Well my Uncle passed away several weeks ago. That's a mother, an uncle and a daughter on the fringe of death all as the toll for 2008. I am still out in jobless land and beginning to see that the system sucks as badly as I suspected.
Have you ever used those job boards? They are pure unadulterated bullshit....have about the same functional value as the wailing wall...gives you a place to go and get it off your chest, but the net affect is you are absolutely no better off for the experience. I think I am going to plan a test, because I am pretty certain nobody even looks at these things.
You fill out inordinate amounts of information, "apply for a position", sometimes receive a computer generated acknowledgment and sometimes not, and the process seems to stop there. If I am correct, nobody even looks at these things. I would like to know of all the applicants how many people have actually received a call back from a company as the result of posting out on these boards. My guess is that the number on a percentage of all who use these boards is actually very small.
We shall see
1 comment:
This is actually relevant to your other blog, Nameless Walking Group, but non-member comments are blocked there, so here I am.
This is a bit belated, but I just discovered NWG, and wanted to thank you for your mention of my book, To Marry an Irish Rogue. What a treat to find that someone still remembers it, some eight years after publication.
Another, more current, book that treats the Lysistrata theme to a modern makeover is On Strike for Christmas, by Sheila Roberts. Not Irish, but hey, you can't have everything.
As to this blog -- I'm sorry you're having such a bad year. It sounds like things are piling up on you, and it would be facile to say don't let it get you down. This is a tough year for job hunters, and yes, I suspect you're right about the job boards and the online applications most places use. My son has been applying everyplace he can, and getting no responses at all.
I've always had decent results from networking and from the "informational interview" as described in books like What Color is Your Parachute (it's a perennial bestseller for a reason). As I keep telling my son, it's important to use every connection you have and to get your face in front of people, and treat job hunting like a job--which actions are now getting him at least a few interviews. Still, keeping your confidence and sense of self intact while you're doing that is hard as heck. In the meantime, depending on your skill set, temporary services or contract/consulting firms can help bring in a few bucks and give you more connections to use--and can even lead directly to a job if the stars are right.
Best of luck to you, and once again, thanks for the book mention.
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