Survey: ‘Real world’ jobs landed through personal networking

FORT COLLINS – NOCOJobsList’s first “Real World” NOCO Job Survey showed
that the most common way for college-educated, experienced workers to
get a job is to know someone with contacts.

NOCOJobsList solicited participation from more than 2,000 professionals
in the Boulder/Fort Collins area to learn how they were actually
locating employment and the state of current working conditions. The
results, based on more than 300 responses, show that 29.6 percent of
respondents said they obtained their last job through a friend.

Craigslist accounted for 11 percent of the actual jobs, while
approaching the company directly worked for 10.2 percent of the
respondents – company websites were close behind at 9.5 percent.
Internet job boards – 7.9 percent – and temp/staffing agencies – 7.6
percent – were about equally effective, and just over 4 percent found
their jobs through recruiters. Networking groups, email job lists and
social media each accounted for about 1 percent of hires, and job/career
fairs none.

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Nearly 15 percent of hired professionals said they found their last job through “other” means, according to the survey.

“Structured” networking, such as career fairs and networking groups,
appears to be ineffective in landing a job, according to Kris A.
Erlewine, founder of NOCOJobsList. Conversely, “personal networking,”
through friends, friends-of-friends, former colleagues and previous
bosses, had a combined success rate of 45 percent.

“NoCo professionals should base their job search on what really works,”
he added. “Topping that list should be cultivation of current and past
personal and professional relationships with real human beings.”

Respondents were also queried on changes in the NoCo working environment
over the past three years. When asked about salaries and other
employment conditions, 47 percent reported salaries had decreased; 57
percent said benefits had decreased; and half said work conditions had
deteriorated. Almost a quarter of the respondents said their health
insurance had seen substantial rate increases, and 31 percent were no
longer insured.

“Across the board, conditions for professionals appear to have
worsened,” Erlewine said. “Only 8 percent report being happily employed.
A full 25 percent reported they were ’employed but looking.’ When the
job market improves, we believe many will seek better salaries, benefits
and working conditions elsewhere.”

Age discrimination also appears to be a real issue in NoCo, he added.
Fifty percent of survey respondents believed they were passed over for
being too young or too old.

“Anyone looking for work knows the sweet spot is now 25 to 40 years old:
old enough to have some experience and young enough to keep salaries
low,” Erlewine said.

Subjective feelings about the current NoCo job market among respondents
followed a near-perfect bell curve with 27 percent reporting
improvement, 45 percent believing it unchanged and 27 percent thinking
it worse.

Complete survey results are available at: http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e3zdzy06goeb9lic/results

NOCOJobsList is a free weekly email list for jobs in Northern Colorado
including Boulder, Broomfield, Fort Collins, Greeley, Lafayette,
Longmont, Louisville, Loveland and Windsor. Founded in December,
NOCOJobsList has delivered over 3,000 job opportunities to 2,000+
subscribers via 36,000 emails.

For more information, go to www.nocojobslist.com.