Is it me, or is the KC job market CRAP?

[KCK]

This will probably start a flame war but I sometimes wonder if part of the problem is that some people with degrees expect to get in somewhere higher than the ground floor rather than start lower, gain experience, and work their way up. My current career started 15 years ago with a job that consisted of nothing more than changing reel-to-reel tapes a few times a day and tearing sheets of paper at the perforation. Sucked.

Honestly, when I do my hiring, I don't even really look at the education portion of the resume. I don't care. I just want to see either work experience experience or a personal portfolio that shows you are capable of learning the necessary skills quickly.

Uh, I work at wal-mart, anything would be a step up, I am not expecting $100,000 a year because I graduated college, I just want a job in the field I studied.

Oh and I see that you do the hiring. I still need a job

[chrizow]

the job market seems to be bad everywhere.

i am a second-year law student with good grades and all the big firms that came on campus rejected me.

last year, something like 30 students got jobs with firms that came on campus, this year it was 12.

lame.

someone HIRE ME FOR GOD'S SAKE!

[Maitre D]

Do you talk left-wing politics in your interviews, Chriz? That may hurt you in corporate America.

I've found that networking with friends-acquaintances is the best method. Please read "What Color is Your Parachute" - it will change the way you view the labor markets, and how to proceed.

[Tosspot]

Ignatius

Drawing newcomers to the city is a positive, I suppose.

Missionite

Best of luck-- I know how it feels. I did go to that job fair at the Westin Crown Center today-- mostly slim 'pickens. It is very rare that the recruiters at job fairs actually take resumes. Mostly they just give out pretty little business cards and fancy form letters on expensive stationery, referring one to their site. And after one jumps through the hoops on that site, one never hears anything from them again. That's my experience, anyway.

DMW

Similar situation for me as well-- I would love to move back to midtown KCMO, if only I could afford moving and the higher rent.


Comandante

Again, similar to my situation, though I majored in Finance, which for awhile was a fairly lucrative area-- but not anymore. If I don't find anything, I'm totally doing KU's urban planning masters program.



KC Jayhawk

Hello fellow finance major. I would say, having previous job experience has been what served you best in getting those good jobs. I myself have applied at State Street, but after a ten minute telephone interview late last summer, they won't even give me the time of day.



KCP

UMKC is a fine school, albeit the last time I heard, their business department wasn't accredited by some hoity-toity biz school institution-- whereas my alma mater CMSU is.


Scooter

The Sprint layoffs hampering the job market was my observation too. About making connections-- that's precisely what I must set out to do now. A fraternal org of biz majors that I was part of at CMSU has a KC Almuni Chapter-- really gotta get on board with that.

And right you are about the key being experience. If it was about education and the concomitant scholarly accolades, I'd be making mucho dinero right now.


UMKCgal

I'll keep that job fair in mind. It may also interest you that CMSU is having a fair on Feb 9th, I believe. Of course, you'd have to drive to Warrensburg... Might want to check that out...


Chriz

The tepid market for law students is what made me decide, for now, against law school. Though the masters in planning combined with the JD might just be worthwhile yet.


PPA

You mean talkin' all liberal to interviewers is a turn-off?? Shit, I think that must be my whole problem right there.

[KCK]

PPA

You mean talkin' all liberal to interviewers is a turn-off?? Shit, I think that must be my whole problem right there.

As a black man, whenever I go to interviews, I turn off my bad grammar and slang, and turn on my college graduate/sell-out voice.

Picture Eddie Griffin's voice in Undercover Brother when he started going out with White She-Devil.

[chrizow]

Do you talk left-wing politics in your interviews, Chriz? That may hurt you in corporate America.

I've found that networking with friends-acquaintances is the best method. Please read "What Color is Your Parachute" - it will change the way you view the labor markets, and how to proceed.

i don't talk politics of any sort in interviews - and, luckily, i've never been asked about my politics.

it is just a really bad market right now for attorneys. firms over-hired in the mid and late 90s and some are now being forced to lay off some recent hires (Sonnenschein Nath + Rosenthal is one big firm that has done so).

i think that networking is the key. i am confident i'll end up with a decent job, but finding work for this summer has proven rather difficult.

[Thrillcekr]

I just apply and apply, send resume after resume, and never hear so much as a peep from anyone.

I hear reports of a tepid job market in KC compared to other American cities; is there any validity to this? I would think that the development boom occurring now would be indicative of the overall economy and of job availability, but perhaps not.

One must wonder if that KCK address at the top of my resume scares off hiring managers.

I graduated from CMSU with a high GPA, several semesters on the Dean's Honor Roll at both CMSU and Penn Valley, and am a member of multiple scholastic honor societies. But the relative lack of post-graduate work experience is a great hinderance when competing with all of the Sprint layoffs. Not to mention the fact that no one will hire me for jobs that don't require degrees, seeing as how a degree makes one over-qualified in the eyes of hiring managers.

Gone many times have I to various job fairs, and it seems that mostly, companies are looking to the college educated to staff their customer service call centers as abused and eternally maligned phone drones. And they won't even hire me for that because the personality tests all say I'm no good at dealing with pissy customers.

Anyway, there are two job fairs tomorrow I plan on attending. Just printed off 20 copies of my resume that will all probably end up in a corporate wastebasket, but still one must try.

If KC wants to attract young professionals from other areas, it has a lot of work to do in the realm of career availability. But me, I'd never leave KC.

I don't know where you got that information from but move to another area and you'll see just how damn easy it is to find a job here compared to most other cities. I lived out in SoCal for 5 years and you would have a hell of a time finding a job out there flipping burgers without knowing somebody. KC isnt like the various metro areas in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York in the fact that not everyone and their brother is moving there and creating imbalances between the amount of residents and the quantity of available jobs. Is there less work out there than there was back in the late 90's? Probably. That isn't something exclusive to Kansas City though. That's a nationwide problem.

[KCK]

I don't know where you got that information from but move to another area and you'll see just how damn easy it is to find a job here compared to most other cities. I lived out in SoCal for 5 years and you would have a hell of a time finding a job out there flipping burgers without knowing somebody. KC isnt like the various metro areas in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York in the fact that not everyone and their brother is moving there and creating imbalances between the amount of residents and the quantity of available jobs. Is there less work out there than there was back in the late 90's? Probably. That isn't something exclusive to Kansas City though. That's a nationwide problem.

The question is, do you want to work at McDonalds, just so you can get by? The answer is hell no. Who wants to live anywhere as a low income service worker. That is a life of poverty. KC has no shortage of Wal-mart, and McDonalds jobs because the rich JOCO people need low income slaves to work in their stores out in their rich suburbs.

[Maitre D]

Sheez DMW, is that your outlook on life? Come on. Why not change your mindset a bit, and become like the JOCO "rich overlords" you so despise?

Find out how they do it, and do it yourself. I bet when you dig a bit deeper, almost all of them have college degrees, all of them work, and most of them avoid drugs-illegitimacy-crime. Copy them.

[KCK]

Sheez DMW, is that your outlook on life? Come on. Why not change your mindset a bit, and become like the JOCO "rich overlords" you so despise?

Find out how they do it, and do it yourself. I bet when you dig a bit deeper, almost all of them have college degrees, all of them work, and most of them avoid drugs-illegitimacy-crime. Copy them.

Actually pitt, that is my plan, the only reason that is my outlook is because that is what I have had to live for the last few years. I will have my bachelors degree in less than one weeks time, and now all I need is a job.

[DiggityDawg]

I will have my bachelors degree in less than one weeks time

Congrats, dude.

[KansasCityCraka]

Congrats to you DeadManWalking! Where did you get your bachelors from?

[Maitre D]

Actually pitt, that is my plan, the only reason that is my outlook is because that is what I have had to live for the last few years. I will have my bachelors degree in less than one weeks time, and now all I need is a job.

Congrats! What kind of job do you want? Field, etc? If you are in finance, send me a PM.

[Tosspot]

If you are in finance, send me a PM.

Are you joking?

[Thrillcekr]

I don't know where you got that information from but move to another area and you'll see just how damn easy it is to find a job here compared to most other cities. I lived out in SoCal for 5 years and you would have a hell of a time finding a job out there flipping burgers without knowing somebody. KC isnt like the various metro areas in California, Texas, Florida, Georgia and New York in the fact that not everyone and their brother is moving there and creating imbalances between the amount of residents and the quantity of available jobs. Is there less work out there than there was back in the late 90's? Probably. That isn't something exclusive to Kansas City though. That's a nationwide problem.

The question is, do you want to work at McDonalds, just so you can get by? The answer is hell no. Who wants to live anywhere as a low income service worker. That is a life of poverty. KC has no shortage of Wal-mart, and McDonalds jobs because the rich JOCO people need low income slaves to work in their stores out in their rich suburbs.

Well what I am saying Deadman is that there are plenty of places out there where you'll have a very difficult time even getting a job that is enough to pay for a ratty apartment and food in your mouth. When I was living in SoCal I tried to stay after my military service was up and I was searching for a job. I couldn't get a job flipping burgers or sacking groceries even. The job market was just that damn tight man. Getting a high paying job was completely out of the question. You get out in those coastal areas where everyone thinks they want to live and what you have is far more qualified people than there are jobs. Even the shitty jobs are all taken up by somebody just waiting to get their foot in the door somewhere else.

Once I came back here I found all the work I wanted. I mean I took a security guard job that didn't pay to great but I could get all the overtime I wanted. Not an ideal job but I could pay my bills, eat, and have a few bucks left over to see a movie or whatever. That was a hell of a lot better than the life I was living out there where I was damn near on street before I finally packed up and came back to KC.

I sympathize with you my friend because I have been in your shoes but I can promise you that it can be a lot worse. Things are just tough all over my friend.

[KCK]

Congrats to you DeadManWalking! Where did you get your bachelors from?

Devry.

Congrats! What kind of job do you want? Field, etc? If you are in finance, send me a PM.

My degree is in Networking Communications, so finance probably isn't what Im going to be doing.

[Thrillcekr]

Congrats to you DeadManWalking! Where did you get your bachelors from?

Devry.

Congrats! What kind of job do you want? Field, etc? If you are in finance, send me a PM.

My degree is in Networking Communications, so finance probably isn't what Im going to be doing.

That's what I'm going to school for now dead. Thanks for being the bearer of bad news. lol! It's all good though. I can get by just fine on what I make now and, even if I never get an opportunity to work in that field, that knowledge and my knowledge of computers will still be helpful to me on a resume.

Something to look forward to is the fact that many of these telcomm companies are now gearing up for the ip based television. I don't know if you have read up on that, but due to the dimension it will add to peoples television watching experience, I think it will really take off and when that happens they will need lots more networking professionals. There may even possibly be a shortage. Did you notice pool of students attending classes for computer related fields is really drying up? I'm thinking that means that when things turn themselves around qualified people will be able to demand big bucks for awhile.

[SWFan]

Well, if it matters the job market was pretty good for me in the last month. My previous employer was closing their business. They paid me a bonus to stick around til the end, which was 1/31. Right around the last week of January I started looking for a job in ernest and found one a week later, and was hired a week after that.

The new job is more money, more responsibility, and to boot, its closer to were I live.

[Tosspot]

An update on my employment situation:

I previously never heard squat from any prospective employers after applying and/or sending resumes. So, I recently began using my dad's KCMO address on my apps and resumes, instead of my mom's KCK address. And now I'm getting phone calls and emails left and right to come in for interviews. Coincidence?

[chrizow]

yeah, sometimes you have to be a little dishonest on the resume to get some of these stiffs to throw you a bone.

the Career Development people here made me delete all kinds of things from my resume - 20 minutes before i had an interview! i had to take out my work with the Alliance (gay-straight law student association), the ACLU, Campus Progressives, etc. i understand that these things spell "lunatic radical" to your typical Baby Boomer attorney (esp. those from jefferson city, where i am trying to work), but jesus h. christ!

what these people probably dont know is that there are closeted progressives, gays, radicals, etc. at all law firms and places of employment.

anyway, hang in there TP. if you have to use a different address, just do it. one has to bend over a little bit if she doesn't want to work behind the counter at Muddy's for the rest of her life.