So I’m really trying to renew my job search because I can’t let myself stay unemployed for much longer. It’s unhealthy, unproductive, and I’ve got bills to pay. It’s been a month since I quit, and I really wanted to have found something else by now.
What am I going to do differently?
- Use RSS to my advantage -
I’ve begun using Google Reader to collect RSS feeds of my most popular job searches across several job boards, saving me time and effort, and ensuring I catch every local opening.
- Broaden the search -
Because I wasn’t finding very many prospective job openings, I’m now searching farther away and for more terms. I’m now combing through Indeed, SimplyHired, Regional Help Wanted, JournalismJobs.com, Craigslist, Career Builder, and Monster daily, via RSS feeds, searching for any of the following terms: writer, writing, editor, editing, copy, proof. I’m also checking other places regularly, like the job sections at Tree Hugger and Idealist.org, and career services at Ithaca (which is pathetic, by the way).
- Sell myself in earnest -
If I want a job, I need to act like I want one. So I’m doing some major work to the dusty resume and making clean copies of all of my available clips. I’ll be uploading all of this to a website sometime in the immediate future for easy access by myself and prospective employers. Short-term, I’ll host them under the whitemaleconsumer.com banner, but will likely go with a more professional moniker as time allows.
- Do something worthwhile -
Even if steady full-time employment doesn’t present itself, I’m now reconsidering freelance work, both writing and editing, perhaps even unpaid. Bulking up the resume with recent work will have a good cost:benefit ratio.
Even though it’s a little skimpy, I feel like my resume works well, and I can write a good cover letter. My biggest failure is the follow through, particularly phone interviews. I had one and it tanked, big time. I’m a total introvert, and a poor interview performance can queer the deal quickly. With only a limited number of local employers, I’m now at the point of applying for jobs at companies I’ve already tried at before. I feel like that’s a bad place to be.
One Response
Dredd
13|Nov|2008 1Just like me, you’ve got incredible poor timing.
I know this is showing my age bad.. but i left school end of ‘87. Our unemployment rate rose rapidly following the ‘87 crash at about 5 percent to peak at 10.9 percent toward the end of 1991. Those are the years i should’ve been at uni, but instead i kinda floundered around. Sure, i did a year learning programming. Unfortunately i didn’t have a clue how bad “business computing in COBOL” could get. My view of the business world had totally soured even before i had entered the marketplace. My childhood hero, Bill Gates, had become my nemisis by the time i could afford a PC and internet at $5 an hour. Microsoft now dominated the PC market, languages, and the entire local job market to boot. Being anti-M$ in the mid ‘90 was kinda rare. Heck, if anyone had bet against me during that whole decade they woulda got rich on that alone.
Things had finally just about turned around this year, and sure enough, we’re now entering a bigger crash than ‘87. Fate has some measure of poor timing, even cancelling years of bright young enthusiasm, and well, ya just gotta swing with it however you can.
Could I suggest a career in dark comedy perhaps?
-Dredd.
Leave a reply