Too mild to pit. I don’t have the anger the pit it, it’s just depressing.
I’m looking for a job. Y’know, like everybody else. I have a ton of skills, but I only just got my BA. On top of that I had one long term position that’s basically managerial. So I’m a weird combination of over-qualified and under-qualified. It’s annoying.
I’ve been applying for every job I see that I think I can do, including graphic design (my field), data entry, random gigs, whatever. Nobody seems to want to call me. I’ve applied with almost ten different temp / employment agencies. They’re not calling me. It’s very annoying and depressing.
I have an eclectic work history with lots of part-time jobs as I was in school, but a lot of it was restaurant and management. After I got my degrees, I refocused my resume towards my specialty, but I still keep one focused on restaurant experience just in case. I also have a third resume that only highlights my office skills, in case I ever need to apply at a temp agency.
edit: if it makes you feel any better, for about 3 years I was unemployed, and I had applied to over 100 jobs. I realized that I had a mistake on my resume and I was applying to jobs I wasn’t qualified for. Double check that the information on the resume matches what the job is asking for.
If you are applying for publicly funded jobs with the city, county, or state, you can get especially frustrated until you realize that these jobs in fact do not exist. Let me explain why.
Publicly funded jobs must be posted for a certain period, usually two weeks, they show a closing date. And then you think that all the applicants will be reviewed and some called for interviews. Well, the job was actually posted internally within the organization several days prior to the public posting. It is highly likely that someone within the organization will move up from a lower position and that the public posting is just a formality.
Sure, a few qualified applicants will be interviewed also. But many of these public job postings are *phantom *job openings, they aren’t being posted because they are looking for someone, they are being posted because the fairness rules require it.
I’m running into the same kind of thing - no calls back for the jobs I’m up for from temp agencies or applying on my own. Not to brag or anything, but I have tons of good experience in office jobs, and I’m not used to people not being interested in even interviewing me. I think the most frustrating thing is seeing jobs that are perfect except for one deal-breaking thing (usually location).
The trick with resumes isn’t to lie per se, but to be very creative in your wording. My resume contains the phrase "Create intricate record-keeping system for photographed documents. " What I actually did was just scan in things and give them good file names. “Compile and analyze property crime statistics.” translates to counting how many theft reports we did each month and jotting it down. “Create multifunction office database system to log hundreds of daily entries.” means I once made a simple Access database to keep track of tenant phone numbers and such.
You know that phrase it’s not what you know it’s who you know. I find that rings especially true when searching for a job. I applied to hundreds of places like you and never got so much as a call back. But a friend of mine gave me a number of a person who was looking for a potential employee and bam just like that I finally got a job.
My advice to you is to contact all your friends and family, and even friendly acquaintances and let them know you are looking for work. Ask them if they know of any open positions or if they could pass your resume along to someone.
If you are throwing your resume into the void, you are doing it wrong. Just throwing your resume out randomly is almost as bad as doing nothing.
Before you contact a company, do some basic research. Figure out what their current problems are and how you personally are the one to solve them. Figure out what you uniquely have to give to the company. Put that stuff in your cover letter. Remember, they are not going to spend time figuring out how you fit into the company. You have to make that immediately obvious to them. It’s a lot of work, but it’s better to send one really well crafted query than ten generic ones.
Next, follow up. A week after you send out a resume, send a polite follow-up letter. Sometimes that is enough to keep your resume in the stack. In that letter, ask if it is okay to send them periodic emails asking if they have any open positions. If they respond favorably, email them once a month asking. Keep at it enough, and when a position does come up they’ll have you in mind. I’ve known people who have gotten jobs that way.
You also have to follow up with the temp agencies. Call them first thing in the morning to see if they have anything for you. If someone cancelled or they have an unexpected request, they might just hand that to you.
Don’t lose hope or give up. Somehow employers can smell that a million miles away, and they’ll stay away in droves. Remember, you just have to succeed at this once.
Finally, you might want to try my secret Craig’s List method, which has gotten me a couple really good jobs and piles of offers. Simply write the wackiest and most creative “job wanted” ad you can. I include stuff like “I’m so organized, when I throw papers in the air, they fall down in neat stacks.” Just get out there, be crazy. Make them want to call you in just to meet you. Don’t include your resume- tell them to contact you for it. People will never do that, they’ll just invite you to an interview. It’s not for everyone, but for me it works like a charm.
Out of curiosity, why would a company make their problems easy for the average joe to find out?
However, though this should go without saying, seeing as how it’s Craigslist here, be prepared for spam. That’s all I got the last couple of times I tried. Maybe after this current contract expires, I’ll try again.
One thing to think about, though, is timing of the post, especially if you’re in a big city. Early in the day, so it’s near the bottom, or late, so it’s near the top? But will someone see it the next day?
Of course you have to be creative. You can usually find out some information about if a company is new and just starting, expanding to new markets, re-branding, etc. Anything that shows you know something about the company besides “you have a job opening” will help.
As for Craig’s List, my sweet spot is Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
