Your next job could be your last for a while. Use this database to make it count.

A university career fair
Lisa Raymond with Career Source South Florida talks to job seekers at Florida Memorial University’s career fair, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier) Marta Lavandier/Associated Press

Consider this your job-hunting cheat sheet.

Last week’s brutal jobs report was more evidence of how difficult the labor market is. The low hiring and firing rate is giving a stuck-in-place vibe.

That’s why people looking to switch jobs these days need to be extra careful. The next company you land at could be your last for a while, so you want to make it count.

Burning Glass Institute and the Schultz Family Foundation analyzed the career histories of 12 million workers across 1,750 companies. For BI’s Aki Ito, they shared the details for six prominent tech occupations: software engineers, data scientists, software quality assurance analysts and testers, computer systems and security engineers, IT project managers, and IT systems analysts.

Searching for a role will show you the percentiles a company falls into for three categories: promotion, retention, and salary.

You can check out the database here. Happy hunting.

For some out-of-work job seekers, not being yourself might be the key to finding work.

Reinvention is proving to be a powerful tool for people looking for work.

Whether it’s learning new skills or an outright career pivot, some are realizing their best bet is to stay agile and be open to change.

Six people spoke to BI’s Madison Hoff and Jacob Zinkula about how their quest for new employment meant forging a new path.

This isn’t like the pandemic-era rage quits when burned-out workers left their jobs to take on very different roles. This time, people are being forced to rethink things after losing their jobs and getting thrown into a sluggish job market.

That’s how Douglas Craig, a longtime media executive, found himself guiding people through zipline courses at an aerial adventure park.

Not that he’s complaining. Craig said it’s less like “starting over” and more “like I was shifting to something that just brought more happiness and joy.”

Read the original article on Business Insider