What is your current job market like?

[DzynKingRTR]

Just curious how everyone is doing. I have been getting a lot of 2008 kind of feel. There seems to be a lot of possibilities but not much actually happening in architecture/construction. Hotel work and multi-family seems to be fairly decent. Mixed use is hit or miss or just has potential only. A few people I know that do other work i.e. retail, office are struggling or have been laid off already. I am getting a bit apprehensive. How are other fields doing?

 

[Tidewater]

I am tangentially in the academic market and the market is quite flooded. At a southern public state university not long ago, they advertised for a tenure track history professor position and they got 300 applicants who already had their PhDs in hand. A friend of mine who got his PhD at USCe and is one of the sharpest historians I know of the Early Republic. He is teaching at a private high school.
It is a really flooded market.
A teacher of mine (who got his PhD at Kansas) told me something. really insightful that turned out to be true:
There is a pecking order in American academia and everyone is aware of it. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn, continuing to Tejas, UVA, Duke, Vandy, UGA and then continuing to the Alabama's of the world, and then onwards from there to Ole Miss, directional schools, etc.. My professor said, "You can teach down but you cannot teach up. You can earn a PhD from Harvard and teach at UVA, but you cannot earn a PhD at UVa and teach at Harvard (unless you are the world's most respected expect on some niche Harvard is looking for or meet the right demographics) Thinking back to the faculty at Alabama, and where they got their PhDs, this is what I remember: Yale, Princeton, Brown, UVa, UVa, Michigan, LSU. Look at the faculty at Harvard and you will not find an Alabama grad there.

I am not in that market. I have a unique set of attributes most academics do not have, but if I were in the market, it would be grim. (And that has little to do with the state of the economy. One of the desirable things about working in academia is that it is generally recession-proof.)

 

[Padreruf]

I am tangentially in the academic market and the market is quite flooded. At a southern public state university not long ago, they advertised for a tenure track history professor position and they got 300 applicants who already had their PhDs in hand. A friend of mine who got his PhD at USCe and is one of the sharpest historians I know of the Early Republic. He is teaching at a private high school.
It is a really flooded market.
A teacher of mine (who got his PhD at Kansas) told me something. really insightful that turned out to be true:
There is a pecking order in American academia and everyone is aware of it. Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Penn, continuing to Tejas, UVA, Duke, Vandy, UGA and then continuing to the Alabama's of the world, and then onwards from there to Ole Miss, directional schools, etc.. My professor said, "You can teach down but you cannot teach up. You can earn a PhD from Harvard and teach at UVA, but you cannot earn a PhD at UVa and teach at Harvard (unless you are the world's most respected expect on some niche Harvard is looking for or meet the right demographics) Thinking back to the faculty at Alabama, and where they got their PhDs, this is what I remember: Yale, Princeton, Brown, UVa, UVa, Michigan, LSU. Look at the faculty at Harvard and you will not find an Alabama grad there.

I am not in that market. I have a unique set of attributes most academics do not have, but if I were in the market, it would be grim. (And that has little to do with the state of the economy. One of the desirable things about working in academia is that it is generally recession-proof.)

Years ago I considered teaching at a reputable, Southern divinity school.However, I would have had to take a 25% cut in pay from my current one (then) as a pastor. I could not do that with 2 sons in school and looking @ college. I did adjunct once and while personally fulfilling it almost cost me more money that I made.

Teaching can be fun and fulfilling - but the truth is that often you can make more at a high school than at a university. However, if you are in the sciences and can do research, etc, then the landscape changes quite dramatically.

 

[Tidewater]

Years ago I considered teaching at a reputable, Southern divinity school.However, I would have had to take a 25% cut in pay from my current one (then) as a pastor. I could not do that with 2 sons in school and looking @ college. I did adjunct once and while personally fulfilling it almost cost me more money that I made.

Teaching can be fun and fulfilling - but the truth is that often you can make more at a high school than at a university. However, if you are in the sciences and can do research, etc, then the landscape changes quite dramatically.

There is a rhythm to academic life that it pleasing. Students turn up around the end of August. classes go until mid-December, then you get a month off. Start back up mid-January and go to May. Take the summer off to research (or teach for additional pay), rinse, repeat. There is extreme predictability.

When I was at Virginia Tech, I got to speaking with professors in the hard sciences. Their tenure eawards were based on how much grant money they brought in. In history and poli sci, it was "How much did you publish and where?" At a place like Va Tech, though, grant money was the life blood of the university. It is probably the same in hard sciences at Alabama. It is cut-throat and unforgiving.

Someone leaked the salaries of Alabama professors while I was there and when I did my defense, I realized I was by far the highest paid person in the room. (That sounds arrogant, and that was not my intent. The predictability and "flow" of an academic life comes at a cost. Knowing that every August, students will show up. They will always leave in mid-December, etc. means I was going to earn less than if I pursued other opportunities with more risk and less predictability).

 

[jthomas666]

It's like this

but with more brown logs.

 

[Its On A Slab]

As I discussed offline with Tidewater, I work in dinosaur I.T. technology, but technology that's used all over in banks, insurance companies, other businesses.

I'm getting ready to retire at the end of the year, but constantly getting pinged on LinkedIn for 1099 work. Trying to decide if I stay on the sunset cruise, or take on some remote work for a short time.

 

[75thru79]

I'm getting ready to retire at the end of the year, but constantly getting pinged on LinkedIn for 1099 work. Trying to decide if I stay on the sunset cruise, or take on some remote work for a short time.

An ex-colleague quit his job to travel the world and he had a client he had been helping for years. He asked if I wanted to take over and I thought I'll give it a shot. It's been going on for 10+ years. Just enough to keep me busy but not enough to interfere with my full-time gig. The only pain is having to make estimated tax payments and then, of course, the extra forms during tax time. Other than that it has been great.

 

[Tidewater]

An ex-colleague quit his job to travel the world and he had a client he had been helping for years. He asked if I wanted to take over and I thought I'll give it a shot. It's been going on for 10+ years. Just enough to keep me busy but not enough to interfere with my full-time gig. The only pain is having to make estimated tax payments and then, of course, the extra forms during tax time. Other than that it has been great.

I am a 1099 worker now and the idea of having to withhold my own taxes was a weird change. For all my life to that point, Uncle Sam would just help himself to portions of my salary. Now I have to estimate and send it in myself.

 

[Tidewater]

And getting back to the OP, working on things related to Russia, as Major Payne said, "Bidness is good."

 

[Padreruf]

There is a rhythm to academic life that it pleasing. Students turn up around the end of August. classes go until mid-December, then you get a month off. Start back up mid-January and go to May. Take the summer off to research (or teach for additional pay), rinse, repeat. There is extremely predictable

When I was at Virginia Tech, I got to speaking with professors in the hard sciences. Their tenure eawards were based on how much grant money they brought in. In history and poli sci, it was "How much did you publish and where?" At a place like Va Tech, though, grant money was the life blood of the university. It is probably the same in hard sciences at Alabama. It is cut-throat and unforgiving.

Someone leaked the salaries of Alabama professors while I was there and when I did my defense, I realized I was by far the highest paid person in the room. (That sounds arrogant, and that was not my intent. The predictability and "flow" of an academic life comes at a cost. Knowing that every August, students will show up. They will always leave in mid-December, etc. means I was going to earn less than if I pursued other opportunities with more risk and less predictability).

Well said...all of it.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I had to chuckle. The last paycheck I drew from an employer with withholding was May, 1964. I was an income examiner with ADOR for my last two years of undergrad law school...

 

[JDCrimson]

We are having a terribly hard time finding quality private accounting professionals, cybersecurity analysts too. We have had to give stay adjustments for our current staff in these areas.

You better have good culture in your organization because if you dont and your people start looking they can likely find something better.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

If you believe the industry reports for my sector (accounting), there is a massive shortage of accountants across the country, and for the time being, AI hasn't infiltrated. I'm not sure how much of what accountants do that AI could realistically "take over". I could see some aspects that AI could do, but a full takeover? I'm not sure that is something AI can currently do.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

We are having a terribly hard time finding quality private accounting professionals, cybersecurity analysts too. We have had to give stay adjustments for our current staff in these areas.

You better have good culture in your organization because if you dont and your people start looking they can likely find something better.

I just saw your post after I posted. Yes, there is a massive shortage of accountants in our country. The problem is, you'd never know it by the salaries. Granted, they've gone up some, but not proportionate to the level of shortage they say exists.

 

[75thru79]

If you believe the industry reports for my sector (accounting), there is a massive shortage of accountants across the country, and for the time being, AI hasn't infiltrated. I'm not sure how much of what accountants do that AI could realistically "take over". I could see some aspects that AI could do, but a full takeover? I'm not sure that is something AI can currently do.

I am not a practicing accountant any more but that's how I got my start after my degree at UA. I did work in accounting, first in the Big Eight and then in financial reporting for a large super-regional bank. I can definitely see AI having a role in accounting. Account reconciliations, variance analysis, some aspects of financial reporting, things like that could be done via AI. I predict this will start happening in earnest in the early 2030s. That being said, it's really going to hurt the lower level accountants or bookkeepers the most as their duties will be easier to automate.

 

[Its On A Slab]

An ex-colleague quit his job to travel the world and he had a client he had been helping for years. He asked if I wanted to take over and I thought I'll give it a shot. It's been going on for 10+ years. Just enough to keep me busy but not enough to interfere with my full-time gig. The only pain is having to make estimated tax payments and then, of course, the extra forms during tax time. Other than that it has been great.

I did some 1099 work for a former employer (after I left) about 20 yrs ago. I did my own taxes with TurboTax. Two years later, I got dinged by the IRS because i only accounted for state/federal taxes, and didn't do the rest(social security & Medicare). It was a sizeable penalty. Which I will try to avoid if I do any more 1099 work.

 

[dayhiker]

Just curious how everyone is doing. I have been getting a lot of 2008 kind of feel. There seems to be a lot of possibilities but not much actually happening in architecture/construction. Hotel work and multi-family seems to be fairly decent. Mixed use is hit or miss or just has potential only. A few people I know that do other work i.e. retail, office are struggling or have been laid off already. I am getting a bit apprehensive. How are other fields doing?

The AIA billing index has been below 50 for a long time now. We're staying busy, but I just keep waiting on 08/09 to happen too.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I just saw your post after I posted. Yes, there is a massive shortage of accountants in our country. The problem is, you'd never know it by the salaries. Granted, they've gone up some, but not proportionate to the level of shortage they say exists.

We're certainly feeling it at Phoenix...

 

[Bodhisattva]

Jobs openings with the federal government have for the most part been tabled. We have long had two open seats in our office of seven. Should have done the smart thing and aggressively filled them years ago instead of taking six + months just to interview people. Now we can't, and there is a danger of having those two positions permanently deleted.

There's still a shortage of nurses, and CRNAs are no different. Salaries keep getting pushed up and up. Lan is starting to work a 1099 (traveler) job, so she can take several months off in a few years so we can live abroad. 1099 pay is ridiculously awesome. But, of course, you have to account for your own taxes, fund your retirement account, etc. She's working three days in Ft. Lauderdale this week - 30 hours - and will get paid $8k (plus free hotel and food). She may work 3-4 days at a time down there for the next several months. There are plenty of jobs in remote areas of the country that will pay CRNAs $500k +. I picked the wrong profession, but I'm glad Lan didn't.