Winter in the San Joaquin Valley and Hiring Observations of a Small Business Owner

"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo) 01/11/2019 at 11:00 • Filed to: None

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Fog. Lots of fog. An hour ago, you could not see across the street

I got 270 resumes in a day for my “don’t be an idiot, have computer skills” assistant position. Idiots do not follow directions well, and many idiots without computer skills applied.

I am not really surprised at the number of terrible resumes (although they make me a little sad), I am more surprised at the number of people with degrees and solid skills applying for a $13-$15 per hour entry level job. Hell, I had a paralegal ask for $12 an hour this week - a skilled, revenue generating position. I pay my senior paralegal more than twice that.

I just hired two attorneys because both were too good to say no to, and my mom actually told me not to let talent walk away. Both frankly came cheap based on their salary demands. But I never had two attorney candidates that I felt so good about that I had to hire both. The last few times I hired, I had to take the best of a group that I was unsure about (although I admit it all worked out better than I could have hoped).

In short, this is a really weird job market. Fresno is an unusual market generally, but right now there seems to be a lot of good talent around for cheap, even though unemployment is low. I am not an economist, so I don’t know why, but I presume that it is either Trump or Obama’s fault, and a clear sign of the impending ecomonic apocalypse that we are doomed to experience as a result of Pumpkinhead/Obummer (you choose).

I don’t know if other small business owners in this area are experiencing this. My clients are in ag have an entirely different labor market, so what I see there is different. Is this happening elsewhere?

Sorry if this one bored you. Back to Toby and Sunchaser soon.

shop-teacher > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:14

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When we decided we had to get my wife out of her previous job (The place was going downhill fast, moral was in the toilet, nobody had gotten a raise in like a decade, and she was completely stressed out ), she looked around for other graphic design jobs. Everything she found wanted candidates with lots of experience (which she has), and capable of doing many different things (which she can), but they were only willing to pay somebody as if they had just gotten out of college. In the end, we just had her stay home with the girls. None of those jobs would’ve been worth paying for daycare. She does a bit of freelance when it comes around (so, let me know if you have any design work that needs to be done ;) ) , but I’m the one making all the money these days.

I think that’s the murky truth that nobody wants to talk about. Unemployment may be low, but most people aren’t making much money these days.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:14

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My employer has several offices in the bay area and a mid size office in Sacramento. We are a professional services company (engineers and scientist ) we cannot find qualified staff to fill open positions right now. We are paying bay area wages in sacramento to keep staff! One thing tho is that when the economy does take a down turn we will be okay for a year or two since we are currently stretched so thin. Most of us who take our jobs seriously are working 50-60 hr weeks to keep projects on schedule and moving forward.

TheRealBicycleBuck > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:21

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Your observations are generally true for all job markets right now. It’s hard to find good experienced employees. As for that, i t’s hard to find good employees even without experience. There are plenty of intellectually challenged candidates out there, so there’s always plenty of resumes to wade through.

We went through a series of hires for an entry-level data entry position. One seemed ok, but she mis-filed tons of paperwork and it took a several weeks to get it all straightened out again. Another hire quit after she found out that her first task was going to be scanning and filing several boxes of paperwork. She would have moved on to other tasks, but she said, “I wasn’t hired to spend all day scanning!” Actually, yes you were....

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > shop-teacher 01/11/2019 at 11:23

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My wife was making $12/hr in 2003 working the business end of a very profitable bike shop when we had our first child. That’s not enough to pay someone else to raise your children.

Future next gen S2000 owner > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:26

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Paying little for tons of experience is the new norm. Unemployment is low but people are grossly overqualified for their positions. The recession shed a ton of jobs and they aren’t all back yet. People take what they can get.

This recovery is different, a labor market shift is occurring. We haven’t reached a new equilibrium yet.

* That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

someassemblyrequired > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:27

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People are desperate right now, it’s crazy. In DC, know lots of federal workers, that make good money, that will be right up against the wall in a week or two because the cost of living here is insane .

My wife is in the Coast Guard, the junior folks are staring at huge rents given where they are stationed, and don’t have a lot saved because a) they’re 19, and b) they make like $1500/month before their housing allowance and they spend it on 19-year-old things . Luckily for us, we still have a lot stashed from when I worked in software, but I’m getting ready to go back to work if this presses on much longer.

I’m frankly surprised people would offer to work for $12/hr - it must be benefits, because I assume fast food/retail jobs in California would pay that or more.

I suspect we are in store for a bigly, world-class recession on par with 2008.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:31

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This is pretty much the same job I am hiring. I asked for a few additional skills (and bumped the pay a bit) but everything you said matched my experience on this process. Tons of terrible resumes (I think I received one that was a single page), tons of spelling errors, formatting errors when the person said they were excellent at office, people that were vastly over-qualified make 2-3x what we were offering, etc. The community needs more free resume workshops or something.

BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:34

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I can only comment on the job market in the northeast, but...sounds about right. Wages are so low that the workers’ expectation of wages remains low. Everything pays like an entry level job, and most people are so financially tapped that they’ll take it.

A return to 2009 is coming, make no doubt about it.   

EngineerWithTools > shop-teacher 01/11/2019 at 11:34

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That’s the wage stagnation paradox that is talked about so much. Booming economy, stagnant wages. Maybe even falling wages in “real” cost-of-living-adjusted terms , depending on where you live and what you do. I suppose stagnant wages helps hold off inflation... but goddam they can be frustrating. (We’ve got cars to buy!)

Anyway, I’ve been seeing more about how wages are just starting to rise and while I see it when trying to hire entry-ish-level engineers, I don’t “feel” it much in the broader marker.

TheRealBicycleBuck > shop-teacher 01/11/2019 at 11:39

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My wife was working in the construction side of a school system. Her job was to build new schools and manage redevelopment projects at old schools. This was one of her projects:

(Side note: This school did not flood in 2016 primarily because she insisted it be built to an elevation higher than the minimum requirements. She saved the school district millions of dollars.)

The teachers and maintenance staff were getting raises, but the construction team hadn’t seen a raise in 8 years. Two things happened to make her quit. A new school superintende nt was elected and he thought it was a great idea to start micromanaging the construction team. He told my wife to set aside several projects to focus on one so it could be ready for a ribbon cutting three months ahead of the contract. He wouldn’t listen when she tried to explain that he was breaking the contractual agreement and putting himself in a position of liability with the contractor and architect.

About the same time s he realized that the guy mowing the lawns, because of longevity, was making almost as much as she was. That was when s he decided it was time to quit and focus on passing her architectural exams.

CaptDale - is secretly British > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:44

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Yeah. That sounds really weird. Should I  send you fake resumes to make you feel better?

shop-teacher > TheRealBicycleBuck 01/11/2019 at 11:51

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“This school did not flood in 2016 primarily because she insisted it be built to an elevation higher than the minimum requirements. She saved the school district millions of dollars.”

Good for her!

Yeah, sounds like she absolutely made the right call there.  

Wacko > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 11:52

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i my neck of the woods, we have fast food restaurants and other small businesses closing, only because they can’t find employees

last week a local McDonald’s closed.....    

i changed job a month ago and got 4 job offers since......

shop-teacher > EngineerWithTools 01/11/2019 at 11:54

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Yeah, I went six years without a raise.  In that time I got married, bought a house, and had a kid.  I’ve finally broken through that, and am making a lot more money now than I was four or five years ago.

shop-teacher > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/11/2019 at 11:55

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Nope, not even close.

TheRealBicycleBuck > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 01/11/2019 at 12:06

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T he resume advice out there suggests keeping resumes to one page if possible.

That being said, t here is no excuse for any errors on the document that is supposed to be the best representation of the applicant.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > TheRealBicycleBuck 01/11/2019 at 12:10

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I have always heard the one page rule and all of the internet says the same, so it was baffling on how many I received for an entry level position that were 2+ pages. I get that sometimes the formatting gets thrown off, but most of these were PDF, as they should be. ¯\_()_/¯

DipodomysDeserti > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 12:23

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The office coordinator at one of my jobs has a fucking doctorate...

And it isn’t in office coordination, although she does a fantastic job.

His Stigness > shop-teacher 01/11/2019 at 12:25

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Can your wife design a new shop logo that I can slap on everything?

shop-teacher > His Stigness 01/11/2019 at 12:48

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Yes, if you’re willing to pay :)

If you’re serious, s end me an email to woodshop00@gmail.com, and I’ll put you in touch with her.

RickSanchez:Fury Road Edition aka Junkrat > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor 01/11/2019 at 12:59

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I have been using a single page resume for almost 20 years at this point. It has never been a problem. I do have a very specialized set of skills so maybe that helps, and I’m usually only up against 1 or 2 other people for the jobs I apply.

RickSanchez:Fury Road Edition aka Junkrat > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 13:11

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There is a large talent vacuum in my industry. I have been trying to hire a PBX tech for over a year and a half now. The world is just not making them anymore. I don’t even care about a degree, unless it’s in project management, the job just does not require it. I tried two different apprentices, with zero experience, during that time and neither was happy about being an apprentice. I wasn’t much different, but at least I understood that I needed to learn and I would be let loose the sooner I jumped through their hoops.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > RickSanchez:Fury Road Edition aka Junkrat 01/11/2019 at 13:27

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Mine is still single page and I have ~8 years of experience. I think I could still fit on a single page for many more years . It’s all about formatting and leaving off what isn’t important. I guess what I wrote above made it seem I was looking for longer resumes. I DO think single page is the way to go. But everyone, except one person, had multiple pages for an entry level job. All of them could have fit it on one page but either did not know, or did not care. I’m guessing a combination haha

His Stigness > ImmoralMinority 01/11/2019 at 13:32

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At least in automotive down here hiring the cheap dumbasses does not seem to be working out for the shops. Audi rejected my demand for $23 an hour over their $22 offer. And then lo and behold they called me a few months later asking if I was still interested. And I know I would still be there had they hired me and I would be exceeding their expectations.

And like you said, attorneys are willing to pay for talent, and my bosses were more than willing to negotiate with me and it’s working out for them.

His Stigness > shop-teacher 01/11/2019 at 13:50

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But of course.

I just don’t want to go to some rando who may very well suck while wanting a shit ton of money. 

shop-teacher > His Stigness 01/11/2019 at 14:09

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Well, in my biased opinion, she’s quite good :)