posted
If I don't get a job soon. I lost my temp job that I liked so much on Friday. Now I am unemployed. I hate being unemployed. I need a job right now, but how do people find jobs? Currently I have a resume on Monster, one on Career Builder. I applied to a few jobs on Friday online, such as one for a bank teller at a place that is walking distance from my house. I am tired of temp jobs and want a permanant job so I can get things on tract. If I don't get a job in two weeks, I'll simply find a way to turn to crime. Or maybe I'll teach English in Japan. I don't want to live with my mother.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Helpful. In order to acquire skills, one has to have a job... In order to have a job, you got to have skills. At least I managed to stay on this job for a full year and could always say I got an extra year's worth of experience...
I hate, despise and LOATH being back in this stupid position again.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
What I want is a job that will make me between 13-20 bucks an hour doing administrative work because I will not go back to retail unless it's just for a month to keep from going down the hole. I want a job that is not torture to go to so I can get back on track, start paying all of these bills and student loans and improve and upgrade my situation. I would prefer to have a job in the town of rockland or nearby that doesn't involve too much commuting.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:What I want is a job that will make me between 13-20 bucks an hour doing administrative work because I will not go back to retail unless it's just for a month to keep from going down the hole.
How fast do you type? Are you familiar with Microsoft Outlook? Do you look professional?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I type very fast, when my wrists don't hurt too much. I've done jobs that range from tutoring children one on one, bagging groceries and clerical work. I have very good computer skills. I'm somewhat familiar with outlook, but I don't know about looking professional.... I have a couple articles of respectable clothes, but I need more.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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When you say "very fast," how fast are we talking? Are you fast enough for transcription work?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Pretty fast, but I'm not sure if I want to do that. My mother does that ><. There's got to be something else I can do. Like correspondence again. I loved doing that.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I taught English in Japan for a year. It was a very interesting experience, and lucrative for me because I lived in the boonies so I didn't have to spend much on housing, etc. I was also VERY frugal. I'd be happy to talk to you about it (ups and downs) if it would be helpful.
Good luck finding something you like!!!!
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: Pretty fast, but I'm not sure if I want to do that. My mother does that ><. There's got to be something else I can do. Like correspondence again. I loved doing that.
Now's not the time to be picky about work.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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Don't care... I really want to move forward instead of backwards and not have to go through the same stuff I went through over the last few years. There really has to be a way to do better... There's a lot at stake. I'll take what I can get, but I really, really want to do better
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
You can always look into a staffing agency such as Account Temps or the like. You can go in and take a bunch of proficiency tests on various office software packages and establish your actual typing speed, then see what sorts of positions are available in your area.
Even if you don't want to pursue the temp route, it might be a good idea to go in for the evaluation and talk with one of their case managers - if only to get a better idea of your skill set and what you can use to build a resume.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I'm going to Office Team tomorrow and maybe Broadview which got me this job could get me another one... But in the past the jobs have been downgraded in terms of pay, duration and work. So I'm going to try as many places as possible, the bank nearby, various places on the net, that job search thing on the unemployment site, newspapers online, and if all else fails, Target or retail again. I don't want to do retail, but I'll do it for a month or so until I can get something better. But working temp again is vaguely depressing. I hate the lack of holiday pay and benefits and the sense of doom and forboding...
Also, If I really want this job I saw online and there's a phone number, should I call? I am afraid to... Maybe I could email them from my proper business email address.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Also, register with Spherion and possibly one other temp company. If the temp companies are worried you'll get on elsewhere first, they will hustle. If you're only with one, the urgency isn't really there for them.
What were you doing at your temp job? Was that the correspondence? Various companies have different contracts, but after a year you might be able to apply for a direct hire at that company, if they had a good experience with you. The funding of payroll is different from funding for temp (one is overhead, the other is expense).
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I was in about the same position and got a job as a front desk clerk at a hotel. The job itself isn't great, mainly because you often have very angry people to deal with. But the industry offers a whole lot of room to move into better positions that aren't customer oriented, and can be great training for other industries (ie. sales, accounts recievable, accounts payable, human resources, etc).
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: One big step forward would be figuring out how to keep your job.
But I already lost my job. I had it for a year after losing it over the same thing back in November of 2005. I got it back in July of 06 and they seemed to have wanted to keep me. In fact they said they were trying to keep me but with the move there was no funding for me to stay. It's deeply depressing because I really was doing over 106 letters a day and I have the sore imflame wrists to prove it. It's deeply disapointing.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: One big step forward would be figuring out how to keep your job.
With a lot of temp jobs, this is not in the worker's control at all.
I'm a bit surprised at how unhelpful Tom's first post was. To acquire skills, one generally needs either a job at which to acquire skills, or the money to pay for training (which for most people means a source of income a.k.a. a job). It's a common enough problem for a lot of young workers.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: When you say "very fast," how fast are we talking? Are you fast enough for transcription work?
Tell me about this transcription work you spoke of, I think I'd very much enjoy typing at a brisk pace all day.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:What I want is a job that will make me between 13-20 bucks an hour doing administrative work because I will not go back to retail unless it's just for a month to keep from going down the hole. I want a job that is not torture to go to so I can get back on track, start paying all of these bills and student loans and improve and upgrade my situation. I would prefer to have a job in the town of rockland or nearby that doesn't involve too much commuting.
In my experience, this is the WRONG way to get a job. I was saving this for a landmark, but I will write some here because I will think it will help.
I got married and divorced by the time I was 24 and fresh out of the University. The divorce wrecked me financially. We had no debt, but I had a useless degree and took a student loan to pay for her move. The initial financial strain is not what wrecked me. I let the loan go bad. Bills went unpaid. Then a credit card or two went to collections.
I took a couple years off my life and moved in with a girl whom I liked and had a really charged physical relationship with. My wife left me for another man and I was looking for reassurance of my "manhood."
Here is my point: during those years I approached employment all wrong. I was looking for a "pay range," not a job. I wanted 11-18 dollars an hour. I worked at a paging company, retail, and other crap jobs. They were mostly below my pay range.
My need for stable good employment got so desperate I convinced myself that an ad in the newspaper for a manager of a perfume store was legit and I might make 40k a year.
I think the saddest day in my life was being mid 20s and finding myself in a parking lot being asked to go into stores selling knock-off perfume.
Going after a "pay range" lead me to classifieds and crap. In the process I wrecked..nay, destroyed my credit--blasted to the low 500s with all sorts of black marks.
I swallowed my pride and moved in with my mom asking myself how did I get to such a low. I got a job at Wal*mart and youth corrections (two places that always need employees to abuse) and worked 50+ hours a week until I payed off all my debts.
I got married again. I wouldn't marry her until I payed off my debts, and I have been living debt free since. Actually that has kept my credit score down since you need good debt to build up credit, but that is another story.
Anyway, I decided going after a pay range was the wrong way to go and I target a specific job I wanted: Teacher. I got my foot in the door being an aide in a computer lab and started to go back to school for my Masters in education. I could have taken student loans, but we saved money--being married to a frugal person and having two incomes has its advantages.
I loved computers and gave up on student teaching and focused on computers. Each year, since I started Hatrack, I got better pay, more hours (I started off at 15 hours a week at $9 an hour and still had to do some youth corrections), and more benefits. I threw my heart and soul into this one job and they rewarded me accordingly each year until I was in my “pay range” I wanted with insurance. This year they created a new job (basically what I was doing with some district level responsibilities), a $27,000 a year raise, much better benefits, and a nicer contract—this was after three years of significant raises, added benefits, and more hours.
I love my job. It is a weird feeling.
We just bought a town home well within our budget that fits our needs and is better than the rat-hole we rented. My mortgage broker also is a licensed credit counselor, and even tho our loan has a high interest rate now, when we refinance in two years our credit will be MUCH better. I am in my early 30s and I FINALLY learned about credit!
We are also due to have our second child in September. We feel/are so blessed. We spent a couple years in abject poverty, but we had a goal. I am not a teacher, but that initial goal propelled me in the right direction.
My wife quit her job to stay in our new modest home to raise our kids. When they get older, she will go back to teaching.
I went through years of darkness where I felt lost, but I now make more then our previous combined income. I share this because when I read that you were looking for a “pay range” and what you didn't want, it reminded me in full of all the crap jobs I had that lead me to a day of selling perfume on the streets before I walked off.
When you have something specific you like, then you can work towards it. You can make concrete goals, specific sacrifices, and you will be amazed at the doors that will open--in my experience.
When you job shop for "pay" or "working conditions," there is nothing really specific you can work towards and it leads to the classifieds and failure. The good jobs are not in classifieds--in my experience.
It does get better. Don't give up. Change your approach.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: One big step forward would be figuring out how to keep your job.
With a lot of temp jobs, this is not in the worker's control at all.
I've had (and lost) temp jobs. The one thing I found that kept me from keeping those jobs was myself. During that period of my life, I was very unstable and tended to slack off at work. Once I got all of that in order, I was on my way up, not down.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
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quote:To acquire skills, one generally needs either a job at which to acquire skills, or the money to pay for training (which for most people means a source of income a.k.a. a job).
See, this isn't true. The skills I used to enter my current career were acquired entirely on my own -- no money required. You can teach yourself basic programming fairly easily, and Office macros literally over a weekend. If you type fairly quickly and know how to use the HLOOKUP() function, the only thing keeping you out of an office pool is your resume.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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quote:I'm a bit surprised at how unhelpful Tom's first post was. To acquire skills, one generally needs either a job at which to acquire skills, or the money to pay for training (which for most people means a source of income a.k.a. a job). It's a common enough problem for a lot of young workers.
Untrue, especially with regard to administrative work, unless you count paying $20-$35 for a book at the bookstore as "paying for training." With $150 in books and 8 hours a day, you could become proficient with the entire MS Office Suite--Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, all the major business apps--in two weeks. Quickbooks would take you a day, tops. Goldmine, another day. Access, a day for most ordinary user tasks. And that's just software training!
Syn, how's your local craigslist?
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: One big step forward would be figuring out how to keep your job.
With a lot of temp jobs, this is not in the worker's control at all.
I've had (and lost) temp jobs. The one thing I found that kept me from keeping those jobs was myself. During that period of my life, I was very unstable and tended to slack off at work. Once I got all of that in order, I was on my way up, not down.
In this case I wasn't slacking off, but I did do 106 letters a day. but it would take me ages to envelope them ><
What I really want to do is write, but it's depressing to talk about that, like discussing a secret embarassing crush on someone you probably can't have. Not a good attitude, but still, it's the main thing I want to do or a secure job so I can do the thing I really want to do and still be able to pay the rent. I just don't want to go back to working retail again anytime soon unless I have no choice. The best bet would be to take another temp job just to have a job.
I forgot about Craigslist...
But I must avoid getting a second free rabbit.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
106 letters a day is less than 5 minutes per letter - that's pretty darn good. Plus, it sounds as if they agree that you've done really well. Can you get them to write you a letter of recommendation that you can hold and use as needed? Officially informing the temp agency how well you did would be a big help, too - knowing you're unlikely to disappoint a different client makes it more likely they'll look to you first.
I'm sorry you're going through all this. In the meantime, the suggestion to quantify and improve your clerical skills is a good idea. For clerical work, government jobs are very good, and governments like test results and certifications.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:To acquire skills, one generally needs either a job at which to acquire skills, or the money to pay for training (which for most people means a source of income a.k.a. a job).
See, this isn't true. The skills I used to enter my current career were acquired entirely on my own -- no money required. You can teach yourself basic programming fairly easily, and Office macros literally over a weekend. If you type fairly quickly and know how to use the HLOOKUP() function, the only thing keeping you out of an office pool is your resume.
It also depends on what you want to do, and the person's ability to acquire skills without assistance.
I take back what I said, though-- that is probably good advice for you and those like you. Me, I spent weeks trying to learn basic and never got anywhere with it. Different people acquire knowledge differently. So while you advice may be helpful to Syn and others, it would not have helped me at all.
I suppose we all tend to measure corn in our own half bushel. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Letters of recommendation are an excellent idea! Even if your immediate supervisor won't give you one, try to find one or two individuals with decent titles at the place you last worked who will write something glowing about the work you did for them. They're especially important if you're going the self-trained route.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I feel so ashamed that I got so weepy in front of them on Friday. I was trying very hard not to though. But, I did get a call right away for a job I just applied for! That makes me feel a bit better. I might not get it, but it makes me feel more hopeful.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:I'm a bit surprised at how unhelpful Tom's first post was. To acquire skills, one generally needs either a job at which to acquire skills, or the money to pay for training (which for most people means a source of income a.k.a. a job). It's a common enough problem for a lot of young workers.
Untrue, especially with regard to administrative work, unless you count paying $20-$35 for a book at the bookstore as "paying for training." With $150 in books and 8 hours a day, you could become proficient with the entire MS Office Suite--Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, all the major business apps--in two weeks. Quickbooks would take you a day, tops. Goldmine, another day. Access, a day for most ordinary user tasks. And that's just software training!
Point taken. I'm trying to learn Adobe premiere right now, and will probably take a class on Photoshop (since I've been unable to learn with books, online tutorials and even help from a spouse with experience- his expertise is technical, and I'm trying to learn digital painting). I have a great antipathy for clerical stuff, and technology and I are like oil and water.
I worked for the government for many years. I was hired without testing or classifications, basically hired because I graduated summa cum laude. I even told them, "I don't type."
*shrug* It paid really well. I suppose my experience is atypical. Everyone said that, as an English Major, I should be working in fast food. Instead, I Gumped into a cushy job with good pay and benefits. One I was very good at, oddly enough.
I can only assume that the Universe loves me. Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Iem: That was VERY interesting! My favorite part was,
quote:Each year, since I started Hatrack, I got better pay, more hours...
I must be getting a different version of hatrack, what edition of hatrack are you currently posting in?!
I think I agree with what you were saying about finding a job instead of a pay range.
Synesthesia: There is TONS of work out there. I love getting called the same day I apply as well, its a real ego booster to see them coming after you instead of vice versa.
In Utah they have a website for the Department of Work Force Services. I am confident every state has a comparable website. I've found my last two jobs using it, and I've been very happy with the functionality and listing.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I just found out the Deparment of Labor has a Women's Bureau. I mean, maybe it's just a lot of "we've got to show we're doing something about this problem" but maybe you should have a look around.
posted
As someone who hires people, a quick piece of advise. Just try to be as confident and positive as possible when you go in for your interview. Confidence makes a great first impression. Good luck with the company that called you.
Posts: 25 | Registered: Jun 2007
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You don't happen to live in the Minneapolis area, do you? The company I work for is hiring entry-level call center reps, and probably will be throughout the summer.
quote:Originally posted by Enigmatic: You don't happen to live in the Minneapolis area, do you? The company I work for is hiring entry-level call center reps, and probably will be throughout the summer.
--Enigmatic
Dang. I don't live there and I have flairing social phobia, which I am trying to get rid of. I simply a bit afraid of call center jobs... It's a ridiculous fear though.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Look at local Universities and their websites. The turnover is pretty high for lower level positions, so they will always be hiring admin people.
It's how I got my job.
Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Liz B: I taught English in Japan for a year. It was a very interesting experience, and lucrative for me because I lived in the boonies so I didn't have to spend much on housing, etc. I was also VERY frugal. I'd be happy to talk to you about it (ups and downs) if it would be helpful.
Good luck finding something you like!!!!
Can you tell us how you came upon this job / got hired and went? This is something I've been contemplating very strongly (either in Japan or Argentina)
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Javert: Look at local Universities and their websites. The turnover is pretty high for lower level positions, so they will always be hiring admin people.
It's how I got my job.
There is Harvard to consider. I could use the library if I worked there. Perhaps I will try again.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I did the JET program right out of college, so it's been 10 years this month since I got back. Their website is VERY informative. Of course, it's not the only way to become an English teacher in Japan--but it worked really well for me. I liked it because I taught elementary & middle school students in the public schools (as well as a few adult learners), instead of mostly adults.
I was proficient in Japanese when I went, so it was OK that I was in the middle of nowhere.
It was a great experience, but the work itself was frustrating and I was often lonely. Still, I credit that experience as inspiring me to return to grad school to become a teacher.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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