The basics for finding a new job, what are they?
All the usual:
Write a resume. Write a cover letter. Hit the Want Ads (Sunday paper ads and internet [e.g. Monster, Careerbuilder, etc.]).
I would add that it behooves you to spend a good deal of time on your resume to make it really good. Make SURE there are no grammar/punctuation/spelling errors in it. It is a very good idea to have someone else (or a few people) proofread it for you. It is very easy to overlook errors in a paper you have written (since you know what you meant to say your brain easily glosses over errors). If you are not very good at writing and don’t know someone who is that’ll do it for you there are a ton of resume writing services out there. They cost anywhere from $150-1000 but seem to hover around $250-300 for most purposes.
Finally, some say it is not ‘what’ you know but ‘who’ you know. There is certainly some truth to this. Call on contacts you’ve made in your industry. Call on friends to both inform you of possibilities that may exist and to help get your resume through the first lines of defense at a company if they can. Call on family for the same thing. If you’re really lucky call on your Uncle Vinny that drive a Cadillac but to your knowledge has never had a job to call in a ‘favor’ on your behalf. 
In the end the best advice is to ‘push all the buttons’. Do all of the above and anything else you can think of. Don’t be hyper-choosy in who you send resumes to. If it vaguely looks like you have some skills the employer can use (but not necessarily all the skills) send your resume anyway. Flood the market…you never know what will pan out.
Thanks Whack-a-Mole.
- Resume
- Want Ads
- Networking
- Spamming
I am trying to think outside the box here, as I really am open to any type of job that will pay the bills. I am really not, at this time, looking for a career.
General Questions is for questions with factual answers. IMHO is for opinions and polls. Since this is not a factual questions, I’ll move it to IMHO for you.
Off to IMHO.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
If you CAN network, that’s the best.
Barring that though, post your resume on monster.com and competing sites. It’s landed me two Fortune 1000 IT jobs.
Uh, maybe I didn’t understand, tram2, but did you just dismiss out of hand Whack-a-Mole’s advice?
I assume that implies by “outside the box” you mean quick and easy? Or what exactly did you mean?
No I did not dismiss their sage advice. I am trying to find “other” ways that I have not yet thought about.
I used to work in recruitment.
It depends what type of job you are thinking of.
Sites such as monster and seek are good for office temp work, finance and IT. Other businesses do not seem to utilise these boards much. You can also get this type of work by ringing job agencies directly and asking them to put you on their file. On the whole though it is a pain in the bum to get this type of job as you will be expected to provide 2 refs, and do innumerable bshit tests (assessment center).
Local and statewide papers can be good.
By far the easiest way to get work though is to talk to people. Ask everyone you know what they do, and how they got into it. When they see that you’re interested, they will remember next time a position comes up. Most managers seem willing to hire on the basis of a recommendation from a good existing employee. I got all my good jobs this way.
Best wishes!
Mel.
Thanks Mel.
Oh and for g sake tailor your resume. We used to look through HUNDREDS of resumes and if we can’t see immediately that you have the qualifying skills, they go straight in the bin. If the job asks for retail experience, have a section called ‘retail experience’.
Eg when I’m going for academic positions
Education
Academic employment
Lecturing
Tutoring etc
Non-academic based positions don’t even rate a mention. Do they give a shit about that 3 years I put in at Safeway and the 6 months at Myers? I don’t think so.
As compared to:
Psychology positions I go for.
Education
Psychology-related employment
Counselling
Live in care work etc
Bit thin on the ground so may include another section:
Other employment
They may or may not give a shit about safeway, depending on the position.
If your education is crap, put your employment first. And don’t make your resume longer than 3 pages unless you are going for a management position or something.
FOR G SAKE leave the level 2 piano certificate photocopies out of it unless you are going for a job as a music teacher. And leave the ‘glamour photos’ at home too unless you want to be a model.
What about follow up after dropping of resumes? It seems to work for some people. And what are these profiles in addition to the resume or whatever that i’m hearing about (Where include info about your ‘accomplishments’)?
Hi Drab,
By all means follow up a 3-4 days after you mailed off your res if you don’t hear anything. Sometimes we ring people back for a job and leave a message and messages get lost or whatever.
Sometimes you get books written by people on writing resumes who actually have never worked in recruitment. I saw one ‘Soul resumes’ or some crap - how if you print your resume on lavendar ink you will get noticed. From my experience all they care about is does this person have the minimum level of experience for the job, yes/no. Some info about your goals is included in your cover letter, so I’m not sure what they suggest should be appearing in the profile. What type of jobs r u meant to have one of these ‘profiles’ for? Never heard of em I’m sorry. As to the accomplishments, do you mean awards? I have a separate section for awards, on the 3rd page before ‘Interests’. If you mean skills acquired on the job, wack them in under the job title. If you mean another type of accomplishment, please write and let me know.
The art of resumes is creating the impression that you have a career goal (amazingly consistent with the needs of their specific company) and you have been working your whole life towards it. This means that leaving out stuff (like that summer job gutting fish) is just as important as the stuff you include.
Say I was applying for a job as bank teller and need to demonstrate customer service skills.
Education
1986 - 1996 Camberwell Secondary College
- Completed Year 12 High School Certificate (78%)
- Subjects:
Customer Service Employment
2000 - Present Elwood Coffee Lounge
- Dealing with customers face-to-face
- Resolving customer complaints
- Managing my time to achieve a wide range of tasks
1997-2000 Mary Kay Ltd
- Dealt with customers face to face
- Sales skills
- High level of financial and administrative organisation
1995 - 1996 Safeway Stores Ltd
- Dealt with customers face-to-face
- Promoted to service area due to my superior customer service focus
- Achieved above average speed and efficiency.
Other employment
1995 Self Employed Free Lance Typist
- High level of speed (60wpm) and accuracy (96%) in typing
[this may possibly be considered relevant to the position so include it just in case]
Awards and Special Achievements
Safeway Award for Customer Focus
Mary Kay Superior Sales Achievement Certificate
Camberwell Secondary College Citizenship Award
Interests
Reading
Horse riding etc
Then you tell em in the cover letter how you really love people and satisfying their needs and your aim has always been to work in a highly professional, customer service environment such as that offered by ** Bank.
Network - Network - Network
It has become crystal clear. Thanks for all the replies.