Places to Go, Jobs to See

At the very least, job seeking is an opportunity to learn about what other people do for a living. If you're open to looking around enough, you can run into all sorts of occupations that you might never have know existed. Companies and industries, too. There are websites that sell that? What, you mean there are actually people with those qualifications? Wow, who knew there was an entire industry devoted to serving just those people, and they're will to pay how much? And so on.

If you're open to considering new avenues for your own employment, this post, as well as the next several, are meant for you. I've run into some vertical veins of information for job seekers that could lead to a whole new view on where to look for work doing what you do, but in a new industry. For example, government work, which I'll focus on in a moment.

I've also discovered great sources for quick and easy leads for work in specific areas of the country, if your dream job is more about where and when (here and now!) than what. If you're into reinventing yourself, improving your odds, or reading success stories of others who've been where you're at and found happiness in new jobs, there are resources for all that, too. In short, there is no shortage of fine links with which I'll be linking us up. Bookmarking, then, may be an important To Do.

So here's something most of us might not have ever thought of: government work. We hear a lot about government jobs, but other than politics, the DMV and the post office, what does working for the government mean really?

There is a TON of information on this topic at a giant website for job seekers, www.job-hunt.org. This is a free portal to many directories and websites covering all sorts of job search resources. A one-stop shop if you will, but the information on federal and state employment is what drew me in. It sure is comprehensive:

job-hunt.org Government Job Search Info

I wondered what kind of work a writer or marketing professional such as myself could do in a government position. A look at the directory descriptions gave me some ideas:

• Directory of Employers by State - links to over 8,000 employer recruiting pages (government, education, hospitals, banks, companies), job sites, job support groups, and more
• Directory of Government Employers - links to the recruiting sections of US Federal, state, and local employer websites plus links to associations of government employees, and articles on how to apply for these jobs

I realized that employer recruiting pages for state and federal facilities could include the same types of positions that private companies would feature--banks and hospitals need marketing and educational materials created, and employee communications and websites exist in all these places. This will also apply to other job seekers. "Government" job listings could include everything from housekeepers to accountants to pilots to security guards to professors at state universities. So my vision of working for the feds in a trench coat and really conservative 2 inch heels, while kinda cool, turns out to be not really accurate or necessary.

Job-Hunt has links to tens of thousands of sources and pieces of advice to aid you in your job search. You can follow this resource on Twitter, too: @JobHuntOrg

Mad Job Lady. With Cats.

I have a friend who lives in another country who recently wrote to me that he has been reading my Don't Hit Snooze posts, and feels he "would go mad" before he could attempt to get a job over here.

Hmm, thought I. I must be giving him quite the bad impression, with all my resource scouting and advice sharing, dos, don'ts, how-tos, etc. I thought this to the point of not blogging here for a couple of days. Maybe it's just been too much. From my first post when my position was eliminated, I decided to make writing my way through this journey a daily discipline of sorts. Well, I can tweak that plan. But being a new job seeker myself, and new to the feelings of being suddenly unemployed, I have to say I'm about as opposite as I can be to what my friend said--I'm literally attempting to get a job over here before I go mad, like I feel I could.

I've worked since I was 14, so sure, I feel a pressure there. Not in a workaholic way, but in that's what I do for income way. The region and the social class in which I was raised has contributed to how I've worked, too--meaning I've work for others. But not on a farm or in a field, not for rich parents, and not in a crime ring. Just regular ol' pouring coffee and serving eggs, writing headlines and teaching exercise classes, clocking in, collecting wages, going home to family afterward types of jobs.

Sure, I've worked for myself some. Yeah, I have a novel in the drawer. I tried to be a choreographer that one year when I was 20. I'm trying to get freelance jobs right now. Regardless, one needs customers. I need them to have an interest I can capture and monies to pay me. So, really the same rules apply to all of those independent endeavors as to everything I've been blogging about getting a job.

Is it less maddening to not try to get a job, and to instead just have less to pay for? YES it must be. But that's not my life. So getting a job is for me, no matter where I live, about my choices. There are many other choices here, but I just haven't written about them. Yet. However, in my country, being now unemployed means I could also head down to the Florida Keys or out to the Colorado Rockies and just camp mostly, and not have a real job at all. I could be like that guy with the cats on Mallory Square, or the like the painted man that looks like a statue. Or I could invest in a bike with a basket on both front and the back and run people's errands for them in a well appointed ski village. I'm a cute older mom, it's clear I know a ripe avocado when I feel one, people would totally trust me with their grocery lists.

Maybe if I didn't raise a family? Honestly, I could have ended up a beach bum, a mountain mama or livin' la vie boheme. I do have a feeling though, that still I would have been very organized about it. Oh, I would have journaled it for sure. There would be lists. If I could have been the best one of the beach bums, you know, had the largest crowd for my cat tricks...or came up with a web ordering system for my bicycle delivery service... I'm sure I'd have enough material to blog about every day, too. Like, people need tips on how to deal with the business of getting city permits for public entertainment with animals, and what about the safety hand signals for riding a bike across one way mountain roads?

My friend had pointed out how he would make something and sell it, or charm a stranger instead. I guess to avoid the hassels getting a job, like I'm going through? But wait--I think that's kind of the same thing. I'm making something, when I write my pitches to potential employers. I create the plans for what I'm making when I research places I'd like to work and the jobs I'd like to do there. And I'm definitely charming strangers throughout this whole process. Or trying to, anyway.

Over here, we have access to a multitude of helping voices and cool tools, just a few keystrokes away, to make getting a job before we go mad a little more possible. I just uncovered a mother lode of those tools on Twitter.com alone. Depending on what you're looking for and where you live, you can get new jobs and recruiters and other related links scrolling across your screen every few minutes all day long if you like. You don't have to, but you can, and that's what's important.

There is so much help for you out there, if you are trying really hard to use every asset the internet, industry, and our government has to offer. If you really want to get yourself to work, so you can start getting a paycheck, getting insurance, getting into a field you have a passion for, whatever your motivation for getting a job is, hang it there.

No, it's not perfect. Especially in the most urban and rural environments. Especially in the most competitive and underfunded fields. But I do think it's makes a certain amount of sense. We might need to be continually adjusting our expectations in this country, though. I myself might be pouring coffee or teaching exercise classes again one day soon. I'm making peace with that. In fact, if I decided to get either of those jobs right now, most of what I talking about on this blog wouldn't be necessary for me to be doing.

But for now, if you're in the U.S., and you have access to Twitter, and you're still thinking getting a job is the sane way to handle your unemployment, check out @TweetMyJobs. Or you can visit them online at tweetmyjobs.com. It's the number one social recruitment network matching job seekers with employers. Employers can quickly and simply post what they're looking for on the website, and TweetMyJobs will distribute the need via the social network on Twitter, boom!

That's so easy it can't possibly make people go mad, right?

From Their Mouths to Your Hiring Offer

I found a really neat resource online for job seekers. It's an easy-to-read booklet in pdf form:

100 Job Search Tips from Fortune 500 Recruiters

Published by EMC² and dated December of 2009, its content remains current enough for our purposes now and for a long time. It is filled with advice from the very people who will be scouring our resumes, conducting telephone interviews with us, and in many cases, hiring us.

The organization of the tips is so concise and very useful. Also very telling. Each page contains content under the same headings: Top 10 job search strategies, Top 3 common mistakes that job seekers make, My top recruiting sources, Favorite recruiting story, and Final words.

A quick scan of the Top 10 strategies has shown me that networking appears to be number one, or close to it, on most recruiters' lists. Looking at their Top 3 recruiting sources shows me it's absolutely the right thing for me to be spending so much time on LinkedIn these days. Based on the mistakes we job seekers tend to make most often, I think I'll look into more information on preparing for interviews. It is cited as a big problem, and I must say I never thought much about interview prep before.

I hope you enjoy this little gem of a read. Don't miss the list of recommended resources at the back, either! I plan on tracking down this book's producers and thanking them for making it available to us. (Turns out, sending thank you notes is still a good thing for job seekers To Do.)

Something to Do

It was a little like scene from a zombie movie, when the living dead are all shuffling around, searching for whiffs of human-scented suppers. Everyone was dragging their feet like that, hesitating, uncertain if the person around the next corner was a goner like them, or one of the chosen few who hadn't been selected for elimination. The survivors really weren't any better off--you could already see the next morning in their eyes. They'd be walking into a department of 3 people instead of 13, with the world as they know it (from 9 - 5 at least) disintegrating around them and so many warm, talented people gone from their sight.

I had suggested us goners should carry around our white 9 x 12 exit paper envelopes as we wandered the halls to say our goodbyes, so we'd all know who was which. In part to spare the stayers, because at least they could avoid asking or not wanting to or being hopeful for us, and all the other lousy stuff. But mostly for our sake, the bitten ones. Because of what happens next.

(If you've never seen a zombie movie, maybe you don't know. Once bitten, you only have so much time. You're going to turn. You'll die for a little bit inside, but not all the way. It's bad--you're better off having your head chopped off then to reanimate as a zombie. There's a window of time. And arrangements should be made in advance with your traveling companions and loved ones. If I get bit, cut me off. Get me outta here. Swear, you will NOT let me become a zombie!)

You feel sorry for zombies, really, because they didn't cause their fate, and now all they can do is wait to feed. Zombies are the most vulnerable of all the monsters, I think. Which makes them among the most dangerous. You run the risk of feeling sorry for them or underestimating them. Fortunately, if you ever do run into zombies, they also seem to be pretty stupid. Which is where my analogy here and the scene from yesterday part ways.

We aren't wandering around today searching for whiffs of paycheck-scented jobs because we're stupid. That's what I was thinking about when the alarm went off this morning.  Granted, we might be a little vulnerable, but let's not feel sorry for ourselves or underestimate what's possible for us, either. That would be dangerous. So one moment, I was comfy there in bed, thinking, I don't have to get up. I can cut myself some slack. I have zombie juice all over me and I don't know what to start with. Then I decided not to hit snooze.

Because I don't want to wake up later, reanimated as some gross version of myself I could have avoided.

Though I must admit, I'm in my old robe, unshowered, with black trouser socks on. Kinda scary. Still, I'm writing. See, that's what I did at my job. What better way to keep yourself from the fate of the living dead than to do what you did? Or, do what you wanted to do. Or do what you should have done more of. All of it counts. That is the to-do for today. Even if you did hit snooze, make sure you do something that matters today. And everyday. I have a framed quote on my bookcase that I've adored for 25 years. It says,

There are three grand essentials in this life:

something to do,

something to love and

something to hope for.

And if you really want it to make a difference, I suggest you write your somethings down. (If you're looking for work, you're going to want to keep a log of your to-dos for unemployment benefits anyway. And if you're not, you'll find other improvements happen along the way when you record your positive efforts. Trust me on this one.)

I unpacked the stuff I brought home from my cubicle (I'm a day ahead with my "to-do for today" concept). Some highlights:
~ 9 x 12 white exit envelope
~ Ganesh,
      God of New Beginnings
~ calendar of beaches
~ inspiring quote pages
      (sensing a trend here?)
~ blog topics folder

Yesterday, one of my bitten friends suggested I write a new blog. I brushed the idea off.
Today, Ganesh made me think, don't hit snooze.
See you on Monday!

PS Thanks for the suggestion, Kevin I.