WWYD? Getting a job in a tough market

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16:35 again

I just noticed you have an MBA. You will definitely be able to move around in the system with an MBA.

I know people with 4 year college degrees that started out in the janitorial department cleaning the classrooms. One is now admin of parking.

In our state you are part of the state retirement system. Again, no one ever quits these jobs and it is hard to get hired on unless your spouse is a professor and then the University finds a job for the trailing spouse.

Take the job and keep looking if you need to but a job in the hand is worth two in the bush.

I've never found this to be true and have worked at several universities. This may have been more true 30-40 years ago. It also may be more true in an urban area like DC where people would regularly leave to find higher paying positions.

You could take the job and see OP. I doubt working conditions and pay will even touch what you have previously experienced, so beware.

[Anonymous]

I would take it. So much of what happens depends on you. Take the job, network, gain some skills and then start looking again.

My husband took pay cuts twice and both times it worked out and he advanced quickly. Once was in purposed because he wanted to work for a senior person. The other was due to layoffs.

[Anonymous]

I would take it to stay employed; there are many roles at a university, and an MBA is helpful especially in this climate with higher ed having financial issues due to many factors.

You should focus on doing your best while there in the role and then making connections across the university.

[Anonymous]

Compensation aside, going from client-facing consulting to a slow bureaucratic underfunded underresourced university would be a hard no for me, dog. The emotional toll of that kind of environment would make me want to self-lobotomize.

[Anonymous]

The only real value of an MBA is the network which comes with it, the skills are fluffy busywork to make it seem like you are learning something.

If your MBA network is failing to land you a job, and it sounds like your career sphere is being crushed in this jobs recession. I would take the job and keep applying. You can also consult on the side to spin that tale as well — a staff university job should be 40 hours straight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The only real value of an MBA is the network which comes with it, the skills are fluffy busywork to make it seem like you are learning something.

If your MBA network is failing to land you a job, and it sounds like your career sphere is being crushed in this jobs recession. I would take the job and keep applying. You can also consult on the side to spin that tale as well — a staff university job should be 40 hours straight.

It’s 37.5 hours a week and an incredible amount of time off. To echo a PP, working at this university is highly desirable where I live, because it’s basically all my town has (I am a trailing spouse in a suboptimal market). That’s another snag: I need a remote job at any of the employers I’d want to work with, which of course are much harder to get than hybrid/in office.

I’m leaning toward working here, doing contract/gig work on the side, and leaving it off of my resume while I find something more in line with my career trajectory. Although I may not be hired at all because I’m clearly overqualified.

Thanks all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Compensation aside, going from client-facing consulting to a slow bureaucratic underfunded underresourced university would be a hard no for me, dog. The emotional toll of that kind of environment would make me want to self-lobotomize.

Np. PP is correct. Even if you're inclined to bureaucracy, the lower level position will rot you from the inside.

[Anonymous]

I'm a female MBA. One thing that is more true these days is that big employers who don't collect current salary info on the application are likely to offer market rate salaries even if your current job is low-paid.

The reason the big companies pay based on market conditions instead of previous salaries is because paying based on previous salaries tends to produce legally-actionable discriminatory patterns like women getting paid less for the same job.

You might want to take the job. 50/50. Big corporate is stressing me out and I'm wondering myself about a low-paid but meaningful "retirement" job at my grad uni. One of my former MBA colleagues who left my company is doing just that. Probably partly for the health insurance. These jobs are about 30-40% of our corporate salaries.

[Anonymous]

PP. Have you tried looking for remote jobs at all?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a female MBA. One thing that is more true these days is that big employers who don't collect current salary info on the application are likely to offer market rate salaries even if your current job is low-paid.

The reason the big companies pay based on market conditions instead of previous salaries is because paying based on previous salaries tends to produce legally-actionable discriminatory patterns like women getting paid less for the same job.

You might want to take the job. 50/50. Big corporate is stressing me out and I'm wondering myself about a low-paid but meaningful "retirement" job at my grad uni. One of my former MBA colleagues who left my company is doing just that. Probably partly for the health insurance. These jobs are about 30-40% of our corporate salaries.

.

+1. My big employer doesn’t collect current salary from applicants. They have a pay scale that aligns more or less with the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Warning: I left a six figure job and took a lower paying one. I never re-attained my former salary. The lower paying place didn't have much in the way of advancement and the lower salary ratcheted my "worth" down for future employers.

See if you can consult instead of being an employee while you keep looking.

Why? Why would you tell a future employer what you’re making? This doesn’t make sense in this day and age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Compensation aside, going from client-facing consulting to a slow bureaucratic underfunded underresourced university would be a hard no for me, dog. The emotional toll of that kind of environment would make me want to self-lobotomize.

Np. PP is correct. Even if you're inclined to bureaucracy, the lower level position will rot you from the inside.

So both you and PP have direct, personal experience working at such a job, correct?

[Anonymous]

DP here. I worked at a public university for a while to recalibrate my career, which worked out well for me. I wouldn’t say the pace was slow at all. But, there was certainly a lot of bureaucracy.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend who was laid off and took a lower paying job after 5 months of looking. He was there for 7 months before finding a comparable job to his previous role. I know it’s not on his resume now, but not sure if he kept it on his resume while working there. So you could always do that - though it would likely burn bridges, but you have to look out for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a Division I college town. Everyone strives to get a job at the University. Benefits are good. Once you are employed there you move around in the system. No one ever quits. Workload is light.

It is very difficult to get hired for any jobs at the University. Usually you have to know people.

I'd take the job.

Sounds like the Federal Government. lol.