I have friends that have been laid off from sales positions and get a severance. Some of them have been really fortunate and when the severance runs out they start a new job. Others, not so much. The recession may be "over" but it's still very difficult. Even those of us with jobs are performing more functions and have higher expectations than we used to, meaning a more stressful work environment... sometimes with unrealistic expectations.
- Curious, do you think it would be more advantageous to be underemployed at a job that was well beneath your qualifications or unemployed but actively looking for a job that was lateral to what you previously did?
I think that, in general, companies won't underemploy people. Like being jobless, being overqualified is something that will prevent you from getting a job. It even gets a mention in this article: There was an article in one of the West Coast papers recently about mid- to late-career techies in Silicon Valley finding themselves unemployable because they're overqualified and tech firms won't touch them anymore. And if they're overqualified for tech firms, they're overqualified for everyone else too.A manager is going to get the vibe that they'll take anything to get a job and if something better comes along they're out the door.
This passed week I was talking with a guy that worked with Myspace when it was new. He helped bring them to prominence and then along came FB and killed them. He then went to interview at FB. He had a wealth of experience but was 35 years old at the time. The people interviewing him were in their early twenties. The way he describes it, they took one look at his wedding ring and then asked, "are you sure you can handle 17 hour work days"? He knew then that he wouldn't get the job. He went on to work in other startups that didn't have to do with social and was quite successful. He was both overqualified and over aged.... at 35!