I'm done with Thomson Reuters, I've been trying to find a new job for months now, yet everything I get offered is below my current pay. I wouldn't mind taking a small cut, but not as much as it's being offered.
Is it just me or is the situation really that bad out there?
You mean TR is offering jobs with less pay that you currently make at TR? Or you are no longer at TR and the market is offering less than what you made at your last TR job?
The job market is booming in D/FW. For being let go the end of November I had seven interviews before Christmas and I’m one of the 50 and older folks. Don’t buy into the fears of what others say. Work your network, speak to recruiters and most importantly believe in yourself. As they say when one door closes another one opens.
Tough to put a blanket “bad” out there as an answer. As others have mention, timing is critical to job search success. So are things like region, industry, recent policy changes, etc. Patience is key, again as others have mentioned. And sometimes it’s all about who you know. I know several folks who left TR to better-paying opportunities. Some of them were fortunate to find the right position at the right time, some took on high-paying contract work for a year, and some used their network to essentially get a job created for them at another firm.
It sounds like you’ve done it already, but evaluate why you want to leave and decide which things are negotiable. For example, you may want to leave because of uncertainty, so sacrificing salary may not make feel right. However, you may want to leave because of the work environment / culture being so bad, and in that case it may be better for your mental and emotional health and well-being to take a small pay cut to go somewhere else. Good luck! I can only offer my experience, but there are other jobs out there, and they pay better. Those jobs aren’t necessarily ubiquituous, but they exist.
If you can't find another job for similar pay then you were probably overpaid.
Reinforcing one of the other posts regarding timing. The outplacement team that's been to our office said that there's a spike in job offers in March and October. And if you think about it, it checks out. Why hire at the very end of the year? Books are closing and the focus is elsewhere. By end q1, orgs start to thaw out, then summer's dead and the you're in late q3 again!
Be patient, it'll work out.
First, this and mid summer are the worst times of year to look for jobs. Budgets are closing and people are focused on holidays.
Second, you should tell us more about your general job type and location. The market will depend greatly on those
Take the pay cut of the job is interesting and challenging, I took a pay cut and a year later I'm close to what I was previously paid at TR
To @WzXQEuG
It depends on what your profession is and where you are looking. If you're restricting your search to your location, then that search parameter be too limiting for the compensation you want. It may be worth getting a career consultation to see how your skills translate into other positions that you may not be considering today. The important thing is to keep trying.
It is a combination of things. The end of the year is not a good time to be looking because of holidays and financial budgets. That's before you add Brexit into the mix.
With regards to salary expectations, there are many in TR who were earning way above their marketable skills after being promoted into positions. The Project Management community, Marketing and HR are prime examples of this. There are 10's if not 100's of Programme managers that have probably never delivered a programme and yet have grand titles.
Some people will have to take a reality check. There are a lot of people out there looking.
Also - if a potential position is a really good fit and very interesting, go for it. This happened to me. Some employers today have no idea what to pay for certain positions, particularly if they are hard to fill. The posted salary was a lot less than I wanted, but I went ahead anyway. Turns out, the new company had no idea how to set the salary, and there's a good chance I can get the numbers I want -- at least not a pay cut.
It always takes older people a little while to come to grips with the job market of 2018. Things will be okay.
It's bad, especially if you're mid career. TR, for all its faults, paid fairly well. My strategy was to look passively while knowing that eventually, I was going to be selected for severance. If you're at Refinitive, there's no telling what severance will look like going forward, but if you are at Legal or Tax, hold out for it. Don't leave unless you have a better offer on the table - of course if you're borderline s---c-dal every evening, do what you need to.
My 2c
bad