About Long Job Searches

I was talking today to a partner in a small but busy CPA firm about this post, and about the trouble some people seem to have with landing new jobs. I posed the question: Why, in this market, when so many firms are having so much trouble finding qualified people to fill accounting roles, is anyone having difficulty finding work? He zeroed in on a few possibilities:

• All the talk of high demand is causing people to expect unrealistic compensation packages. Especially at smaller firms, "pay comes out of the owner's or partner's pocket."
  
  
• Older candidates often wait for "the ideal" opportunity, passing up the chance to take other positions they may regard as being either beneath them or simply not a perfect fit.
  
  
• Some candidates wait too long. My friend wonders about some resumes he sees, where the candidate has been without a job for several years. Surely, he thinks, something must have been offered up during all that time. If not, what's it say about the candidate?
  
  
• Finally, some people are just bad employees. A huge red flag is the number of jobs someone has held over a period of time. Does your resume list three positions in four years? Probably, anyone reading it is asking themselves what your problem is.

There comes a point, my friend seems to think, that you should take a job - even one that doesn't meet your idea of what your position should be - so that you can demonstrate you're still in the game and determined to work.

One other hint: If you're worried about pricing yourself out of the market and you're asked about your salary expectations, answer "whatever the position is budgeted for."