Oh! Friday the 13th! It’s ominous.
So the first week off is done with. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t exactly great, either. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect. I also talked with some people and feel very validated. That it’s not me. I’m not insane. That makes me feel better.
Here’s what annoys me about these employment websites. You put your resume out there and then the first two or three days, you get a slew of these bogus emails with people wanting you to sell insurance or become a “travel agent” or somesuch other BS job. They want to “interview” you via Yahoo Messenger. Are you kidding me? And the one that kills me is the one that has typos in the email and the subject is “vacancy”. And if it says you’ll pay me in USD, well, that just a no all around.
My favorite one is the one that starts off like this: Dear! No name. Just Dear! with an exclamation point. And then has a sentence that says: You’re in no doubt to be interested in any of the offers! Even though it doesn’t say exactly WHAT these “offers” are.
I’ve heard nothing. Nada. Zilch. on any of the resumes I’ve sent out. It’s not like I’ve been sitting here twiddling my thumbs, either. I decided yesterday I wasn’t going to send out any resumes. Instead, I critiqued a friend’s story (which was fabulous) and worked on my own. I’m trying to wrap up this anthology short story in the next couple of days.
I also read A Game of Thrones and am enjoying it very much. Reading it is refueling my fantasy ideas and I love that. Then I picked up the kiddo from school.
Today, I plan to work on my short story some more. Hopefully I can get another draft done and edited. I’m also having lunch with an old friend, so that should be good. Plus, it’ll get me out of the house. Which I need.
It’s Friday, ya’ll. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
As Lori, Jenn, and I say all the time, you’re not going to find work on the job boards or employment websites, for the most part. Any place where you have to send it a resume and they can send you random stuff — avoid it.
Look at organizations/associations that serve your areas of interest. 99 out of 100 times, they have a job listings page with LEGITIMATE jobs. Research companies that interest you. Then craft individual proposals to convince them they can’t live without you.
Monster can be a good place to get ideas on companies, but not worth posting your resume to. Mediabistro has some great stuff sometimes — I landed some great jobs there– but you have to scroll through a lot, and sometimes, there’s a job listed, and it can spur an idea for a proposal. Since they give actual contact information, you create the proposal for the job YOU want (not necessarily the job listed), and off you go.
Sending/posting a resume on a site isn’t going to do it. And skip craigslist. Not worth the time, in most cases.
PS This would be a good time to look back over some of the questions on the Goals, Dreams, and Resolution site and see where you want to be in a year, five years, ten years, start writing out some goals, and then breaking them down to see how you reach them. It will help focus your immediate job search, so you’re not taking something out of fear.