Crazy Job Market

I'm graduating in a few months with a surveying bachelors and have been getting interviews left and right. No shortage of opportunity these days, it would seem.?ÿ

Good for you guys. Don't hesitate to ask for the moon and the stars. I won't mind.?ÿ

I usually get 3-5 a month, mostly local in Southern Michigan. I'm happy and satisfied in my current position, so it would take a bunch to get me to move. However, in the last year only two calls had salary where I felt it should be. So, the market still hasn't come around here.?ÿ

I get about one a month but they are typically for employers that are outside of the range I would want to commute - the other side of Sacramento from where I live or in the Bay Area.?ÿ A choice between dealing with frustratingly bad traffic for 3 hours/day or hellishly nightmarish traffic 6 hours/day.

Once they know my age, they fade into the background.

30yrs ago all these people would not give me a chance, now at my age, they are looking for someone like I was 30yrs ago.

Crickets here. ?ÿThat's fine with me because they answer would be negative.?ÿ

I get calls, emails and LinkedIn messages multiple times a week with offers near 6 figures, along with everything under the sun (which I doubt is a truthful offer).?ÿ I've also been on the other side of that need. It's impossible to find good help! There are simply no (not enough) folks getting into the profession. Last position I filled took 8 months, during which time I received 3 resumes.?ÿ

I just wish companies would coordinate their search efforts better. ?ÿI hate it when recruiters contact me about a position that I've already turned down when previously approched by the firm itself. ?ÿ

?ÿ

?ÿ

However, in the last year only two calls had salary where I felt it should be

I see this a lot with companies who have an established base in other markets, but want to expand into the D.C./Baltimore market. ?ÿ

One in particular has close to a dozen offices in a region where $80K is the market salary for a survey office manager and +- $100,000 is what they are paying their corporate director of surveys. ?ÿTheir head hunters (based in their home region) keep contacting people about his opportunity with a "great salary" that would be a substantial pay cut for everyone they contact. ?ÿ

Very early in my career I jumped for a few of those calls. It gave me good experience and paychecks but stalled my reputation. I now watch the offers out of curiosity more than anything else.

The moral of that story, be careful not to transition from Surveyor to Auctioneer...

Lots of calls out here too (WA).?ÿ They've even bugged me at?ÿwork?ÿa couple of times - which is very annoying and not cool.?ÿ Keep them coming though.?ÿ I may not want to switch jobs, but I'd rather all the recruiters know my name and contact information if times get tough again.?ÿ

I agree what some of the rest of you have said: The money isn't where it should be - at least not enough to get me to move and go through all the transition hassle (new insurance rules, new sick accrual rules, new vacation accrual rules, etc.).?ÿ Not that I would currently, even if the money was better.?ÿ

I'd guess that many of the places (not all) that are looking for PLSs are probably looking for a reason (either they didn't treat the previous PLSs very well, or they didn't value those PLSs enough to pay them better).?ÿ Though certainly not all.?ÿ I've seen this a lot at larger engineering-first?ÿcompanies: those without a PLS as a main partner (aka: surveying as an after-thought).?ÿ When they do have to hire new PLSs they realize?ÿthe?ÿPLS market isn't?ÿwhat they thought, and end up having to pay near or the same as?ÿwhat a PE gets (which seriously confounds some of them).?ÿ?ÿ

Of course, they don't realize that?ÿeven then,?ÿwhat the PLS gets?ÿusually isn't the same, since higher level PEs usually get some sort of ownership/higher level position in the company (with higher level bonuses and payouts) after awhile, which just isn't available to the PLS.?ÿ Not to mention the difference in perceived value to the company and access to company resources, which is usually less for a PLS than a PE at these kinds of companies, no matter what the balance sheets say?ÿ(its one of those things that they don't mean to do, or even think they are doing, but it happens).?ÿ?ÿAnd it?ÿmakes a big difference.?ÿ

If you?ÿchoose to?ÿgo to one of these places (since apparently I'm giving advice now 🙂 - every damn surveyor has an opinion and loves to share it if you want it or not), go with eyes open, and demand compensation as high as you can get (you'll earn every penny and then some).?ÿ You can?ÿalso learn a lot from these kinds of places, and have access to types of work that you just wouldn't get anywhere else.?ÿ And then they'll be hiring again, once you've gotten what you can from them.?ÿ 🙂

Over the past several months at least, I am contacted through Linked In by third party recruiters asking if I'm interested in a surveying position they have available. (By third party recruiter, I mean one not working directly for the surveying company)

There are a couple factors they apparently do not pay Any attention to: like my most recent surveying experience being the better part of 10 years old now and I am working in a completely different field.

So, I have not responded to even one of the recruiters.

One thing I truly don't get is that I have as much info set to private on Linked In as I can, yet I am still visible to the paying recruiters. My name, resume, all that good stuff is not private.

Same thing apparently goes for Careerbuilder. I set my resume to "private" years ago and have not touched my account for quite some time. Lately, I have gotten a couple emails saying my resume has shown up in searches and been viewed a couple time. So, I went and deleted my account there entirely.

When I had my resume set to "public" on various job sites, I got incredibly large amounts of spam for jobs which bore no relation, in any way, shape nor form as to what I was interested in or in my resume.

Central FL here... I'm fielding random calls / emails / messages from recruiters. Most don't have a clue what I do... I usually don't respond...

Haven't got phone calls or e-mails but when I've bumped into companies in the field they'll ask if I'm happy where I'm at.