Narratives of the Disengaged: The Job Search

Online Job Boards: Poisonous to Your Health

I am not a fan of online job boards of any variety. Just a few days ago I perused the Careerbuilder web site (out of desperation) and I was quickly reminded why. Bait and switch jobs have run amok. The military is clearly determined, and the "work at home" cartel are audacious. Page 1 of my search was quickly scrolled to the bottom and clicked for the next page. Page two was no different, so I clicked to page three, and four, and five....

...I gave up. This is insane. The old school versions of Monster and Careerbuilder was tolerable, as you can find at least two legitimate jobs. Now, even if there are legitimate postings, they are incredibly hard to find because of the necessity to weed out the bullcrap. No thanks. If I'm going to weed out anything, it will be from my garden, and nothing else.

From what I've read, however, more and more people have removed the rose-tinted glasses when it comes to internet job boards as far as reliability. Even recruiters have started confessing (slowly but surely) that job boards haven't been all that successful as far as reaching out to potential candidates. Sadly, even the local newspapers don't even have their own classified section online anymore, instead they have proudly advocated "partnerships." The Chicago Sun-Times and Herald News have partnered with Monster. The Daily Herald and Gatehouse Media have partnered with Yahoo's Hot Jobs. When these papers made the initial announcement of such partnerships, perhaps they didn't realize it was more to their benefit than the jobseeker. Since they cannot get enough orders for help wanted ads in their own right, they have resorted to desperate measures. This partnership is a logical idea on a revenue sense since classifieds are well below last year's figures due to hiring freezes and overall lack of jobs. They have to get the revenue from somewhere, but to allude jobseekers that there are plentiful jobs is a complete farce. These boards are damaging on both ends, and serves absolute no purpose except to achieve the goals of their advertisers.

It is now being suggested to stay clear of the major job boards, only to stick with job boards that pertain to your field (as in, "niche" job boards). That's wonderful and all, but unfortunately we are still dealing with the internet. I have come across peculiar job postings on mediabistro and journalismjobs.com that is considered head-scratch worthy. On several occasions I've come across job postings where the header read one thing and the job description read another (mostly alluding to sales). I still come across the "unknowns" as in, "Company Confidential," or "Company Unknown." As long as they are online job boards of any sort, there will always be the useless spam of some sort.

That's the one thing I've always hated about the internet. It makes everything very unpersonable and way out of reach. Come across a job posting that's the job of your dreams? Well you have to fill out an online application, go through tons of servers, and get a generic, electronic auto-response that's blandly worded as if they're trying to give you the warm fuzzies. And maybe....just maybe...the user on the other end of the line is talented enough to punch those magic words to make your resume appear on their computer like magic....otherwise you will never get a human response. This lack of interaction is toxic. 

I prefer the old school way of doing things. Talk to everyone you know (I don't mean Facebook and especially LinkedIn). Get your ass off the couch and drive around for any hints of help being wanted. Get that company's information. Conduct the search manually and cold call. Send flowers. Bake them a cake. You never know...sometimes radicalism works!

Using Twitter the old skool way

My blog is appropriately titled, "Narratives of the Disengaged' for a reason. It does not denote innuendos of unemployment and job search frustrations, but it does describe my overall feeling of unemployment.

Our society is in love with coming up with imaginative ways to make a name for themselves. How quickly we forget Twitter's original intent and rush to infest the site with spam and useless information. "Social media experts" will suddenly come up with magical, "strategic" ways on using the site, and will post tweets promoting their blog posts on these wonderful Twitter strategies, Twitter do's and don't's. I ignore them all, as I see Twitter differently.

In each role throughout my career, most of my colleagues found me very personable (I can't say 'all' because clearly, I cannot please people ALL of the time). Whether it was the act of engaging in office gossip, celebrity gossip, even participating in after-business hours events, I made certain to keep my "social butterfly" reputation intact. I was not shy about asking questions. I was not shy about butting into conversations. I was not shy about speaking up at sales meetings even though my role didn't have much to do with revenues, sales trends, and advertising supplements. I wanted to be heard, and my colleagues appreciated my voice.

I have not had that luxury since July, 2008. I haven't had the opportunity to share ideas and thoughts to those I'm at ease with and prosper. The option of volunteering somewhere is always available, but even that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The idea of working for "free" simply doesn't excite me at the present time. My days are spent at home, researching and job-hunt, and caring for the home in between. No money to go anywhere. No money to do anything. What is a once self-proclaimed social butterfly to do?

That is where the advent of the blog came in. I'm writing and writing, but wait....is there anyone out there even listening to me? So I checked out various blog promotion sights, only to find someone spamming me about THEIR blog. Don't get me wrong, I have come across some very intuitive blogs, which I never would have discovered otherwise. I still feel like I'm talking to myself, and I hate that feeling. One day, someone on my Facebook page posted something about Twitter. My response was, to paraphrase:

"I don't understand this Twitter nonsense. Why would I read about someone else taking a dump?"

After writing that, I became intrigued. I was convinced there was something more to Twitter than that, so...I investigated.

There were numerous responses regarding Twitter being the most successful tool as far as blog promotion. So naturally, I registered. At this point, I've got nothing to lose, and listed my blog in my profile.

Then I started tweeting.

And tweeting.

And tweeting.

And tweeting.

My tweeting madness has not stopped, and it doesn't appear that my fascination will come to an end any time soon. Not while I'm unemployed at least.

Twitter seemed to have picked up where I left off on a social scale. I've met many wonderful people with whom I hope to have a long-lasting tweeting relationship. I've learned many wonderful things, and discovered some very intriguing blogs and web sites which I never would have discovered if it wasn't for this ever-so-popular networking tool. Twitter allows me to be just that....me. In the real world, I carry around a sense of humor, sometimes poking fun at things just to ease the anxiety. My goal was to transfer this on the web, and I was happy to learn that I gained a good amount of followers in about a month. Twitter allows me to maintain my social demeanor in e-form, and as far as I'm concerned, some social time is better than none. While everyone else is busy tweeting techy things and spam, I have decided to stay old school and use Twitter for its original intent....what am I doing? And yes, even a little blog promotion. What's a little blog promo between tweeps? :)

Twitter seems to be getting a bad reputation nowadays due to spam and security breaches. As a result, I had no choice then to protect my updates. I do not agree with this decision, but until Twitter becomes more aggressive, I will leave my tweets protected.

So a' Twitter, here I come!

Job Search Resumes-Same BS

My ongoing and painstakingly long job search continues to be dismal. My daily horoscope keeps telling me that "money making opportunities are knocking on my door" however the real world reflects otherwise. Granted, I haven't been seriously looking for the last few months (hence why the blog hasn't been updated in all that time) because everyone seems to be on a hiring freeze (except for the "make big bucks at home" leeches).

Recently I paid a visit to my local unemployment office to check the status of my unemployment insurance. It's a shame no one ever picks up the phone, but the flipside is that they are all very nice and helpful. I have been granted the insurance for several more weeks, so it's nice to know that I will have money coming in, however I would be more elated if the income was steady. This prompted me to become more aggressive in the job search.

Once I got home, I shot off an e-mail to a contact who works at a very up and coming advertising agency in the city. The last time we spoke, he seemed very understanding and compassionate towards my situation because he had "been there." He swore up and down that he wouldn't rest handing out my resume until I got an interview. This ad agency was recently in the paper for scoring a couple of huge accounts, and with that my contact suspected that the agency will definitely conduct interviews. He mentioned that they had undergone some recent changes, such as adding new executive positions, and clearly they are going to need some administrative support. This conversation took place last May. It's now August. You get the idea.

He did contact me once about a IT support position. I was honest with him as my experience lies in administrative science, but I figure anything is possible. He forwarded my resume to one of his managers, who in turn forwarded it to HR. I knew I had no chance.

Ever since I have feverishly checked their corporate web site for job postings, and no job posting has been revealed to match my experience and qualifications. I decided to head over to their profile on LinkedIn, and turns out that they have a career section. When I perused their job section, I noticed there was a administrative posting but it is not on their corporate web site. I grew a massive urge to submit my resume for the position, but I remain highly skeptical. I asked my contact if he wouldn't mind doing a little investigative work (company name and position have been omitted):

"Just writing to let you know that I came across a job posting with XXX. I saw the posting on LinkedIn, but not on
XXX's actual web site. I am reluctant to submit my resume, only because I don't
know if this indeed a real job since it was never posted on their
web site.

I am wondering if perhaps you could do a bit of investigative work to
inquire whether or not they are really looking for someone to fill
this position. If it is, I will gladly send my resume (again) along
with my qualifications for the role.

I realize this may take a little bit of time and I understand. Any
little bit of info you can provide is very and highly appreciated!"

I still have not heard anything as of late, and as stated in my e-mail, I don't expect a quick response.

I saw another administrative posting with another highly reputable ad agency. I did not send my resume. Instead, I sent a PowerPoint presentation noting my career highlights, a cover letter, and a letter of recommendation from a previous employer. I e-mailed this information, as I still adamantly refuse to submit it online. Speaking of which, I shall now remove my name from Crain's database. Last week, they posted a receptionist position and their strict requirements were to apply online. It was originally posted somewhere around August 10. When I checked the posting last night....it vanished! Nowhere to be seen! It was almost as if they were never hiring for such position in the first place! I'm lead to believe they only posted it to get response to fulfill their EEO decree, and they sure had one of those surveys at the end of the online application. I selected "decline to answer" to all of the questions. I really don't know what gender I am. I've no idea what race I am. Perhaps I was war veteran in my previous life...should I have selected 'yes' to that question?

5 Ways Companies Mistreat Jobseekers

I wish I could provide the reason why this blog has been neglected for so long is because I found a job. Unfortunatley that's not the case, but I did some reading up on the economy and the job search that seems to worsen by the minute.

A real blog post will come sometime this week. In the meantime, I was excited to come across this article. It's about time that a major media outlet recognized the shitty ways of hiring authorities towards jobseekers:

5 Ways Companies Mistreat Jobseekers