SD Job-Seekers' Support Group

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
601

argh, I have not followed the struggles of everybody in this thread, but I need to share this with somebody.

So, I left a nearly ten year career in IT to go to law school. I graduated last May, took the Ohio bar exam this summer, and found out I passed the bar at the end of October. Since then it has been a wasteland when looking for work. I thought I had found the perfect place. It was with a certain federal agency, would let me help people, pay decently, and set me on a career path I liked. I have been waiting to hear about this job for months, I knew if I could get an interview I could get the job.

I finally broke down today and called the HR person in charge of the job. While it has not been filled yet, I was never considered. Not because I was not qualified, but because the job posting closed on Nov 11th. The date is important because it is right in between the date when Ohio bar exam results are released and when those who passed are sworn in. Because I was not sworn in on the day the posting closed, I could not even be considered. Despite the fact that I was sworn in before anybody even began looking at resumes. This means nobody who took and passed this Summer’s Ohio bar could be considered for the job.

This is exactly the type of bureaucratic nonsense that makes people run from government jobs, but darn it I would have been good at this. This is a fine way to start the weekend, as it has bothered me more than I realized. I am starting to worry about losing my house and had to ask my wife not to bring it up until the kids are in bed. If I start talking about it, I am going to lose it and I just don’t want the kids to know about it.

Anyways, thanks for letting me vent and I hope everybody’s job hunt is going better than this.

602

Very frustrating howye! Good luck finding something else!

603

howye, don’t feel bad. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is desperate for people to work in the unemployment compensation call center, but there’s a catch. You have to have a civil-service rating to work there, and apparently, there aren’t enough people that qualify. So, if my information is correct, there are unfilled jobs. There’s also a hiring freeze across the board for civil service, so people aren’t coming into the system to get rated. The woman at the county employment center was very frustrated because she was swamped but the state can’t hire help. You’d think that employment centers would be worth staffing, but I guess not.

On the positive side, I took the census test this afternoon and got a perfect score. All I have to do is get a copy of my DD-214 faxed to the guy in Harrisburg and I’ve got a perfect score plus five points. I’ve also got a boatload of supervisory and office experience. Something tells me I won’t be pounding the pavement.

Robin

604

MsRobyn, thanks for that and understand that lunacy is par for the course when dealing with government jobs (perhaps that is why I am attracted to it.) The kick to the stomach with my situation is that the job is going to be filled by somebody. The HR guy said “wow, alot of people applied for this position.” Duh. What frustrates me is that because of a technicality I wasn’t even considered, a technicality that had to be intentional or the result of somebody who had no idea what they were doing.

I am moving on emotionally. The same job is posted for Dayton, which I could commute to, and I am going to apply. Looking at other jobs and I am hoping that my first use of “connections” in my life may actually get me in the door some place else. If nothing else, screw it I will go work on one of the stimulus construction projects.

605

Ugh…I’ve gotten three rejection emails from one of the jobs I applied to. What the christ? I know that I ranted about not getting any correspondence after applying, but you don’t need to tell me three times over that I suck. It’s depressing. :frowning:

606

Just think of yourself as Christ being denied three times by Peter.

Stop thinking before you get to the crucifixion.

607

I seem to keep missing this thread when it is updated…
SUPER CONGRATS TO ALL WHO GOT HIRED!!!

I am still looking myself…Chicago is still the place…Advertising or Marketing still the job…but nothing yet.
Closest I have come so far is…

“Direct Marketing Experience!!!”

“Advertising Specialist!!!”

“Work with major retailers, sports franchises, and more!!!”

“Get out of the office and into a career!!!”

          All of which sounds better than what the REAL job is.....

“Door to door coupon salesman!!!”
Pathetic…

608

Just wanted to put my two cents in:

I was laid off at 4 PM today.

Guess I need to read the rest of this thread to get back up to speed.

For right now, I’m going to stay up late and think about it tomorrow.

More details later…

609

Probably not – it’s lots and lots of similar stuff. What we have to offer: sympathy specifically for you, and advice if you have questions.

For instance, my advice is: File for unemployment ASAP. Most states let you do so online these days.

Beyond that: People post questions about their resumes and about interviewing, mostly, but about any element of job-hunting that they need advice on. There’s also an informal “resume review” service – I know that I’ve looked at several and made suggestions and feedback, mostly from the POV of a writer/editor who’s done some hiring, I can’t comment on the specifics of IT credentials and how to present them, since I don’t know anything about that. Others do, however, and I know I’m not the only one to help with resumes.

And – hang in there. It sucks, and it’s gonna continue to suck for a while, but you’ll get through it.

610

Alright, I made a whole mess of changes to my resume, anyone want to take a look and say if it’s good/needs improvement?

And I’m sure several of you are going "I’m not downloading a random file from a weird website!
Well:

  1. box.net is a reputable file-sharing site
  2. I’ve been a SDMB member for almost 10 years, I’m not sending you a virus.
  3. You can just preview it if you’re still crazy paranoid and not actually download anything.

Edit: I did already notice one typo where i wrote “gained developed” and I just fixed it.

611

bouv, a couple of thoughts, which feel free to reject as they are obviously just my opinion:

  1. I think I’d switch the order on the education entries so that the first one is the one where you got the degree, not the one where you didn’t. I realize the resume will not then be perfectly symmetrical (the first category will be “oldest to newest,” the second will be “newest to oldest”), but your resume isn’t long enough to confuse any one.

  2. I think it’s great that you’re working for a paycheck as a server, but I don’t think I’d put that on my professional resume. I probably would include it as a data point in my cover letters. (“Currently I’m working in the food service sector while pursuing opportunities in [career field].”) That way you don’t have an unexplained gap in your resume (what’s the guy been doing lately?), but you’re not trying to puff up being a waiter to be more than it is – which, with all respect and kindness, is kind of how “Learned valuable customer service and sales techniques to help customers during the order process” sounds to me.

  3. If I were you, and if your schedule permits, I’d pursue voluntary and/or charitable activities to help round out your resume (especially if you take the server entry off, because then it will be pretty short). You can gain experience working with people, servicing computer systems, writing appeal letters or manuals, lots of stuff depending on where you go. When I was first starting out, I volunteered for Literacy Volunteers of America and went from being a tutor to being on the Board of Directors. Granted, mine was a very small town so getting on the Board was not a hard move to do, but it still, it sounded impressive, it sounded like I was pro-active, involved, and energetic, which frankly was only about half-true. There are lots of those kinds of opportunities; best of course are ones in your field, but even outside your field you can show you are building skills that will cross-apply.

So, those are my thoughts. FWIW.

612

Alright, I’ll at least trim down the server section. I don’t want to leave it out, because I have applied to some jobs that don’t have an option to submit a cover letter anywhere, it’s JUST the resume.

I have some volunteer time as a firefighter a few years back, so I can put that on there. What about college organizations? I heard it’s good to have them on there while you’re in college and just graduated, but once you’ve had that first job, you should leave them off unless they’re pretty impressive. But what about things like vice president of a (social) fraternity? Or editor of a literary magazine?

613

A few comments, bouv:

It’s traditional to have “objective” at the top. Its absence was striking to me.
I always prefer experience first, then education.

Notes on education: I agree, BS first, then MS, esp. since you didn’t complete the latter.

The way I do mine is:

BA, name of school, major
MPhil, PhD, name of school, area of study

I’ve been out of school for more than a quarter of a century (:eek:), so I no longer use years, but would put them immediately after each degree (BA 1976 … MPhil 1980, PhD 1983 …)

You don’t need the years attended for your undergrad, esp. since you completed it in the traditional four.

Check your dates for the master’s – I think one of your years is wrong.
Notes on experience:

I think you can cut out the first sentence. Other stuff should be present tense, since you’re still going with it.

It’s okay to include your college experience, since the rest of your experience is still fairly light.

(And did you work while in school? Might it make sense to include some of those PT and summer jobs?)
Hope this helps –

614

As a opposing view: I on the other hand discourage the practice. As a hiring manager I never read them and I know your objective is to get a challenging job in your field commensurate with your experience blah blah blah. Nothing in the objective is likely to get you an interview or a job with me. Of course, this is just my opinion.

615

Updated version: Box

It’s hard to update when I get conflicting advice (I posted it on another message board I frequent.) Some say put experience first ,others say education. Then do I put the degree I finished first, or the most recent? Anyway, I trimmed down a few things, added another job cause it’s sort of relevant to jobs I’m applying to, and put in a few “extracurricular” things.

616

Started looking again.

Bad news: “Your hours/pay have been dropped by 1/5. You have 3 choices: accept it, quit, or be fired.”

Good News: “…most of the people you see around the office will be gone come March; We’re hoping to keep you.”

617

Better.

As for education first, or experience – depends which is more relevant to the jobs you’re looking for. If neither your education nor your experience is, put experience first.

Again – current job should be present tense.

For aesthetics – which count – I’d do a double space before “skills” and “professional, etc.” (and which of those is “professional”?) similar to the one before “experience.”

618

Add one more to the ranks of the Unemployed!

Yep, I just got laid off today, joy…:mad::smack::mad:

The company I worked for (MacEdge of Portsmouth, NH) had been hit hard by the slowing economy, I wasn’t the only one laid off, someone at the Nashua store also got laid off

basically, the reason for the layoffs (aside from the slow economy) can be summed up in two words; incompetent owner - spending money like it was water while the stores founder

so, now the manager is doing both management crap and repairs, he’s also a certified tech, sad thing was, we were actually doing really well before the economy collapsed\

apparently even by laying me off, the company is still in uncertain shape, not that i care now, they said if things get better they will hire me back, but i’m not holding my breath

I’ve already opened a claim with Employment Security, contacted a few of my contacts and previous co-workers, polished up my resume, submitted it to a few listings, and now it’s the waiting game

it still seems hazy and unreal, I can’t believe that I don’t have a job to go to anymore, i’m beyond depressed, I have lots of bills piling up (medical and credit card) and I’m in a major panic, my mind is going through all the worst-case scenarios with me winding up living in the gutter and having furious arguments with individual air molecules, that’s not the case as I have a supportive family (I actually was surprised by my father’s reaction, I expected him to go postal and rail on about how it was my fault and all, and I’m a total and utter failure that doesn’t deserve to continue breathing, he was rather strict/authoritarian as I was growing up, and I’ve always been a little afraid of him, but he just sighed and felt genuinely sad, griped about the economy with me, (thanks a lot, banking industry/dubya/anyone else responsible for destroying the economy)

I still feel like an absolute failure though, even though the layoff was strictly for financial reasons and the store manager did everything in his power to fight it, but to no avail

I guess the best thing to do now is to take a few days off to decompress and come to grips with the reality of the situation, I WILL find another job, no doubt about that, it’s not like I have another option, but I’d be lying if I said i haven’t considered eating a tasty little .45 ACP “candy” and just ending it all, when i get truly down in the dumps and feel that there’s no purpose left in life, and that I’m a waste of Oxygen, it’s damn hard not to reach for the .45, slap in a mag and just end the pain

that said, let me reiterate one thing IT’S ALL TALK!, I would never really consider “the easy way out” for a few reasons;

1; I’m too chickenshit to do it anyway, with my luck it wouldn’t work and I’d end up a vegetable or something
2; I couldn’t put my family through the pain and agony that they’d be feeling if I splattered my gray matter on the walls, I may be a useless waste of oxygen, but they do love me, and that counts for something, something important
3; ammunition is expensive and I gotta’ keep costs down for the moment, heck, I’m not even worth wasting a cheapo LRN bullet on

besides, after watching last week’s episode of Battlestar Galactica and seeing how I reacted to Dee’s suicide (a fictional character even), there’s no way I could put my family through that agony

don’t worry, my fellow dopers, right now it’s just the depression talking, i’ll be getting a new job soon, and will continue to annoy you all with my inane, rambling posts, I just needed to vent and decompress

I’m in Stage One of mourning right now, sadness/depression, Anger should be coming along soon enough…

619

I’m so sorry MacTech!

words are just words sometimes, but after following this thread for a while trust me, we all know what’s going on out there are we all feel for you.

My heart goes out to you my friend, take your couple days off and calm down, get some rest, then go out and find a job that you know will not only kick ass, but kick your old job’s ass!!!

keep on keeping on my friend, keep on keeping on.

620

MacTech – as someone whose best friend who killed himself, and as the daughter of a bipolar mother who made numerous unsuccessful attempts – please see a counselor or talk to someone about your feelings of worthlessness. Seriously, you’re freaking me out.