Labor market

I posted this on another forum and thought I'd repost it here as a partial summary of my employment search over the past year, year-and-a-half:

The conversation on the awful labor market made me think of my own employment situation. I have a decent job, but have decided that my long-term career development will be served by making a change. I've been selectively looking at opportunities for over a year now. Three personal anecdotes show just how cautious companies have been about hiring lately, at least in the legal market.

Company #1: A financial services company contacted me over a year ago. I had a couple of interviews with them, but then the financial market blew up. Nothing happened for many months, but in June they contacted me again and asked if I was still interested. Several more phone interviews followed (seven total in-person and phone interviews to date), and I was told that everyone liked me and they want me to interview in person when the manager comes to my city for a super candidate day (they are growing a team from scratch and need several people). But they've given no indication when that will be or even when they will be able to tell me anything definitive, and it's been 2.5 months since my last interview. I think they sincerely want to staff up in this city, but they are apparently in no hurry to do so.

Company #2: A tech startup interviewed me for a general counsel job last fall/winter. I went on-site three times for interviews, signed an NDA, got loads of their confidential information "to get up to speed so I could hit the ground running," and was told by the CFO that he was meeting with the compensation committee to decide what they could offer. All of this took about three months. Then, nothing. The CFO didn't answer numerous calls or emails, the promised offer never came, and the company never contacted me again. It was bizarre. Given that and the shape of their financials, I'm glad I'm not working there.

Company #3: I spoke with a Fortune 100 company in mid-February and flew out for an interview in March. They were to get back with me in April, then that was pushed to May, June, August, and finally, "we still like you and have you on file and will contact you if a position becomes available." Just when I had concluded that things seemed doubtful to go anywhere, I got a call last week. The company wants me to fly back next week for another interview, after which they will supposedly quickly make a decision. So, even if things proceed in that fashion, it will be eight months from first contact to final decision.

For those of you looking for a job, good luck, keep your chin up, and don't count any birds before they hatch. If I knew someone with a suboptimal job offer and an "interested" company that was early in the recruiting process, I'd tell them to take the first offer available, because the one might take a long time to develop. I feel very blessed that my search has been from a position of full employment.