Job hunting woes.
<div class="IPBDescription">Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaugh!</div>Yeah.
So, in the last month I've turned in about 20 applications, put my resume in at a few more and I've talked to people and stuff.
The best lead I /had/ was at McDonalds... They told me they were going to call me back for orientation and never did. In fact, I called them back about them calling me back, and they said they would again. They never did.
So, any tips? Seriously, this is just ###### annoying.
So, in the last month I've turned in about 20 applications, put my resume in at a few more and I've talked to people and stuff.
The best lead I /had/ was at McDonalds... They told me they were going to call me back for orientation and never did. In fact, I called them back about them calling me back, and they said they would again. They never did.
So, any tips? Seriously, this is just ###### annoying.
Comments
While desperately loathing people.
I now share your problem. I have the Halifax Bank of Scotland getting back to me some time this week after getting past an online application, telescreening (phone interview) and completing a group interview, individual interview and roleplay. I have also applied for a DIY store as the wages of 5.95 an hour appeal to me for doing something so little as a retail job.
As far as tips go keep applying. Show willingness and always be ready to related your skills and write a good covering letter of application. I've had 2 interviews in 2 weeks, the other one was for Subway in which I couldn't do because of working hours :/
Retail sucks. Then again, I have a minor disability in the form of my feet feeling like they're imploding and tearing themselves apart whenever I spend extended time on my feet.
I currently work at a Dave and Busters as a tech and have been there for 2+ years. 3rd year in October.
A lot of things are changing and especially since one department is short of people and they want me to do two jobs. It's bad enough as tech that i'm already doing 235872305 diff jobs at once.
Time to cut my hair, resend in my application for a Custody Assistant Sheriff and re-work my way up to being a police officer.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/marine.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::marine::" border="0" alt="marine.gif" />
Stupid job center sending me to a perfume shop...
My first job was at a coal lab. It was good monotonous work. You could comfortably lapse into a coma and let your body do the work for you. My mum used to be the manager at this particular coal lab so I got a foot in the door there. I worked there for a few months over the school break. Next break I got a job at a DIFFERENT coal lab, leapfrogging to a better paid job at a lab with better facilities. Aaaand it probably helped that my mum went to university with the manager there 25 years ago.
Once I moved out of town to begin my own university studies I didn't have a job for a long while. When I had a big break off uni I got a job at yet another coal lab. This time it was solely off the merit of having previous experience in the field and my own interview-receiving skills. After working here for a total of a few months, on and off, they ran out of work for me.
My current job I got as a result of my university qualifications, so I don't think it applies to you. :þ
--Scythe--
ive never had to apply for a job, always had one offered to me, but from what i hear from my friends a great idea is to as before said, follow up to make sure they have your applicationa and whatnot, but also to call them. a lot. like every other day or so. let them know you really want the job and youre willing to put forth some effort in getting it.
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Mkay then, looks like I'm going to be making some calls now.
Most employers will overlook any resume that doesn't tell them what skills the applicant has that are acctually relevant to their place of work. So if you're applying for macdonalds, or the local yard maintinence company, or something similar, don't pad out your resume with your high school grades and your HTML coding experience. They don't care about that crap. However, if you're applying as a clerk or teller somewhere they will want to know what kind of soft skills you have. Think about the job you're going out for and do whatever it takes to sell them the idea that you are the best candidate for the job, and that means designing a cover letter and resume that shows you have skills and interests they are looking for in a candidate. Customizing the resume for each job where appropriate, and definitely writing a custom cover letter for each job is pretty much necessary for success. Unless you're ok being slotted away somewhere in a mcjob.
Yeah.
So, in the last month I've turned in about 20 applications, put my resume in at a few more and I've talked to people and stuff.
The best lead I /had/ was at McDonalds... They told me they were going to call me back for orientation and never did. In fact, I called them back about them calling me back, and they said they would again. They never did.
So, any tips? Seriously, this is just ###### annoying.
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McDonald's turned you down - what - did you kill anyone?
If you're sending out 20 some odd resume's I imagine you're not sending a customized cover letter with them... Seriously, no one is going to hire you based on a generic resume with no other information about you. Chances are your resume is substandard if you are being rejected that much as well.
Most employers will overlook any resume that doesn't tell them what skills the applicant has that are acctually relevant to their place of work. So if you're applying for macdonalds, or the local yard maintinence company, or something similar, don't pad out your resume with your high school grades and your HTML coding experience. They don't care about that crap. However, if you're applying as a clerk or teller somewhere they will want to know what kind of soft skills you have. Think about the job you're going out for and do whatever it takes to sell them the idea that you are the best candidate for the job, and that means designing a cover letter and resume that shows you have skills and interests they are looking for in a candidate. Customizing the resume for each job where appropriate, and definitely writing a custom cover letter for each job is pretty much necessary for success. Unless you're ok being slotted away somewhere in a mcjob.
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I would not say you have to customize your resume for each job. A customized cover letter is a great idea howwever.
My person suggestion is actualy dropping off said ressumes by hand, and then do a folow up phone call in a few days/a week.
I will also point out this:
EVERYONE is tryign to get a job right now as colleges and HS just got out, so every one is tryign to get a summer job. If you are looking for something more perm then I suggest pointing that out in your ressume/coverletter/face to face.
Don't be discouraged, just proj.
On a fun note, in the course of a single week I managed to get turned down by Macdonalds and then Hired by a 5 star Hotel. Go figure :o
Every Job I've ever had was through someone I knew... the best way to get any job is to know someone on the inside :3
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Nepotisim FTW!
Actualy most of my good jobs have been found through family/friends of family, so I fully agree with Gem on that one.
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On a fun note, in the course of a single week I managed to get turned down by Macdonalds and then Hired by a 5 star Hotel. Go figure :o
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hehehehe.
Does McDd's actualy use MacDonald's in Scottland?
If so that is kinda awsome.
Second, I assume you are close to 18 and are at school, so for what reasons are you looking for a job ?
It is to get additional money on top of whatever student loan you got or will be geting ?
Is it a side job you are looking for or to be your main source of revenue for your school ?
Are you trying to get your foot in some company's door ?
Knowing these, would ease on helping you for your job search.
One piece of advise. What ever job you get at the end of your school, will mostly determine what you will be doing for the next 10-20 years. Why ? Because that will be your first experience at the real thing and when applying to other companies, they will want to know what experiences you have and be looking only for people having A specific experience. Companies hireing someone with no experiences is extreamly rare nowadays. So expect to follow the same job type path as the one you will be doing after school. Now choosing this is somewhat crucial. I have learned it the bad way. I took a job according to what I wanted back then and not according to market needs. As effect, when I quit that job, I couldn't find anything else similar. So I had to resort looking to get my foot somewhere and start at the bottom. I did but then 5 years later, there were major financial crisis in my town (1992 in Montreal, economic crash). I had to survive on low level jobs until the market was quiet enough so companies were starting to hire again. I then did a couple of contracts here and there (computer related) until I winded up in a company as permanent (CGI). I worked there 10 years until major budget cuts got me layed off. So I am again, starting from scratch at 43.
Now I am not saying this to scare you but to warn you that you should start planning ahead what you want to do in your job life and prepare yourself for any Plan-B you might have to unwrap. Also, at your age (again, assuming you are close to 18), this might sound like totaly un-important to you, but you simply cannot build yourlife on miscellanous jobs like MacDonalds for the next 10 years (unless you plan on moving toward management in the food industry). I'm not saying you shouldn't. YOU have to start working somewhere. But think about what's next and when. Think ahead on what you want to do, especialy if you are studying for a specific profession. Choose carefully. My profession is a deying one, so for me now, it is starting to be a question of survival or complete change of domaine.
Too many times, I have seen young folks that didn't care at all about what job they would get and winded up serving coffee for 25 years or just went on living on goverment's money, barely having enough money to make a decent living.
I would not say you have to customize your resume for each job.
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Well, you'd be wrong <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Not each specific job per say, but your resume should be relevant to the position you're applying at, and your resume shouldn't be a 5 page document listing every little skill and experience you've had. So at very VERY least you should be using a different resume when applying for computer jobs, then you should when applying at service industry jobs, then you should when applying at construction jobs. Student's especially will generally work a wide range of potential low end positions, so understand that one resume isn't good enough if you really want to sell yourself, especially if you're hoping to hop up the ladder a bit. The resume that will get you hired a posh restraint isn't going to look the same as the resume that will get you hired at bob's house builders.
Don't leave gaps in your employment record on your resume, but for example, if you worked mowing lawns at your last job and you are now applying for an entry level service industry position, they don't need to know about every little detail of your responsibilities your last job, they just need to know you were employed. However, if you used to work at macdonalds they will want to know things like your rank, your customer service experience there, your duties, your responsibilities, because you deal with alot of customers in the service industries and that kind of information will be directly relevant to how much training you will need and what they can expect out of you in that job.
Also, with a resume promote the skills you have that you think give you the best chance of being hired. If you got good marks in school and you believe that that is something that will interest your employer (I'm assuming for a secretary job or something in businesses probably) Than list your education at the top of your resume, your relevant skills second, and your past job experience (mowing lawns or something) last. Put the things the employer is most likely going to be impressed with at the top of the resume, not hidden in the middle somewhere. In contrast, if you have lots of relevant job experiences to the position you are applying for, list job experiences first and education last. It's not being dishonest, it's making the employers job easy, giving them your selling points right up front and not forcing them to search for them.
A resume should not be seen as a static unchanging document. It's not a passport.
-You're GOING to work a crappy job at first. No if's and's or but's. It's just the way it is.
-You absolutely cannot afford to be a piece of paper. So ask yourself how you'd get the job you're applying for WITHOUT ever filling out an application or handing in a resume/letter. Think about that long and hard. Then when you've figured it out. Go do that... with a resume/letter/application in hand.
-Getting a job through someone you know is by FAR the easiest way to get one at any level or point in your career.
-Keep your resume concise and relevant to the job. If you're going to be anal about every last reason why you're hireable, put the extended resume on a website with an easy url. Note that people are not going to look at this site because they really don't care about every last detail, but at least you can mentally allow yourself to cut the rest of your resume short.
-Layout is important. If you met with the hiring manager personally and handed them your resume. They should be able to pick your resume out of a lineup of 15 or so resumes at a glance based on fuzzy memory of when you handed it to them. An unmodified template is out of the question.
-CONTACT INFORMATION MUST JUMP OUT AT AN EMPLOYER. Getting your phone number or email in their head is half the process of having them contact you when they need to.
-Once you've got the job. Take it seriously. Everyone is aware that retail/service jobs suck. But if you can't excel at that level, how the hell are people supposed to expect excellence at anything more difficult/boring/stressful.
All that being said, here's my personal experience (based on fuzzy memory) on the job market so you can decide whether what I'm saying is a bunch of crap or not. I started applying around at retail stores when I was 16/17, applications were usually filled out on the spot and handed back to a cashier. Got turned down 5-10 times. Talked to people at school and found out a girl I took a physics class with worked at a computer store (CompUSA). Had her put in a good word for me and mentioned that I knew her when turning in my application to the cashier/customer service manager. Ended up getting a part-time job there as a cashier working for crap money (something around $5/hr I think). They tried to move me to sales and customer service a few times, but I refused to do either. I have no sales skills and customer service had too high of turnover. Over the course of a year or so I became their fastest and most accurate cashier (taking it seriously) and was making around $8/hr. Got moved up to security where I was more or less paid to be a statue by the exit door at $8.50/hr. Quit that job just before I turned 20 to go back to school (DigiPen Institute of Technology for a game programming degree). I hung out with people who were very active in school activities, which made it easy to get a job at the school my first summer there. There weren't really applications for this job. We just all showed up to a group meeting and signed a sheet of paper stating that we were interested and they interviewed everyone. I was assistant teaching programming workshops intended for high school students at $12.50/hr. Did that the following two summers. Just before I graduated I got a contracting job working on casual games for $36k/yr salary. I got this job primarily because a friend of mine recommended me for it. Didn't apply, didn't hand in a resume, just got asked to interview one day. Soon after that I got an offer from Valve Software to work on Portal based on the demo of Narbacular Drop that my team showed to them. None of us applied or knew anyone there. We just had personal contact with a few of their people and got invited to demo ND to them. We got the offer of employment on the spot. I'm not going to share how much I'm making now, but rest assured that it's crazy awesome.
The moral of the story? Get the skills. Find a way to show you've got the skills, then make personal contact and shortcut the paperwork.
When I went off to college, I got a job working at the front desk of the dorm I lived in. That was basically me going to the desk manager as often as reasonable to check on whether or not she needed someone else to work at the desk.
Another job I had is working in the Albertsons bakery, because I knew the bakery manager. I only worked there during the summers (the last two years), but the store director told me I could come back if I wanted to to work in any department in the store.
I have also had a position working on campus, running open lab time (where students really come in and work, not something where I mostly get to sit around doing nothing), which I got due to being a TA for the course for a couple years.
Four different jobs, with different paths to getting them. Basically though (and to summarize what others have said), someone there needs to know you; this can be through having a friend working there, or through you doing something that stands out so that they remember you.