @ZTRCTGuy  That still doesn't address the fact, that companies are leaving talent on the table and are risking a lawsuit.
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  20. Nah, you need to find something, that can sustain you even in retirement age, but not as a worker. Folks do consulting, maybe try flipping some goods or make something yourself... It will be income, but it won't be as a worker. We'll have to become entrepreneurs to survive.
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  21.  @QwertyS3  Maybe true, but there are no viable alternatives. Cause eventually, even using friends will not get you jobs, because then cliquishness will become an issue... Hell, we already have Reddit full of stories, that could give corps reason to stop hiring friends of their employees. You still have greater control as an entrepreneur over yourself than as an employee. Plus, who can guarantee, that policy changes, that would stop this toxic behavior, actually get passed and enforced? It would be great, but as things stand, I don't really see it happening.
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  22.  @ALifeAfterLayoff  Allow me to share my experience, because I firmly believe, fault is on "your" HR side of things. I've been looking for a job for two years in Czechia, we had at the time around 3% unemployment rate. When I finally found a job, I had over 1600 CVs sent out. My average number of interviews over those two years was about 0,8 to 1 per week. I stopped altering my CV and... there was no change in the frequency of interviews. Then covid hit. We had the toughest lockdown in Europe and... again, no change. So, I kept going on, hoping, I would get lucky somewhere. Our government announced, that in a week the lockdown would be terminated and in the next ten days after the announcement, I averaged 1,7 interviews per day, with 3 in one day being the most (with a healthy amount of travel time to boot that day). It was only in these ten days that I scored a job. So answer me this. How did I have so few interviews in two years of unprecedented economic growth, hunger for labor and literal employer whining, that they can't fill the positions throughout the economy, and then scored nearly twenty in span of ten days (including the one that earned me a job) in the middle of a freaking (and still ongoing) pandemic, which we'd expect to be the firing season, all the while making 0 changes to my CV? The way I see it, HR either doesn't understand basic principles of the market, eg. you can only buy, what is in there, or is failing to explain this to management. I say this, because throughout those two years, I didn't see any changes in employer's demands. I didn't see any change then and I don't see it now. All the time, entry positions, requiring two or more years of relevant working experience on top of at least a bachelor's degree and at least two (sometimes more) languages throughout the economy.
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  23. Frankly this is partially on the employers. I had been going from one closed doors to slammed ones left and right for two years twice... Always listening to the same lame excuses about working experience and/or not speaking language X. After hundreds of CVs ending up ghosted and dozens of interviews, where interviewer complimented me for how realistic I was, getting rejected... I would have blown up on someone too. At the time, I was beyond frustrated. I was turning communist for a while... Really, employers need to start looking ahead. Hire more people, if not for that one position, but for another, for which they'll train the new hiree. Stop looking at the next quarter, start looking at the next year. Babyboomers are leaving the labour market and those, who come to replace them are Millenials. the largest generation replaced by the smallest. I don't care, what AI get's invented. There won't be enough bodies to get stuff done and that's just the mass of people. There will be even fewer trained people on top of that!
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  24. You won't like the answer, but you have to create them. You can start with looking at other departments, find a way to reduce the need for people there and find those folk, who have IT as a hobby. Those would be your first recruits. Then you'll have to aggressively start hiring graduates and generally people with no working experience or knowledge and train them on your dime for as long as necessary. You know, the way it was done before "humans as a resource" approach. Your superiors won't like it one bit, because this will absolutely eat your profit, but at this point, especially in this field, that is the only way forward.
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  25. This really is simple. "Okay, employer, you want me to come back to the office. I have invested in my home setup in VESA mounts, good office chair and desk, towards which you didn't contribute a single dollar, but which I use for your business. Thanks to home office I could take care of my kids and didn't have to put so many miles on my car, which I need, because you are unwilling to take into consideration, that public transport from my town/village runs once an hour, and don't want to give me flexi hours either, not to mention time lost commuting to work, all of which didn't costs me money, but now will in order to work for you... About that raise you promised me last year..."
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  26. This is not so black and white, unfortunately. In Czechia, your home has to be declared as your place of work, which come's with it's own regulation in terms of work safety (that's literally in the law. The employer must provide a safe working environment). This doesn't cover just serious stuff like "a piece of machinery fell on me, now I' don't have a leg.", but also "I write on a crappy keyboard, now I need new carpal tunnels!". Therefore, most employers prefer to provide openspace or offices in commercial buildings instead. So it ain't as simple as you might think. I wish it were... As an accountant, I too could do 80% of what I daily do at home, only coming to work to deal with payment orders twice a week.
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  27. I left a toxic boss some time ago and became jobless. The economy was booming, so I thought, that I should find a job quickly. Result? Two years of joblessness. I've sent over thirty CVs a month and went to about one to two interviews a month. Then covid hit. What I find alarming, is that my rate of interviews never changed. I want from economy where employers were whining about not being able to fill roles in to one, where even decent sized employers were worried about their existence. And even though I didn't lower the number of sent CVs, my success ratio didn't change either. Then, in the middle of the epidemic, I had two weeks, where I averaged 1,6 interviews per day. I scored my current job then. All this in a country with unemployment under 4%. I feel, that HR is to blame for a lot of potential being left on the floor. Especially in the "nothing to put in" department. Young students with little to no working experience. Companies these days are using computers to screen out candidates, which don't fit, but as a result, they loose out. For instance, I'm an accountant. I also play around with networking gear. It's gone to the point, where I am the first line of tech support at our department, all the while processing invoices, and I have an enterprise grade network at home. Someone like me is likely to learn, how to deploy and maintain accounting systems both from tax and from technical perspectives. Whenever I called a company for feedback, I found out, that HR never saw my resume. Why? Because references to IT in interests section of my CV filtered me out at software level. You guys need to make your respective managements realize, that lowering expenses is not cheap, because you're loosing out on the flexible people, who can stick with you for decades, all be it in different roles, than you hired them for to begin with. And we know that is the actually cheaper option, because such employees don't achieve higher wages and you don't have to spend on recruiting and onboarding so much. There are synergies to be gained from such people. I myself don't have so much potential for this, because my skill sets don't combine so easily, but imagine someone with IT interest or background looking for a job in logistics or someone with background in the field of law looking for a job in accounting. Such candidates will be thrown out by software 8 out of 10 cases, while they are the ones, who can contribute the most to your companies. So stop wasting money on software and hire more manpower to process the huge amount of CVs that come your way. Sure, you'll have more expensive HR, but the other departments will get cheaper and more productive.
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  28. Well, if these threats were proven in front of court... they could get negligent homicide...
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  29. Mate, same field, similar company mindset. My first proper accounting job after school, meaning very unsure about accounts, no connection between what I had learned at school and actual invoices... Yeah, fun. I told the head of accounting, that I'll need guidance, in the interview, very much before I got hired. I never received any support, apart from the software we use. No training on the internal system, didn't receive account list to this day or anything regarding fixed assets... meanwhile, I'm on my third accounting role in the company. As a result, I am the one who's being approached by folks. Was an invoice paid on time? Yeah, I look that up and tell, even though I don't do payments anymore. A colleague forgot to attach payment details? No problem, here they are. Generated from the system. Oh AR didn't send over invoices? No problem. Anything about overhead invoices? Yeah, that used to be my position, so I can explain a thing or two, I might not be an expert, but, for some reason, I always managed to either point to the answer or to someone with it... Cause, you know, I've had to work out, what was what in my early days. Now, I got sick these few months back... meltdown from my bosses idiotic behavior, tooth ache (the teeth had to be extracted), covid, left one evening with a fever... Yeah those were interesting three months... and guess what. Our CFO berated me over how little I were at work, even though I've had doctor's notes, and in the same breath praised me over how helpful I was to everyone around me. Then, he tried to force a pay cut on me (very illegal, where I live), because I was not at a position, which demanded the salary I started with... The CFO even tried to throw my studies in my face... Yeah studies, I gave up on, because I was needed at the company for closing and didn't go for my exams. Meanwhile, I offered, that if I ever got sick, I'd work from home, right after I were hired. All I needed was a computer, but guess what. "No home office for you, drone.", was the CFO's answer. So I got my self a new job, so I'll be giving my notice shortly. Too bad it ain't accounting per se, but I can't stay at this company. I don't feel appreciated one bit. When I started my job, I was fine waking up early to get to the job. I was looking forward to learning from actual practice. Nowdays? I hate going to work. And the craziest thing about all this? So my company basically forced me out, yet when I started working there, HR was practically balling their eyes out, over how they can't retain talent. I wonder why is that.
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  30.  @eq2092  Yeah, don't have 10 years of working experience after 1 year of leaving full time studies...
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  31. That is simple. By job hopping and finding a company, which won't do that. I am leaving my company over this.
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  32. I disagree with you a bit, finding out, why it happened benefits you in two ways. One, if it were an actual problem and not an HR crotch, then you have to fix it to get more hireable. Two firings don't come completely out of the blue. Recognising a similar pattern can give you heads up to intensify your job hunting and be ahead of the curve.
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  33.  @seanmysel5823  But you need to know, it's just an opinion and it's unfounded. Because if that opinion is for instance, that "finance analyst can't use advanced functions in Excel.", then that is a genuine problem for you to fix, if you want to get hired as a finance analyst.
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  34.  @pipsplay  Which is why you need to make them understand, you don't tolerate shenanigans
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  35.  @ALifeAfterLayoff  Not to mention brach of contract. Companies like to put non-compeets with language, that would make your accounting job disappear, if you became a part time welder somewhere else...
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  36. Interesting. Here's how probation work's in Czechia. During up to first three months, six for senior leadership, either side can just walk, as if in at will employment. If not in this period, minimum notice is two months, but both sides can agree on a longer notice period in the contract, as long as it's equal. Eg. employer can't force employee to give them greater notice, than they have to give the employee. There are exceptions, though. If employee truly horribly breaks his duties (usually comes high/drunk, beats coworker...), these have to be agreed upon in advance as more serious derelictions of duty, or if the employee was sentenced for at least six months for a crime against the employer, or if his conduct was not connected to his work was sentenced for at least a year. If the employee proves legally incapable of carrying out his duties and the employer stated in writing in the last twelve months, that the employee must take action to fix this incapability and the employee doesn't act (licensing requirements stemming from law, for instance, to advise people on debt, you need a license from our central bank), or if while on sick leave the employee gets caught outside of permitted hours outside the dwelling the employee stated he would stay at during illness. An employee can immediately end his contract, if he can no longer carry out his duties due to health reasons and the employer didn't move the employee to a new position within 15 days of being made aware of the fact. This has to be done by a doctor's assessment. Or if the employer didn't dully pay in full all compensation due to the employee within 15 days of due date.
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  37.  @callmekirkland8  I disagree, I got my job months after stopping writing cover letters. I will admit, that I'm from Europe and finance, so it might be either cultural, field specific or both, but when I stopped writing cover letters, I didn't notice change in potential employer responses.
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  38. Yeah, I'd rather see a 4+1 work week, where 4 days would be worked and 1 day would be spent on development, and let the employee decide, whether that 1 day will be through employer provided courses, weekend courses at a university or acquiring a certification or license. Think there could be better results that way.
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  39. Yeah, when I started ať my current job, I literally received condolences, because my direct boss And one od my coworkers were supposedly pain in the ass... Imagine, how I felt on my First day
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  40. This is something I could not explain to my dad ever. That not just employers sometimes advertise on multiple sites, but also that sites are actually interconnected in some cases and are carbon copies of eachother! When job hunting, I'm job hunting on the largest portal around and, surprise surprise, all those other portals have job opportunities that are copy paste adverts of the same companies, sometimes with some specs added or retracted, but the same ads all the same... But dad was all, "And what about this site?", or "Look, they're advertizing over on that site!" and I'm like... "yes, they are. They have my CV for a week now... Found their advert on the site I use."... Or the lady at the labour office, "But you're only responding on one site! Try all those others!", to which I pulled out printed email, where one employer asked me, to stop responding on all the sites, because they received my CV eight times in one week... And of course, didn't hire me then. Two sets of two years of job hunting. Then, my tenure at my former employer ended, I wrote off another, cause the job was absolutely not for me (I'm not cold calling). I went dry for a month, then, a recruitment agency called, pushed me through to my current employer and a month after that, I'm starting my probationary period. It almost feels, like you're trying to get a mortgage out of a bank. Not for you as a person, but for you through an intermediary? "How low do you need your interest rates, sir?"
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  41.  @truemore75  Well, you have no other options here, though... Well, apart of going global and establishing a branch in like India or Czechia... And I really wouldn't bet on AI or electric cars... Lot of snake oil in tech these days.
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  42.  @lazypioneer91  Nope, that wouldn't fit the legislation, because work can only be carried out at workplace.
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  43.  @lazypioneer91  It's not that messed up and since law in EU is harmonized, I'd expect something similar to be in all the EU member states and the UK, given how recently they left. That law actually causes employers to care about employee's health. They would gladly put the cheapest and worst chairs in the office, if they could get away with it. If this didn't apply, they cloud get away with that by shifting to full remote positions, where ever possible and since all of Europe is shifting towards services, opportunities for this are only growing. That law was written in an era, when work was done at a factory and to some extent in an office (very few people were doing office jobs), not on the Internet, but that doesn't mean, it doesn't cover aspect of work from home, which the employers would gladly begin to abuse to lower their headcount costs.
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  44. @Josiah Galicia That's not everything. As a cat owner, I can tell, that my productivity as an accountant would suffer a bit... Cats simply come, start studying the invoices and suddenly, I can't input them, cause kitty got exhausted and is now purring and sleeping and you dare not disturb a sleeping cat.
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  45. 2 or 3 months aint that much silence... I had a potencial employer, a major corporation, respond with an update, that the selection process is still ongoing, after 6
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  46.  @eq2092  I literally have studies supporting my point. Ask yourself another question. Why is it, that guys right after school have double the unemployment figures than average? If employers cry, about not being able to fill a positions, shouldn't they lean in and hire guy, who doesn't fit that well and train him? Shouldn't employers offer more than minimum wage? If there indeed was shortage of workers, you'd expect that to happen. They didn't even through pre-covid years. Look at houw employers behave and then judge.
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  47. AI avatars... Way to remove human from HR.. Guess, we all need to stop being employees and go fund our own budinesses...
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  48.  @seanmysel5823  which is what I did... because I saw the writing on the wall, because I spent the time looking into this.
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  49. There is easy fix. Never network. If you won't receive bumps in salary or promotions, that you want, just leave the company for a new one. Don't go to HR, what positions are open. Don't go above and beyond. Just keep an eye out and make your own promotions through lateral movement in the job market.
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  50. I say, be authentic, never lie in an interview, but do keep a blacklist of companies, that ever lied to you and never EVER interview with them again, if they'll lie (already have two entries) and if you ever hear someone think up loud about joining the company, warn them not to and tell them what happened to you and exactly how. Do what you can and is legal, to deny such companies employees, because nothing else will secure change, given the fact that legislature, which should answer to you, is in the pocket of employers. And remember, employers have forgotten, what it means growing their workforce. I live in Czechia, even through covid and well before and after, we have had unemployment at that level and companies compeeting in crying over not being able to hire, that they need more flexible job market... Yet, our wages didn't keep up with inflation even before covid. We have some of the most profitable companies year-on-year, yet vast majority of them offer minimum wage even for as specialized positions as accountants, CNC programmers, IT admins, certified welders... Not one of them offered apprenticeships in their respective fields, let alone paid ones! And basically no company offers minimum economic wage (cost of living+maintaining the job) in the area they operate in.. And now they want the ability to lay off people without stating reason! They all behave like a cartel, only authorities are scared stating that!
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