Out to Pasture???

I am now out of work for almost a full year. Most of the people on my old recruiting team are in their 20's and 30's. I was a senior member. I am finding that most of my competition are either minorities or young people. Is there no room for a 55+ person who's also a veteran??? Frustration is setting in. My resume is clear cut as to what I've done. I am a high quality engineering recruiter willing to travel throughout the country. Can someone give me a glimmer of hope?

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 18, 2010 at 8:32am

Howie,

The market for corporate/contract recruiters still seems tough. However things are picking up on the agency side. Have you have explored working for yourself or at a recruiting agency? If you like it, you will never be out of a job on the agency side. :)

Good luck whatever you decide. I know the market is frustrating out there.
~Pam

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Permalink Reply by Howie Appel on February 18, 2010 at 8:42am

Hi Pam, I was hoping this forum was for both agency and corporate recruiting. When they started discussing "would you do a split" I got very suspicious. To answer your question, when I was laid off from HNTB I contacted all my "agency friends" and 90% of them were either doing very little or doing nothing at all. Many had closed. Even the ones who "specialized" in engineering were having a major lull in their business. That scared me. I felt with all their corporate connections they could help me secure a new, salaried corporate recruiting position.

Years ago when I was on the agency side I tried to stay on the "temp" or contract side and did reasonably well until they decided to break up a high quality team. Not interested in agency work. What I AM interested in is helping people with job coaching or resume writing. Perhaps agencies can help me out there? Your thoughts? me
pam claughton said:

Howie,

The market for corporate/contract recruiters still seems tough. However things are picking up on the agency side. Have you have explored working for yourself or at a recruiting agency? If you like it, you will never be out of a job on the agency side. :)

Good luck whatever you decide. I know the market is frustrating out there.
~Pam

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on February 18, 2010 at 12:29pm

Hi Howie,

This site is split fairly evenly between corporate and agency I think. I've seen a big pick up since the end of the year. Last year was slow to say the least. :) This year is off to a very good start.

If you don't want to go the agency route, you may be onto something with the coaching resume thing. A former client of mine does that, you might want to reach out to her to network. She's been doing it for a number of years and might be a good resource to learn more about the market. She also has a network of other people that she refers stuff too, depending on the project, so you never know. Here's her contact info:

Kathy Robinson, Turning Point

http://www.turningpointboston.com/about_us.shtml

Also, a friend of mine has been doing resumes for people and said there seems to be a demand for it. He's a recruiter who recently went on his own and loves doing the resumes in addition to recruiting. So, that might be worth investigating.

Good luck!
Pam

Howie Appel said:

Hi Pam, I was hoping this forum was for both agency and corporate recruiting. When they started discussing "would you do a split" I got very suspicious. To answer your question, when I was laid off from HNTB I contacted all my "agency friends" and 90% of them were either doing very little or doing nothing at all. Many had closed. Even the ones who "specialized" in engineering were having a major lull in their business. That scared me. I felt with all their corporate connections they could help me secure a new, salaried corporate recruiting position.

Years ago when I was on the agency side I tried to stay on the "temp" or contract side and did reasonably well until they decided to break up a high quality team. Not interested in agency work. What I AM interested in is helping people with job coaching or resume writing. Perhaps agencies can help me out there? Your thoughts? me
pam claughton said:
Howie,

The market for corporate/contract recruiters still seems tough. However things are picking up on the agency side. Have you have explored working for yourself or at a recruiting agency? If you like it, you will never be out of a job on the agency side. :)

Good luck whatever you decide. I know the market is frustrating out there.
~Pam

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Permalink Reply by Robin Eads on February 23, 2010 at 8:36pm

Howie, have you looked into opportunities with the Federal Government? The VA in particular comes to mind. There are several VA hospitals in FL that might love to have you. :) The pay is decent and the benefits are unbeatable. :) Best of luck, I'm pulling for you!

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Permalink Reply by Howie Appel on February 24, 2010 at 7:55am

Thanks for giving me Jerry's name. I'll make the contact. Trying to put a large puzzle together and it's tricky and frustrating. I'll make it though. I'm also building ProNet ( www.pronetcareerresources.org . You can see my profile on www.linkedin.com/in/howieappel

Thanks all.

Rayanne said:

Hey Howie...

Sorry to hear about your troubles. The lat couple years have had their way with so many of us. I have given this advice to others and I am very happy to pass this along to you. Call Jerry Albright. He is a very successful IT Recruiter that only places contract workers. He may have some ideas for you and may be able to refer you to someone else that can use your specific services, if not himself. I'm serious: call him. You can find his number anywhere - here on his profile, at his blog www.JerrytheRecruiter.com, on his twitter profile, LinkedIn profile...

Trust me, call him.

Rayanne

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Collyge on February 24, 2010 at 6:57pm

Have you tried doing some free-lance work, let all your contacts know you're open to it. You might like working for yourself with several clients. Contact your old companies/clients and see if they are open to it. While you're at it, you might do some volunteer work doing what you love, job coaching and resume writing. Offer that as an incentive to your contacts. Never know who you might meet and where it might lead. Are you still active in professional associations. Are you working on getting leads from your LinkedIn groups? Are you active on FaceBook and Twitter? Did you know you can look up jobs at Twitter Search? Do you use Indeed.com to see where jobs are coming from? Or Simply Hired? Do you know where the "niche" Enginneering sites are? Are you a member of a local Recruiters or HR group- they offer assistance sometimes for recruiters in transition. Have you Googled "Engineering Recruiter Jobs"? Stop waiting for someone to find you, go out there on the internet and find them. Good Luck.