I’ve only had two “real” jobs. When I was in college, my brother-in-law learned that I wanted to go into publishing, and he told me that his uncle owned a publishing house about forty-five minutes away. I needed to complete an internship in order to graduate, so I contacted the company and asked if they were looking for interns. Six months later, I was offered an entry-level job upon graduation. So, nepotism, I guess? Is it nepotism if I’d never met the owner of the company before my first day on the job?
My second (and current) job was a standard respond-to-advertisement deal.
Nothing interesting, regular old applications and old-school interviews until '92
Then a longtime family friend got elected to high office and upon finding out that at the time I was working in the health-insurance field in the states called up and said: Why don’t you come down here and consult for me while we do some new health-care legislation. I said, back near family and away from icy winters and 100 degree summers? Sure. After the bills were under way she said, y’know, we got a bunch of government reorganization bills around, can you stay on F/T staff for those? And help the Press Office with the English version of the releases? By the end of four years I was doing similar work for her successor, then was asked to staff a gubernatorial campaign’s platform committee.
Since then everything – including independent-consultant work – has come through the contacts made in the government/political environment in the 1990s. It’s fun and what I like but around here it means lean vs. fat years come at 4-to-8 year intervals. Lean times coming up in January :o .
(Alas the old family friend and I eventually had a bitter falling out over Birtherism, which is yet another reason I detest that lunacy.)
Job #1: Started my own business (at 19), still own it
Job #2: Volunteered and was hired on work ethic (not much of a compliment considering the morons who worked there…)
Job #3: Cold called and was hired at the interview the next day
I’ve had way too many jobs to recall how I got them all, but my last two jobs were a combination of networking and going through an employment agency. I used the LDS Employment Resource Service Center (which is completely free and open to the public) to help improve my interview skills, polish my resume, and apply to about 30 jobs before I got a viable lead and landed a job as an office manager with the Veterans Canteen Services and then about 9 months later I got an awesome offer through a chance email from the Center to apply for a sales job (for which I had no experience but great references about my work ethic and customer service record) plus my improved interview skills helped me land my current job. It is the best job I have ever had. I work from home most of the time plus when I do need to meet with clients I pick the day I want to travel then set my own schedule. Pretty fetch.
Mind you this was after almost a year and a half of beating the pavement and applying for countless jobs after quitting my job at a inpatient treatment facility for at risk youth. It was very hard to quit that job because it meant I had to figure out how to live on just student loans, but I quit for safety and family reasons. I was lucky to find a new job, even if it took a very long time to find it.
Blatant nepotism, mom was CFO. Bar I was working at got held up at gunpoint. Gun in stomach, mom no likey–told production manager to hire me as stockroom boy while I finished school.
College friend told me about a job opening where she worked, so I applied - 5 years
Tech headhunter - 12 years
Recruited/Hired by my customer - 2 years
Recruited/Hired by my vendor - 3 years
Recruited/Hired by my vendor - 1 year
Recruited/Hired by social contact - 10 years
Hired by former CEO (of #6) - 8 months, start up failed
Lessons…
-Listen to your muth-uh. Bar kept getting robbed at gunpoint.
-Be nice to your classmates, yes even THAT one.
-Treat your customers right, but don’t let them get away with crap-on-the-vendor.
-Treat your vendors right, and don’t crap on them.
-You never know where the next job is coming from, even the seeming doofus that you met at the UPS store.
-Listen to your boss’ long winded tales of former glory with awe in your eyes; and then have your secretary call you out of your meeting with him in 22 minutes for an “urgent call from your wife/kid/customer/Dr./vendor/trade rag/CFO/CLO/HR/mechanic/that hot sales rep he would like to shag”. <–Yes, this is true.
Almost every job I got was thru applications and resume blitzing/job board postings. 2 jobs ago was my last via monster (had just moved to a new area to follow my then fiancee now husband on a new opportunity). At the end of that contract, one of the former department heads said she had something that might work for me so I switched contracting companies and worked for her for 2 years and then last year one of my coworkers’ contracting company poached me though I still work for the same lady.