Mid-career job search - how is it different?
November 19, 2024 8:33 AM   Subscribe

I feel like all of my past job searches have been dependent on necessity and almost always during an economic crisis or pending hiring downturn. How does one switch from looking haphazardly and taking the first job to having a career built on experience and expertise?

I’ve spent most of my career in non-profit and government but four years ago took a job in using data analytics and data science for online fraud detection at a tech start-up. In the past, most of my job searches have been on usajobs.gov but, like a lot of people, I’m not feeling great about what happens next in that sector. I’d be willing to go into any of the fields that I have experience in for the right job and preferably work from home. Honestly, I just want to work somewhere stable and where I can flex some expertise

What websites are people using? Is it still smart to find a job on an index site and then apply directly on the business’s career page?

My strongest contacts and references are pre-pandemic stale. How do I reach out to people that I had huge accomplishments with at the time but haven’t had more than passing Facebook and LinkedIn contact with in years?

Is networking the only way to get a job in this environment or in older age groups?

Do I look for headhunters or other professional job search assistance? How?

My strongest and most recent experience is using a combination of statistics, data science, programming and IT but I’ve never gone through a technical interview and, frankly, wanted to leave oral exams behind in college and grad school. Do I really need to recite back a bunch of textbook chapter quizzes to keep working in tech?

I appreciate everyone’s insights and advice in advance!
posted by Skwirl to Work & Money (4 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
I used linkedin. Sometimes I just cold messaged people at places that I wanted to work at, and asked for a referral.

Any tech company will make you pass a technical round. And no, its not reciting a bunch of textbook stuff, but any DS role in tech is going to test your statistical knowledge. It may be different at smaller companies. Given the compensation that many DS' make in big tech (300k+), its worth your while to pay for some interview prep if thats the route you want to go down.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 8:45 AM on November 19


Following this as I am also in a similar state.

There's a job board I found that does a lot of tech-job placement - Built In. Could be another place to look.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:17 AM on November 19 [1 favorite]


I just wrapped up one of these hunts, with an offer that I'm excited about.

I'm in academia and did most of my hunting on higheredjobs.com, chronicle.com, and linkedin, as well as a professional listserv. I did look at a couple of the Indeed, Monster, etc. type sites but for what I do, it was clear quickly that they were not the right place to find the jobs I was interested in. I let a few people know discreetly that I was looking, and got a couple of referrals that way. I did all my actual applying through the actual site, which did lead LinkedIn to keep bugging me about applying to things I'd already applied to, but I wasn't particularly confident that applying through LI was a good idea.

Although I did have more current references, I also reached out to someone from pre-pandemic in case I needed one more, and she was happy to hear from me and quite willing to be a reference. I don't think it'll strike anyone as terribly unusual for you to get in touch.

It was an interesting experience to be job hunting at this point - most of the interviews were a lot more informal than I'd experienced in the past, with less focus on specific skills testing. A couple of them did use the standard sorts of "tell me about a time when you..." questions, but even those were really a lot more relaxed and felt a lot more like conversations between colleagues about topics of shared interest than being quizzed/interrogated by someone in a position of an authority. A couple of them were downright enjoyable, which I hadn't expected at all.

My insistence on a remote-first position definitely took me out of a couple of positions, but there were also a couple of hiring managers who were thinking about a hybrid model but were very open to a "99% remote from another state, come in once or twice a year for an annual retreat" situation for the right candidate. I ended up choosing a place that has a really robust longstanding remote-work culture and already had remote folks in the team, so I could feel fairly confident that I wasn't going to get swept up in an RTO mandate shortly after signing on. I felt like I had more capital to do that as a midcareer hire than I would have when I was earlier in my career.
posted by Stacey at 9:38 AM on November 19 [3 favorites]


Just throwing it out there that I work in pharma and we employ people with your skill sets but don't do the tech-style quiz interviews for senior roles. I have a PhD and ample experience and publications so my technical knowledge is assumed. Interview questions were more focused on leadership, collaboration, ability to deliver outcomes, etc and better understanding what large projects I'd been involved with in the past and what my role entailed. Right now pharma is in a big slump but thought I'd share that there are scientific fields where your skills would be a fit but don't do the classic tech-style interviews. Maybe because that style of interview would be a major turn off to MDs.
posted by emd3737 at 1:22 PM on November 19 [1 favorite]


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