Fine Print to Low Unemployment Rate? (Oklahoma City, Howe: lender, home, job market)

[dvxhd]

Hello,
I have a question/concern. I recently moved to OKC and have been looking for work here and out of state. However, in regards to hearing back from potential employers, this has been a city where my luck seems to be at its worst, as I've only heard back from one this entire past year. I don't think it's a problem with credentials, because I have interviewed with employers in places with higher unemployment rates, more competition and higher standards/demands in the positions, and did so as an out of state candidate where the cities were well over 2,000 miles away from my home location.

Now, I want to make it absolutely clear I'm not accusing or bashing, but this is just something I've heard: do local employers prefer to hire "homegrown" candidates? I do find jobs I'm qualified to do here, but I have absolutely no local education or experience, only out-of-state and international. Any feedback is appreciated, because I'm getting pretty anxious about not being able to find work and need to come up with a strategy. Thank you.

[debzkidz]

All I know is DH was hired by a company here, while we lived out of state and had absolutely no ties to Oklahoma. Now, this was about 5 years ago, so things may be different since the economy has changed since then. Also, I think his is a bit of a specialized field, so there's probably not a lot of candidates for his particular position.

[dvxhd]

Thank you. Mine is somewhat specialized, but admittedly there are just more relevant jobs in a handful of cities. There are some here, but in general the jobs I'm looking for are unevenly distributed, being mostly concentrated in the northeastern part of the country. I'm just confused as to why I have a local address, but don't hear anything, even for more general jobs (i.e. administration, retail, etc.)

[jacobwilliam77]

Oklahoma City has one of the lowest big city unemployment rates right now.

[dvxhd]

Originally Posted by jacobwilliam77

Oklahoma City has one of the lowest big city unemployment rates right now.

Yes, I know... hence the thread subject...

[jacobwilliam77]

Originally Posted by dvxhd

Yes, I know... hence the thread subject...

Maybe you should try moving to Dallas or Houston.

[dvxhd]

Originally Posted by jacobwilliam77

Maybe you should try moving to Dallas or Houston.

Honestly, those two aren't much better. I did look in both for awhile but had no luck. The one I've heard from here is actually more than any I've heard from in Texas. Like here, there aren't many relevant jobs posted in Texas cities and I don't think they'll want/need to import someone for more general jobs. Most of my target jobs are on the East Coast, but I think being so far away works against me, which is why I'm open to finding something that would get me experience here. Also, I can't afford to move there first and then look for work. I can afford to go with a job offer first though.

[jacobwilliam77]

Originally Posted by dvxhd

Honestly, those two aren't much better. I did look in both for awhile but had no luck. The one I've heard from here is actually more than any I've heard from in Texas. Like here, there aren't many relevant jobs posted in Texas cities and I don't think they'll want/need to import someone for more general jobs. Most of my target jobs are on the East Coast, but I think being so far away works against me, which is why I'm open to finding something that would get me experience here. Also, I can't afford to move there first and then look for work. I can afford to go with a job offer first though.

They are leading in annual job growth...

https://www.city-data.com/forum/gener...ob-growth.html

[debzkidz]

Just a thought, but maybe there's something wrong with your resume that you're missing. DH see's lots of resumes all the time, and he says it's amazing the mistakes he sees on them (and we're talking highly paid professionals). Whether its a a spelling error, grammatical, or just poorly written or designed, it's one of the ways they can quickly eliminate candidates. He recently rewrote a family members resume. She had been searching for a job for a while and was not even getting any call backs, even though she was highly qualified. Upon reading the resume, he found all sorts of errors she had totally missed. He just sent it back to her a couple of weeks ago, so I don't know if it's helped her any, but it definitely won't hurt. Maybe you should just have another set of eyes read it just to double check.

[#1soonerfan]

Agree completely with debzkidz that it could be your resume/approach. I know at some of the vo-techs they offer resume reviews and career counseling.

I'm not so sure what industry you are in. But even in a place with low UE like OKC there will always be exceptions to the rule. If you really and truly aren't finding anything it may be time for a plan B. What is your profession? I'm taking a very wild guess here and saying that since your positions are concentrated in the Northeast its finance. I can say without a doubt this is a terrible place to find a finance job beyond a local commercial lender or bank teller. And it always has, at least since I've been here. Maybe the residual effects of the Penn Square fiasco? Most people I know who wanted to go into that field at OU either got jobs here locally because they knew someone or found jobs outside this part of the country.

If its not finance then I apologize for my tangent but my point still stands. Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and go where the opportunities are. If you want to work in finance/investing, look at NYC; politics, try DC; film, LA; technology, Bay Area/SF; and so on. With the growth of shale gas drilling, OKC has become a pretty important node for the energy industry. I work in energy so in OKC I'm a kid in candy store.

Outside that and maybe defense and aerospace (which are very strong and generally pay well), the job market here is kinda meh. Certainly better than most places but not blowing anything out of the water. And still very much feeling the effects of the national economy. The low UE here, while no fluke, is more of a trickle down from those two industries and the lack of a spectacular housing meltown here more than anything else.