How things has changed so far since the crisis

[Loppan Torkel]

Here, things are as usual. We've done better than expected so far, but as a whole - it doesn't look good.

Have anything changed for you or those around you since the start of the economical crisis?

Is it noticeable where you live?

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well the crisis has been crap for my family. My father is still unemployed, he's aging and he still has a massive student loan to pay.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Well the crisis has been crap for my family. My father is still unemployed, he's aging and he still has a massive student loan to pay.

Sorry to hear. In Poland, that is? Aside from losing income, the payments for the student loan haven't changed, have they?

 

[TheLastOne36]

Sorry to hear. In Poland, that is? Aside from losing income, the payments for the student loan haven't changed, have they?

No in Canada.

Poland is doing very well economically despite the crisis. My father has thought about moving to Poland as he would have no problem finding a job there with his high level of education and many years of experience working for top companies.

 

[bugwar]

Well the crisis has been crap for my family. My father is still unemployed, he's aging and he still has a massive student loan to pay.

What was his major?

 

[TheLastOne36]

What was his major?

Marketing and Business Management. Graduated with distinction. He is a capable programmer, web designer and web specialist as well. He worked for 13 years for a major insurance company as web master and then head project manager.

About 5 or 6 years ago the company laid off the entire Marketing Department and unfortunately the people including my father working on the web were counted as part of that department.

My father is too experienced and educated to find work in his field. There isn't a great number of companies hiring in his field and when they do they are looking for someone with much less experience who would accept the very bottom of the pay range for that field.

 

[bugwar]

Marketing and Business Management. Graduated with distinction. He is a capable programmer, web designer and web specialist as well. He worked for 13 years for a major insurance company as web master and then head project manager.

About 5 or 6 years ago the company laid off the entire Marketing Department and unfortunately the people including my father working on the web were counted as part of that department.

My father is too experienced and educated to find work in his field. There isn't a great number of companies hiring in his field and when they do they are looking for someone with much less experience who would accept the very bottom of the pay range for that field.

Yea, it sucks when you lose that competitive edge.
I take it that when he offered to work even at the bottom pay range the companies declined?

 

[TheLastOne36]

Yea, it sucks when you lose that competitive edge.
I take it that when he offered to work even at the bottom pay range the companies declined?

Yup. Someone as experienced as him working at the bottom of the pay range is suspicious I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the people who interviewed him for positions have thought he was too over qualified and maybe thought he could put their own jobs at risk.

A couple of employment agencies actually have flat out told him that he needs to cut it down a bit.

Anyway, it isn't like my dad hasn't been trying to find a job. He has sent many many job applications. When someone with his kind of resume sends tons of applications and can go months without anyone even interested in an interview, let alone actually find a job, there is a problem with the market.

 

[bugwar]

A couple of employment agencies actually have flat out told him that he needs to cut it down a bit.

Yep, tune your resume to the job, not the other way around.

Anyway, it isn't like my dad hasn't been trying to find a job. He has sent many many job applications. When someone with his kind of resume sends tons of applications and can go months without anyone even interested in an interview, let alone actually find a job, there is a problem with the market.

That is one way of looking at it.

When the market is for economy cars, and you are trying to sell a gas guzzling luxury vehicle with all the bells and whistles, I guess that the market can be a problem.

 

[History_Buff]

I was largely unaffected by the whole crisis; Alberta hasn't seen much of it, aside from the effective 0 percent interest rates.

Though the mood now seems to be that things are getting better, which is spurring some salary related angst amongst my coworkers and myself, if not the whole company. We actually know we're being paid less than we should be, and the time is coming to try and squeeze it out of the upper management.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

No reports from southern Europe?

 

[luiz]

The crisis hit the steel sector (in which I work) pretty hard, but the division of the company I work at has been doing relatively well. But many people were still laid of. Personally though I did well enough, my salary and position are much better now than when this mess started.

Speaking about the country, Brazil wasn't hit as bad as some other regions, because commodity prices picked up very fast after the initial crash. But we still had one year of negative growth (2009) and even in 2012 the growth perspective is quite bad (about 2%). But that's more a fault of the incompetent and corrupt federal government than the crisis itself.

 

[bugwar]

Anyway, it isn't like my dad hasn't been trying to find a job. He has sent many many job applications. When someone with his kind of resume sends tons of applications and can go months without anyone even interested in an interview, let alone actually find a job, there is a problem with the market.

Just a thought.

Isn't Walmart or Burger-king hiring?

Sure the pay isn't what he used to make, but a little pay check beats no pay check.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Just a thought.

Isn't Walmart or Burger-king hiring?

Sure the pay isn't what he used to make, but a little pay check beats no pay check.

I don't think my dad escaped communist Poland, worked 3 years as practically a serf in Italy, and collected a huge debt and worked his ass off in university to work at Walmart or Burger King.

 

[Bugfatty300]

I don't think my dad escaped communist Poland, worked 3 years as practically a serf in Italy, and collected a huge debt and worked his ass off in university to work at Walmart or Burger King.

Plenty of people scrape together a living doing worse jobs than that until something better comes along which is nothing to be ashamed of. But if your dad can afford to be completely unemployed and keep his pride then more power to him I guess.

 

[History_Buff]

Sure the pay isn't what he used to make, but a little pay check beats no pay check.

If he's receiving any sort of unemployment subsidy, it probably doesn't.

 

[Traitorfish]

Not been too bad for me personally, but that probably comes from having no dependents and having few of the expectations that people slightly older than me had from the world. (Thing about coming to maturity in the middle of a depression, I suppose.) Been harder on my parents, just because it costs more to make ends meet, and the towns I've lived in have taken a heavy kicking.

Plenty of people scrape together a living doing worse jobs than that until something better comes along which is nothing to be ashamed of.

The Classical philosophers agreed that all jobs are something to be ashamed of. But, I suppose they would.

 

[Zelig]

My father is too experienced and educated to find work in his field. There isn't a great number of companies hiring in his field and when they do they are looking for someone with much less experience who would accept the very bottom of the pay range for that field.

Probably less to do with experience and more to do with age, there's fairly rampant age discrimination in IT.

I was largely unaffected by the whole crisis; Alberta hasn't seen much of it, aside from the effective 0 percent interest rates.

Pretty much. I finished school in the east in 2010, then moved to Calgary after getting a job offer here. On my second well-paying job since moving.

 

[History_Buff]

You earning that dirty, dirty oil money? A big part of me wishes I was.

 

[Zelig]

Nope, O&G doesn't particularly appeal to me, so I haven't made any effort to get a job in that sector.

I was working in research at the university, now I'm with a startup doing software/services.

It's not oil money, but it's not fast food or big 4 consulting either.