I feel like shit, and I've had a week to match. The job search continues. I plan on moving to the DC area next year, and I need some sort of work experience in an office before I move out there, otherwise I'm going to be boned. I've been to staffing agencies, applied to administrative assistant and other low-level clerical jobs (what few there are here in Rural Illinois), and gotten no luck. I've got awards and recommendations from my previous job history, the staffing agencies are always impressed, but nothing. On top of that unwanted feeling, I tried again to talk to a particular friend last night. It's been about four months since actually had a conversation. Last one we had wasn't strange or odd in any way. I send a quick "What's up" about a month ago and got no reply, and did the same thing last night. I hate how Facebook handles messages. I end up refreshing, waiting for the "Seen" status, but it never comes. I don't know what I did wrong, but apparently I can't talk to him, which sucks since I've spent the better part of the year trying to figure out how to. A weird thought, given he spent the last year or two telling me I could talk to him any time, and trying to show me how friends actually communicate. I'm tired. Unwanted by the majority of my friends and apparently every employer within a drivable hour radius. On an unrelated note, I want to rewrite the last four seasons of the West Wing.
Have you talked to _refugee_ about helping you with your cover letter / resume / etc? Also, this may or may not apply to you, but people don't hire people based on awards and experience and your resume. They do...but they really don't. Those things will get you the interview and be tangible reasons for them to hire you. But the real reason people hire people is much more subjective. Things like, "is this person going to make my life easier?" "Is this person going to fit in with the culture?" "Is this person going to be a fun / happy / good energy person to be around in the office?" "Do I want to see this person every day?" "Is there enough work for them to do?" "Is hiring this person going to create more work for me?" When I was looking for my first big-girl job, my dad said, "They aren't hiring you to use a program, they are hiring you so they don't have to spend the time doing XYZ. Make sure you make their life easier and they know you are on their team." The line I use the most to score jobs is, "I'm really just here to experience new things and make your life easier and hopefully help [company]or[person] [grow][do better][be more efficient][bring in new business]. I'm not picky about what I work on. What's going to help you most?" The other thing you can try, especially for entry level, is reach out to family / friends / facebook people / etc. Entry level positions usually get like 1000+ resumes sent in. Find a way around the resume pile. Most offices can always use an extra hand but the process of hiring someone is a bitch. From posting the job, to sorting through resumes, to interviewing, to hiring, to training, to hoping they work out in the company, to insurance and payroll and everything else, it's just a fucking bitch. So even if the place doesn't have a post up, they may have work. Shoot an email to family / friends and ask if they know of any offices who could use an assistance / manager / etc. Keep it super short and don't talk about yourself / your experience at all - just provide a link to your updated linkedin either right at the end or even in your signature. If they want to know your experience, they can click. Also, go on your facebook and use the search bar and type in "friends who work in [town name]" or "friends who work at [x company]" or "friends who are office managers". Then shoot them a message asking if they know if their company is hiring / if they know of work. It actually works better if you don't know the person super well. People like to help people. BUT! Before you do it, delete anything on your facebook that makes you look bitter or irresponsible or douchey. Even if it's an inside joke, just delete it. Then post a couple things that makes you look good and like someone you would want to help. Something like a nice photo of you and your family, "Just found this photo of my wonderful birthday dinner with the family. It was so great to see everyone again." or "Big shoutout to my friend [NAME] who just [won something, did something cool, etc.]. So proud/happy/thrilled for you!" Damn that's a lot of text. I'm putting off work, obviously. Good luck! Keep your head up!
My problem isn't really qualification or job history - I've had plenty of jobs before and fairly long-term as well. One of the issues is community. I'm looking for clerical or administrative, anything that will give me office experience. The best I have right now are the multiple newspapers I've worked on and run at one point or another. But, no one's hiring anything like that here. In fact, very little of that even exists here. There are no office-based companies, other than single-practice law offices, that I can think of, and I've lived here for over ten years. I live in a town of just under 5000 people (an 'everybody knows everybody' type town), outside a town outside a town. There are two types of jobs you can have here: 1. Farmer
2. Factory Worker The law offices I've been applying to, often with personal connections and references on both sides from a long-term friend and "Village Clerk" (a city job) aren't hiring because they're simply not big enough to need any help. Several of them are one man bands with a secretary. I actually called one office the other day, who's been practicing here for something like 15 or 20 years, and he didn't even have a secretary - and wouldn't hear out any sort of interest or questions. The factories have some offices, but most of the administration is handled elsewhere. For instance, I just got off the phone this morning with the HR Director of the biggest factory here in town - a headlight and pedal manufacturer. I worked there before as a temp and built up a pretty good repertoire with the Plant Engineer, the HR Director (who's sister had me in class when I was a small child), and the Plant Manager's assistant (a woman who insisted on flirting with me at every possible encounter). The HR Director was surprised to even hear someone ask about an office job. What they need, they get out of the local high school in the form of unpaid co-op students who show up two hours in the afternoon. As a result, I've been branching out my search to include the three nearest "slightly bigger" towns - the biggest of which is only barely over 10,000 people. They're over an hour's drive away, and even they don't have anything very promising. I'm about to call another law office, this one bigger. I was directed there from a local branch, but was told pretty blatantly that they "don't really need anything." I always hesitate to complain about job seeking because I always get the same advice, and all of it would be useful if I lived in an area that had hundreds of people that actually sent in resumes. But I'm in an area where staffing agencies do have power. Every factory here hires exclusively through them, and everywhere else that isn't Wal-Mart is too small to afford additional employees. I've asked friends about jobs locally or places who could potentially use some help, but aside from the village clerk I mentioned, they're at a complete loss. The town is just small. The area around it, in all directions for hours, is corn and soybeans. I'm not ungrateful, I appreciate the advice. But I've been at this for so long, and had the help of so many people, that I'm all but positive that I'll end up working in a factory for the next forty years before I get drunk one night and step in front of the one train route that passes through here.
You got to get the hell out of that town however you can. What you say reminds me of York, Pennsylvania, where my brother lived for a while. The only jobs were factories and he hated them. I remember he worked in a kitty litter plant for some time. I'm pretty sure that time is one of the dullest, greyest times of his life. The town was depressing even just as a visitor - interesting, in the way that I find small towns to be, but clearly not a succeeding small town. Just save up money and go. I realize we're talking about how you're having difficulty finding a good job so that's not the most easy advice to follow right now but seriously. As little money as you think you can go on, and go.
Yes, I've always been struggling to get out. I lived in Chicago for the year previous. I only returned to my little town because I got fucked over by the University's student aid department, and I was extremely ill (I was positive I was dying - intense pain all over my torso, constant vomiting, couldn't eat anything, intense pain in my back - could only bear it in searing hot showers). I got forced into coming back. I'm here for a year, saving as much as I can so I can move East.
I've unblocked and unmuted you just now. Life is too short. Staffing agencies have no power. Find a company that looks interesting, figure out who you'd be working for at that company, and appeal to them directly. It's been 10+ years since I was on the job market (in the land of TPS reports, anyway) but the statistic put forth at the time was that roughly 5% of jobs are filled by something other than referral. Introduce yourself to people who aren't hiring. Be friendly and attentive. somebody will eventually give you a conduit to a job that hasn't been advertised yet. Good luck.
This is good advice CashewGuy. Reach out to people who are not hiring, ask if you can have 15 minutes of their time just to seek advice about the industry they are in. Let them know that you are young and about to enter the job market and you know that they are a leader in their industry… Etc. When you ask for advice you tend to get opportunities. When you ask for opportunity you tend to get advice. Good luck!