You all have been an encouraging community for me the last couple years, and I appreciate any prayers you can send our way. To give some context, my husband does contract IT work (remote/work from home), and his last contract ended in October. As you probably know, the job market has been tough recently, there's been a ton of layoffs and it's been hard for him to to find work in his field. He's applied to a ton of jobs, had a lot of recruiter phone calls, but nothing has come through yet. Many jobs are STILL requiring the vax (even remote ones!) which my husband will never do, and he's passed up good opportunities because of this. Since a lot of the work is contract based, most of the positions are only hiring for 6, 9, or 12 months. It's hard to find anything long term/permanent in his field anymore. He's thought about switching careers and has even applied to jobs outside his industry, but has a lot of good experience built up and as you know it's hard to switch careers later in life. Just praying for one of these opportunities to work out, and also if this is God leading him to something else, that he will be open to that calling.
Thank you so much, and please let me know if there's anything I can pray for you about as well!
EDIT: Thank you so much for everyone who took the time to respond! I shared all of the encouragement, prayers, advice, and job recommendations to my husband and we are so appreciative of all of you. I tried to reply or DM to each person here, but I apologize if I missed anyone. This community is awesome and I am so grateful to have found it. I hope to update you all soon with good news about a new job/opportunity for both of us! Much love and blessings to you ❤️
I’d tend to agree. Ditch the recruiter. Identify 10 companies that he’d like to work for and then start calling an emailing them. Some people have given up searching for employees even though they have open spots available. The IT industry is going to be flooded with folks who’ve been laid off but it sounds like you folks are a little older and some companies will embrace having a person from an older generation with a robust work ethic.
I think that your prayers will be answered if your husband tries several of the ideas in this thread,
Thanks! Lots of great ideas and I've passed them all along to him. To your point, unfortunately the tech industry skews very young, so older employees tend to get looked over or seen as not a great skills fit for younger ones. The plus is older workers come with more experience!
Older workers have more experience and offer an employer stability. That’s what I’d sell in every interview. The young people have no problem jumping ship at the drop of a hat.
I’d sit down and write a list of the things employers are looking for in candidates. If you’re not sure spend the next few interviews doing an interview of your own. Ask them what is important and then create a value proposition. Have him sell himself, it’s okay to brag a little because it shows confidence. He needs to get out of the mindset that you need them so you can pay the mortgage, they need him because of his skill set, work ethic and experience. He won’t need hand holding and he’ll get shit done.