My current job I got through a temp agency. I temped a year then got hired on permanently. I think it’s two years as of yesterday.
Previous job I got through posting my resume on Craigslist. The previous two jobs were Craigslist ads I saw. The two jobs I got before that were people my family knew.
1 Horse Farm they needed help, I was there
2 Fast Food multiple applications
3 Chinese Carry-out saw help wanted sign, walked in got job
4 Teller application
5 Data Operator application
6 Computer Programmer promoted from within - still had to apply
Various part time jobs -
Teller application
Belly Dancer referred by fellow dancers
Gypsy Fortune Teller recruited by entertainment company
Bar Tender recommended by friend
Paper Girl saw ad, showed up with 13 other people I was only one to come back the next day - it’s harder than it looks
Various party sales, just showed up
Pet Sitting and Dog Walking started on my own
Call Center saw an ad and applied, right place at the right time
I think that is everything
One through a recruiter, one through networking, the rest through submitting a resume and cover letter and keeping my fingers crossed.
I was on my 4th or 5th job out of law school, working in-house in their legal department. One day about 3 weeks into the job my company laid off about 30% of the work force, but not me. I came home that night and told my wife about it, and we lamented the situation for those that had been let go. I knew that if it had been me, I would have hated the idea of getting the gears turning again to find another job. I said to my wife, “You know what would be great? For my next job, I’d just like someone to call me and offer me one. Could you imagine?” And we laughed about that a bit.
Less than a year later, I took a call one afternoon. It was from the General Counsel of a company that one of my earlier companies had done a M&A transaction with about 5 years before. He said that they were opening an office in my area and wanted to know if I’d consider coming to work for them to be corporate counsel to support the new division.
Well, I’ll be damned. Just the way I had hoped it would happen.
First job out of high school, my dad’s car pool partner and our neighbor (we lived in the burbs and my dad and neighbor car pooled to the train station to get to work downtown) was a headhunter and got me my first job.
Second job, recruited.
Third job, recruited.
Fourth job, heard about it from a friend after getting fired from third job, and got that.
Fifth job, heard about it from a friend after moving back to the area from Missouri.
Sixth job, got it after temping there for a year.
Have done nothing but temping after getting laid off from sixth job after twelve (or eleven - I forget) years. That was in 2008.
Whoops, forgot one. Insert:
3.5. Guy I worked with on job #3 left the company and over the course of the next year pulled about 30 people out of company 3 to join his team. I was one of them. No interview, just left company 3 and went to work at 3.5.
My current job: A man I worked with 12 years ago (and one who remained a good friend) called me and said: Hey, I have the perfect job for you.
It was a really good fit, so I took it.
With my current employer: Answered a flyer mailed to my house.
With my previous employer: Called the main office, asked if they needed someone with my credentials, they said yes.
[ol]
[li]applied (college job fair)[/li][li]recruited (by vendor)[/li][li]networked [/li][li]applied (career switch)[/li][li]recruited (career switch)[/li][li]networked[/li][/ol]
Longest at any position = 7 years, average = 4 years.
Current job: networking. I was unhappy where I was, and told my neighbor, who happened to know an HR person at the company who worked with a director who was looking for someone just like me. I networked some more with colleagues in the field - one actually created a job for me but it was too late.
Job before that - a headhunter called. I was frustrated and so was interested. That job was a mistake, but it got me out here and so was worth it, especially since I got a bundle to leave.
Job before that, out of grad school. I went to a computer science conference which had a job fair, had a brief interview with someone, got invited, hit it off with my boss, and got hired. But that was in 1980 when there were only 168 CS PhDs graduating and a lot more demand, so I didn’t have to work very hard.
My father-in-law knew a guy.
My first job was when I was thirteen, working on a farm. It was nepotism because I was working for my uncle.
My second job was when I was eighteen, working in a factory. I went to the labor office and looked for job openings and they sent me there. I think there was an application but it was no big deal. It was a minimum wage job and they were pretty easy on hiring people.
My third job was when I was twenty, working in a prison. I took a civil service test. I got hired and worked there twenty-seven years.
My husband gets head-hunted a lot. His resume is out on Monster and maybe some other sites, and he gets calls and emails from time to time. For some, it’s obvious that the headhunter only sees “Engineer” and never looks beyond that word. Many of the positions have absolutely nothing to do with his background, education, experience, or desires.
Then there are the sales positions - I’m sure those recruiters are just looking for warm bodies, but you’d think they’d at least read past the name and email address to find out if there’s *any *indication of *any *interest in *any *type of sales position… :rolleyes: Because, you know, someone who designed and instrumented the transport of space hardware for NASA just *has *to be champing at the bit to sell insurance, right??
First real job - nepotism. My best friend at Uni was the daughter of one of the departmental secretaries, and was offered a summer job. She didn’t want it, I went in for a chat with the head of department instead and got it. I had that job for the next 3/4 summers, and also got term-time work related to it too, no interview, so I guess that was more nepotism.
Every job since then has been as a result of seeing an advert, formally applying and interviewing, but I really believe it was the work experience from University that got me hired for my first proper post-graduation job, so it’s all thanks to my now-ex-best-friends mum!
Oh, current “job” as a charity shop volunteer had no application or interview needed, but it probably did help that the manageress went to school with my brother and knew me as a kid. 
I’ve had seven jobs in my life, and all of them I was hired through applications and interviews. For five out of the seven I had recommendations from friends who already worked there, which was invaluable help.
I’d kill for a little nepotism, but my family don’t do squat.
These drive me nuts. Someone needs to make a law stating that if you’re a shitty sales recruiter who calls anyone on the phone who does NOT explicitly state they have sales experience on their resume, you can legally be burned at the stake. There is nothing on my resume that would suggest I even have a passing interest in sales, and yet these chucklefucks keep calling me relentlessly.
I hate the ads that sound like they are for actual jobs but when you get there it’s a staffing agency and make you fill out a ton of forms as if you already have work. Then never call you again.
My first job was an application I filled out. Same for the second. Those were part time, minimum wage jobs.
My first full time job was through a recruiter. It began to turn into a living hell for me and a coworker began subtly sending out feelers to her friends for me without my knowledge. One of them clicked and that’s how I got the third job.
After I was laid off (10 years later), I subscribed to every online job search engine in existence and uploaded my resume.
After about 300 resumes sent, and several failed interviews, I got a job off Craigslist. But this was a crappy company with sheep for employees (they didn’t even know how to act in a restaurant at lunch; it was truly an amazing thing to watch), and had hired me illegally (as contract instead of regular). When I called them on it (BTW NEVER DO THIS YOU WILL GET CANNED, HAVE A BACKUP PLAN FIRST), they laid me off. I still got unemployment although they contested it.
Fifth job was also from Craigslist, part time. Soon it became full time and I am still there now.
First couple of jobs outside of college were either responding to an ad in the newspaper (just before that was no longer done much) and through a recruiter. I also temped some, then was hired on from temping. Then I freelanced for a while and operated my own company, then was hired full time by the company I’m at now. I chose to leave for a while, but when I indicated I was free again, was asked to come back.