Career Confidence

16Looking for a Job Is Like Having a Job

In 2023, there was a gut punch heard around the world. Between economic, civil, business, and political chaos, hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs in the United States.

Worries about a looming recession, general corporate greed, and the recognition that many, many, many companies over-hired during the pandemic ended, and now there was a fire sale of talented and smart professionals, by the thousands.

Watching business sectors collapse was like watching dominoes fall, without the same giddy excitement that we feel when the last piece falls.

The tech sector shredded workers like I shred cheese. A lot of it.

Then banking, then warehousing, then crypto, then consulting. Huge layoffs by Meta, Disney, Walmart, Lyft, Amazon, Boeing, Dell, IBM, and many, many more.

In a normal workforce environment, people leave jobs when they are unhappy, they are mistreated, when they want to make more money, or they want to move up.

But when all you hear on the news is layoff, layoff, layoff, it makes you scared to make a move.

And that is right where they want us.

During the Covid pandemic, we worked with clients in transportation, supply chain, and logistics roles who regularly took new jobs that doubled their salaries. Those functions were so desperate for leadership, they were throwing out salary dollars like drunks in a strip club.

If there was a phrase for hiring during that time, it would have been “name your price,” such was the desperation ...