Been there for the last **11** months! Still looking but it’s REAL disheartening.

Hi ThatGrrrl,

Don’t envy you. Just wanted to mention that if you’re writing a blog whose entries are seen by half a million people and you are looking for work, you might as well place a link to your resume or at the very least mention what kind of job you’re looking for!!!

Good luck with the [damn] hunt!

Alex

I’ve been unemployed for a year and an half some time ago. Due to the unemployment benefits I had to do four applications a month. At that moment there were practically no jobs available, so I created a database in which I kept the state of all my applications, since many of them were made just for the sake of making it four for that month.
Well… We had the best summer of the century, and I could have enjoyed every moment of it, my soccer-club became twice national champion of the major league, I enjoyed every match of it… But allways there was this aching uncertainty about the future. Was I *ever* to get a new job?
Really painfull were the bad news reactions. Sometimes hardly more than a single line: somebody eleses profile fitted better, lot’s of luck with yuou other applications. Sincerely…
Really horrible were the few applications that ended after one or more interviews. In a period where we had about 55% of our former income to spend, the let me travel half the country, just for the sake of having an open application-procedure. Most of the times they had the chosen candidate already in house, but had to start an open application according to the company policy.
Just irritating were the applications where the company did not even had the decency to reply at all…

Anyway: I do have a really nice job now (since december 2006) after taking a terrible job as a last resort to get out of the unemployment. The bottom line is, if you really want to work and you do have some qualities, things WILL turn out right. Enjoy the good side of beeing unemployed (no alarm-clock, sitting in the garden, reading the paper). I’ve tried to do so, failed in that (I was just getting more deperate) and believe me after all THAT’S the only thing I reget afeter all…

I too have fallen victim to the lost hope of job opportunities that get emailed to me, that I apply for, and that I NEVER hear antything back on.

I have been using the “online job search” for about 10 years now, and have been with 4 fantastic companies in that time, and have yet to find a job via the online posting process.

Oh, well, it certainly fills my “spare time”.

Can I ever relate. I’ll spare all the details but as the recipient of various down-sizings, I have had my share of unfruitful job hunting. I would love to have an opportunity but I’m taking what I can get which at this time consists of a non-it related position with a local company that has me so wrapped up that I have no time to look for anything else other than online. I rarely can get a lunch hour much less a day or partial day off. This fact coupled with my ever sweat soaked attire would be a definite detractor. My current job has cut my ability to run subcontracting jobs and only pays 25k per year with no benefits which in a single income family of five equates to I would probably be better off going on welfare and do a full time job hunt. Thanks for the vent and I wish you better success than mine. In the meantime, anyone looking to consider someone who is honest, dependable, skilled yet humble and ready to learn contact me for a full resume’. Yes I will relocate. Anything is negotiable. I have a solid background with hardware and I’m looking for a hands on learning opportunity for more networking and software support. My prior experience includes a support center position with Data General and EMC, third party support for Breece Hill Technologies, help desk and field support for various subcontractors including Geeks on Time and Equant/orange, DG & Cisco products. Thanks, Jerry Howell jhowelljr@hotmail.com

I can feel your job-hunting frustrations. It sounds like you are using the Trial and Error Method of work selection. Or as another person put it you are attempting to find your right job the same way a person tries to shoot fish in a lake at night. Statistics have shown that less than 5% of all jobs are filled through the resume process you are using. When you look at all of the ramifications of resume job hunting, this 5% seems high. Thus over 95% of all jobs are filled outside the resume process. But you are only working the 5% success rate game.

Have you thought about getting help to design your ideal income position to custom make it to suit you only and they recruit THAT position, which will be far easier than you think.

Good luck.

First off, stop blaming ‘them’. The them in this case being seemingly charmed people. They’re obviously doing something right. Now if it’s natural attributes: intelligence, good looks, perfect teeth or whatever that’s getting them them the job then there’s not a lot you can do about that. But there’s a lot you can learn from people who find it easy to get jobs. People skills; charm; showing interest in the company in the right way, that sort of things. Maybe they’ve thought ahead a little and if the job is for a graphic designer, for example, maybe improve on the logo a bit and take examples in the shape of printouts. DEMONSTRATE that you can and are willing to do the job.

Look at yourself objectively- do you look/talk/smell/dress right? It’s all important, and most of the time the job is won or lost before you open your mouth (but you can make up ground during the interview if you’re planning ahead to beat the crowd).

Most of the jobs I’ve had in my life (and all of the good ones) have been obtained through knowing people; mingling; and pulling strings and doing favours. I’ve not had one job that wasn’t strictly for short-term cash through “official” routes (newspapers, employment centres etc). I have had some through employment agencies; but only AFTER doing some crap jobs and proving I could hack it; making friends with the people running the agency; and mingling…after which I got given the plum jobs.

If you’re not getting any response at all, maybe you’re aiming too high initially…If there’s something you really want to do, it might be worth serving up tea for six months en route to getting it…six months in which to mingle; get to know people and impress them with your likeability and effeciency; and get to know through the internal grapevine when the plums are coming up. Also, temping for an employment agency is good- you get a taster of a few local companies and how they work and most importantly, you meet people. Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it’s great, but you’re being paid.

Also you have to think about it from the perspective of the employer- usually they wants somebody who fits in; who they can give work to and forget about it; who looks trustworthy for the task…who won’t give them brain-damage in other words: emotional, workwise, timewise, any other wise. You need to present a different appearance for working in an office, say, as opposed to on a building site, ditto dress, attitude and manners.

Don’t lie at interview, don’t be intimidated or shy (those b**tards put their trousers on one leg at a time same as anybody else); step up and give it your best shot. And don’t give up. If you feel like a loser, your body posture will radiate that. You’re as good as anybody else on the damn planet and you can prove it!

I hope some of that has helped. Good luck.

I’m in the same boat as you are, though I suspect my circumstances are quite different. Allow me to pass on something that was recently brought to my attention (A) and then some personal observations:
A) The first third to half of the job requirements list is what they are really looking for - the rest is usually just a wish list from a personnel jockey who usually doesn’t know squat about the real job requirements.
B) If you are using placement agencies as part of your search - find out what area they specialize in, if they are not a good fit, ie do not have a serious focus on your field or specialty, make them a second tier job source to be checked only once a week or so. Saves time and heartburn.
C) For those placement agencies that do specialize in your area of expertise - make your self VERY OBVIOUS. Call them twice a week, I call mid-morning on tuesdays and thursdays, focus on the specialists that are most friendly and be polite but insistent. If the person stops taking or returning your calls move on to someone else. If that also fails take another look at this agency - they may not be serious or hungry enough - time to move on.
D) Find out what kind of person you are. I know this sounds silly on the surface - after all you’ve lived in your skin all of your life, you KNOW who you are. What you are looking for here is how other people perceive you. I recently took the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and found out that I am an extreme introvert personality (only about 3% of the US population are like me). This closes some doors to me but opens others. Allow me to suggest that you take this test (I took mine at the local Job Services center - freebie) as well as the full blown version of the Myers-Briggs aptitude test. This will give you a better idea of what you are best suited suited for - aptitude wise on a sliding scale - and may open you up to opportunities in some interesting fields that you haven’t considered yet. If you have already done this - GREAT.
E) I don’t know where you live but there is one other thing you should also be aware of. Most of the job search advice books, newspaper and magazine columns, and talk shows are published or originate on the East coast of the U.S. These people have fulltime secure jobs and they are writing about what is the norm in their small microcosm of the world. You really need to take what they say with a grain of salt and make sure that it fits your circumstances in your region. The norm for what works in New York, Chicago or Silicon Vally doesn’t necessarily work anywhere else.

And what about the faithless look at those spam messages that say “You’re hired” “You have been chosen” “RE: Your job application”, etc…

I feel you. Nine months of looking for a job, dozens upon dozens of resumes sent out, and… three callbacks. I’m perfectly qualified for any number of jobs, over-qualified for even more, and I can’t land a thing, even the low-wage retail jobs. I can’t even get a foot in the door. I am so tired of everyone telling me that these companies “don’t know what they’re missing” etc. etc., and it’s so discouraging to see people you know, with hardly any qualifications at all, land sweet jobs with good benefits and pay. (And then they usually complain nonstop about how they hate the job, their boss, their coworkers and on and on.) It’s just really mentally and emotionally exhausting.

Hey ThatGrrl,

I just stumbled upon your blog this afternoon. I’m right there with ya! Fortunately I did find a part-time job in January that’s worked out for my personal situation, but things really have went downhill since that last time I had to job hunt (1990).

It seems to me that these folks could care less about your work experience, qualifications, ethics, etc. The interviewers just seemed to want to psycho- analyze me with a bunch of stupid “what-if” questions that came straight from some kind of “Dilbert” nightmare.

Anyway, I just have to believe that things happen for a reason. So hang in there and just be yourself. I’ll be pulling for you!!

I’m job searching as well. The whole experience can be very discouraging. When I get down about it, I think of it like this. We are lucky to live in an age where we can logon to the Internet and submit our resume electronically. Imagine how it was 20 years ago when you had to type your resume, make copies and send them off. When times were desperate, you’d walk into places and beg for work. Now you can find everything available, then pick and choose. Just keep trucking. Give it your all and keep looking.