I've been a consultant for most of the last fifteen years so I'm always getting short gigs that are followed by unemployment. The keys: Have an expert write your resume. Not one of those services where the people only know how to do graphics. As a manager, when I got one of those and read through the first three typographical errors, I said, "If you paid money for this, how foolishly are you going to waste my money if I let you work for me?" Pay someone who really knows what he's doing; it should cost around $300 for a solid-gold resume. I do them occasionally and people come back and thank me for getting them a fabulous job. The Monster Board has a resume service and they do a decent job. Even though I'm a professional writer I paid them to do mine because they know more about it than I do. I had to improve it but it was a good start. Let the online job boards work for you. There are several that specialize in different fields. In I.T., CareerBuilder, Monster and Dice are good. Make sure they have your most current resume and set your options optimally. You may want notifications every day or once a week, depending on how many hits you get. Make job hunting your job. I spent three hours every day (I chose not to work weekends, it's a matter of how desperate you are) going through the listings the job boards sent me, and that's just the start of my day. Write a resume for each job application. (Once you've got a professionally-written one you can modify it yourself as long as you do it carefully.) Don't send a generic one that's "good enough." Pull the key words out of the job description and make it clear that you have that experience and those skills, and downplay stuff that's not germane. If you're contacted by a recruiter, don't let him send the resume from the job board to the prospective employer. Learn all you can about the job and customize it to fit, as in the preceding step. Do not assume that a recruiter knows what he's doing or has your best interests at heart. Be very proactive if you're working through a headhunter. Don't wait for him to call back. If you're not sending out one resume a day, either you've done something wrong on your job board postings, in which case you should go back and figure out what it is, or you're not stretching enough and you're ignoring jobs that don't look appealing. In this economy you're not very likely to get the perfect job; you're going to have to settle for one that's tolerable. Keep your resume updated and keep your job board memberships active. It's very useful to survey the job opportunities that arrive when you don't need them. And this way when you find yourself unexpectedly unemployed, your resume will only need one update. Remember that the best time to look for a job is when you still have one. Employers can smell desperation. Between this job and my last one, I was out of work for seven months. During that time: I sent out about 100 resumes. (Not much going on over the holiday season.) About twenty of them resulted in calls back. I had ten phone interviews. I had four live interviews. I received one job offer. I took it. I was lucky, it worked out well. Good money, I enjoy the work, the commute is pleasant, the company is well-run, and my co-workers are fun. But even if it hadn't worked out that way, I'd still be glad to have it. Times are tough.
Great points Fraggle. Sadly, Darksidzz has been given all this advice before with little ROI. ~String
hard work is not doing any shift the boss asks you to do. That is excessive work. Hard work is just giving your full attention and skill to the regular 8 hrs a day. Maybe that will work when you are young and don't have a family. But most people can't keep up this kind of working regime and not burn out, or make great sacrifices, such as neglecting the social life, or family life.
I meant work hard within your own limits. Hard work, taking the initiative, volunteering to stay late when you can, and all that good stuff is what I do, but even I set limits when I feel that I must. But you know, a lot of people burn out because they get themselves stuck running on a treadmill that's going nowhere. They find themselves unable to answer the question "why I am even doing what I'm doing?" I've known people that work shit jobs and have many obligations outside of work that would be enough to stress out most people, but they seem to be able to still have never-ending enthusiasm. It's because they have given themselves a purpose meaningful to themselves.
Hawaii here I come? Should I ditch my entire life here in the mainland and fly to Honolulu with the remaining cash that's left over to be a beach bum? Shit forgot the poll!
My calculations tell me I'll have around $300 when I hit Honolulu, and then since I'd be leaving my car behind ditching it essentially they'll impound it, and repo it. Still 6k left to pay off. I'm tired of waiting here.
You wouldn't be the first. I heard there are many squatters and homeless people on the islands, it's kind of dangerous, they deal drugs to survive.
Or why not devise some sort of plan before doing such a thing? Some people do travel to a new location, spending all of their money to do so and end up being alright in the end. Becoming a bum just means that you've given up on life. It's your life, do as you wish. Many people find that if they drop everything and travel for a little while on only the bare essentials that they are totally different personality-wise while they are traveling... most for the good. I know that when I have done it, I am more confident and less attached to material goods. What a damn shame.
It's not 1976 anymore. Hawaii is a fairly expensive place. Three hundred bucks ain't gonna go very far over there! Why don't you just sell the car??? Or let me guess: You're the only guy in the country who owes $6,000 on a car that's worth about $1,500, because of the crappy way you've treated it. Right? You must come up with some new hare-brained scheme every two weeks. Some of them are entertaining. But you never do a goddamned thing! With the energy you spend whining, you could have gone to college, gotten a degree, and by now you'd have a great job and a really sweet life. A guy like that would have absolutely no trouble getting dates. You might even be happily married. But no, that kind of successful life just scares the holy crap out of you, doesn't it? You're accustomed to being a loser, so you can't imagine yourself ever being anything more than that. Dropping out and living in a cave on Kauai with the nudists. Yup, that's what passes for a dream in your imagination, isn't it? You'd be one of those guys who would be really proud of yourself for "beating the system." When what you would actually be doing is hiding out at the very bottom of it, like a sewer rat! Too bad, you really had some potential once, but I think you've lost it by now.
I had an interview at Target today, but the problems I face seem insurmountable. It's a Cashier position @ $8.25 an hour. She said they need someone to fill in for anyone who calls off "that's the plan" to have full time hours :/ My cars drowning me in payments $400 a month for christ sakes with insurance, I can't afford to pay any rent at this rate so they're moving to a 1 bedroom and I'll get the couch. What do you think I should do just move back in with parents and forget this mess? Even then the car is fucking with me. PS LOL Sister got all mad today, telling me to go back to school and get a better paying job lol Said to sell my car and when I told her I'd been asking online she got furious saying OH WHAT YOU ASKED ONLINE in a mean way. She is crazy lol Going to school don't mean you find better paying job, alot of it is just LUCK. She's so stupid, why would I go back to school when I owe $400 a month for car and insurance and make minium wage, she said to get pell grants ok fine how do I tell target that wants open availability to fill in for those who call off that I'm going back? HOW! The logistics don't make any sense she's not thinking. I need to focuse ONLY on paying the damn car off then when that's done I can afford to think of other things. Nobody is gonna buy a car toyota avalon 2003 for 6k and even if they did Target wants me to have open availability to get there ANYTIME not just when the buses run, so wth is she telling me this crap for. UGH
