The second of those is huge. Unfortunately, it's well-founded prejudice too; a lot of people who are jobless are jobless for a reason. Many "layoffs" are a euphemism for being fired, and interviews are imperfect to say the least. If I don't catch the reason you're unemployable, there are two possibilities:
(1) You don't have a reason, and you're perfectly employable
(2) You do, and it slipped past the interview process.
The longer you're jobless, the less employable you are. Employable people will snatch up new jobs very quickly. If you've sent 10,000 resumes and flunked 100 interviews, and pass mine, odds aren't that you've magically improved, but that you got lucky. If you've been unemployed for the past two years without good reason, you're very likely in that bin, so for most hiring managers, the longer you've been unemployed, the harder it is to pass an interview screen.
On the other hand, shit work 9-5 looks the same on a resume or in an interview as real work. A hiring manager won't know any better.
As a footnote, leverage is a real issue, but is easier to manage. Many companies will try to take advantage. However, at least as often:
- The hiring manager (personally) doesn't care about how much you cost. They want a good team, and it's not their money.
- The employer has fixed salary grades. There's little room to negotiate. If you do negotiate, the impact is generally transitory (if you're hired at the top of your salary grade, you can expect to have no raises for a few years without a promotion).
- The company compensates fairly, since they don't want a revolving door of people.
I'm not going to argue whether that's a majority or minority of companies, but it's manageable. At that kind of employer, you might get a few thousand extra with leverage than without, but it won't be a difference of tens of thousands of dollars, and nowhere near "being taken advantage of."
The second of those is huge. Unfortunately, it's well-founded prejudice too; a lot of people who are jobless are jobless for a reason. Many "layoffs" are a euphemism for being fired, and interviews are imperfect to say the least. If I don't catch the reason you're unemployable, there are two possibilities:
(1) You don't have a reason, and you're perfectly employable
(2) You do, and it slipped past the interview process.
The longer you're jobless, the less employable you are. Employable people will snatch up new jobs very quickly. If you've sent 10,000 resumes and flunked 100 interviews, and pass mine, odds aren't that you've magically improved, but that you got lucky. If you've been unemployed for the past two years without good reason, you're very likely in that bin, so for most hiring managers, the longer you've been unemployed, the harder it is to pass an interview screen.
On the other hand, shit work 9-5 looks the same on a resume or in an interview as real work. A hiring manager won't know any better.
As a footnote, leverage is a real issue, but is easier to manage. Many companies will try to take advantage. However, at least as often:
- The hiring manager (personally) doesn't care about how much you cost. They want a good team, and it's not their money.
- The employer has fixed salary grades. There's little room to negotiate. If you do negotiate, the impact is generally transitory (if you're hired at the top of your salary grade, you can expect to have no raises for a few years without a promotion).
- The company compensates fairly, since they don't want a revolving door of people.
I'm not going to argue whether that's a majority or minority of companies, but it's manageable. At that kind of employer, you might get a few thousand extra with leverage than without, but it won't be a difference of tens of thousands of dollars, and nowhere near "being taken advantage of."