For the unemployed

Photo by Igor Oliyarnik on Unsplash

From a LinkedIn post, lightly edited.

I often receive requests for career advice or suggestions on finding jobs. This post is neither of those, but is connected.

These are grim days. There are a lot of solid, mid-level life scientists out of work, months into the job search. Or maybe stuck in a job that's less than them, or that's turned bad, but unable to find anything else. As said, I often get asked for career advice. These days, however, it feels less like advice and more like talk therapy. That’s what this post is.

The job market isn't just bad, it's malfunctioning. Jobs are posted and taken down within a day. Or posted then withdrawn. Hiring managers are swamped by 1000s of applications. Interview processes stretch into months, and even those who make it to the final stages are being ghosted. Permanent employees are being treated like disposable contractors, threatened by a perpetual wave of successive layoffs. C-suite feuds and ad hoc decisions are shuttering sites or triggering reorgs for no discernible benefit.

You cannot change this. But know this:

- In a long enough career, you're going to suffer at least a few reorgs, layoffs and downturns. This is not your fault. It's like a storm, an earthquake, or a plague, something that happens to you. Don't beat yourself up for things outside your control.

- You've been getting endless advice about how you should tune your LinkedIn profile, network, optimise your CV, get AI experience, give talks, do certifications, etc., etc. All of this is good advice. All of this is useful. None of this is a panacea or guarantee. You could do all of this perfectly and still not get a job. You could grind yourself into dust following all this advice, and it might lead nowhere.

- Well-meaning people will tell you to hang on, be positive, keep your chin up, something will surely turn up, to hope. Do what's necessary, but it's okay to stop hoping. Hope can be poisonous. It’s okay to stop hoping. But keep moving, keep doing something.

- It's also okay to give up. Sometimes giving up is the right decision. It's not failure, it's making a choice for yourself.

Best of luck to all you job-seekers. The market may improve; it may not. It's just the weather. Make decisions. Have options. Take care of yourselves.