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FogHelmut posted:Is there any stigma against taking 6-month contract/temporary positions? I don't see why there would be. More and more jobs are shifting to part-time/contract work, it's just the way things seem to be going. Might depend on your industry though. I know in design, there are tons of contract jobs everywhere.
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Aug 7, 2015 16:19
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FogHelmut posted:Is there any stigma against taking 6-month contract/temporary positions? Not really, my last job started as a contract position and most of the ones I saw on my recent job hunt were also contracts. There's a good chance the company will just hire you on full time before your contract is up, but they want to push some of the initial legwork onto staffing agencies and want an easier out if they don't like you. Also temp employees usually don't get insurance but if you're lucky the staffing agency that puts you there might help you with that (since you are technically an employee of said agency)
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Aug 7, 2015 20:35
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FogHelmut posted:Is there any stigma against taking 6-month contract/temporary positions?
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Aug 8, 2015 02:40
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My advice on contracts and contract-to-hire is to look at the reputation of the company you're working for. Glassdoor is a great start. Some companies like financials are great at following through on the "hire" part, while other companies like Microsoft and Cisco and <insert government contractor here> are renowned for their never-ending rotation of perma-temps without any benefits or job security.
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Aug 8, 2015 03:38
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Jesus CHRIST I'm so loving sick of this job hunt poo poo. I went from having a great job to nothing in less than three months after transferring and I found out later it was because they didn't even want me as I was part of a bid to get the one guy they did want and everyone else was fired and by hiring all of us we were going to get automatic raises for transferring to a different state. I got hosed out of that, now I've been on the hunt ever since to get another 40 hour a week job. I'm currently trying to pay my bills painfully through doing trivia gigs and working at a lovely gas station that after three months of busting my rear end at cut my loving hours down to two days a week because I guess they're getting ready to drop me entirely or something. What the gently caress do I have to do to get a loving job? This is my resume, this mother fucker has been edited down and destroyed from what it was to what it is now thanks to the tips in this thread and I'm still constantly getting rejection letters, being told the position has already been filled, etc. I can't take this poo poo anymore, and I'm about to loving snap. I censored out private info. quote:Name I've applied at every data entry job I can, every call center, every non CDL transport job, every warehouse, even part time ones! These are the only skills I have, these are the only things I'm good at! I even applied at a big box electronics store that I loathe with every fiber of my being just because I want a job and I figure I'd be better than the idiots who currently work there, and they won't hire me! Fast food places are literally telling me that they won't hire me because I used to make too much money and they "know" I'll supposedly just work for them for three to six months until I find something else and they'll have to hire someone new, and it's loving heartbreaking. I don't know what to do. I can't afford college, gently caress student loans, I need a job now. And when I say I'm ready to snap I mean "I have to return some videotapes" level of snap. I'm going loving crazy over here. What am I doing wrong?!
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Aug 11, 2015 06:05
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Skunkrocker posted:What am I doing wrong?! I would highly recommend getting the goon discount and ordering ResumeToInterview's service here - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2444033 I paid around $200 - $250 and I highly recommend it - along with hundreds of happy customers. Trust me, $200 may seem like a lot of money but it's minimal compared to the value it adds to you in your job search.
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Aug 11, 2015 06:27
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I've been venting in the Lab thread about a job that I was really keyed up for, with the process running for months (multiple phone interviews, a full day on site, etc.). And I just got the "sorry but we've chosen someone else" call. At least they called, which is becoming increasingly rare, but there was also feedback which was a little strange. They said my two failings were "I was uncomfortable working with X" and "they weren't sure if I'd work well in a team". "X" was a quite strange technical complaint that I don't remember coming up during the day (literally mentioned once and I said "that's interesting") so I can't figure what to do with it. Garbled by HR maybe? As for the second? I figure I should try and try and work on that impression, although again I feel it didn't really come up during the day. I was asked once about how I currently work, and I replied about a variety of projects with a variety of work styles, some in teams, some alone, blah blah. I even said that I thought teams were good for mutually checking each others work. I figure maybe I should get the "I'm good at teams" message out in front in future interviews, but it's a frustrating issue. Any advice?
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Aug 11, 2015 10:39
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Skunkrocker posted:Jesus CHRIST I'm so loving sick of this job hunt poo poo. I went from having a great job to nothing in less than three months after transferring and I found out later it was because they didn't even want me as I was part of a bid to get the one guy they did want and everyone else was fired and by hiring all of us we were going to get automatic raises for transferring to a different state. I got hosed out of that, now I've been on the hunt ever since to get another 40 hour a week job. I'm currently trying to pay my bills painfully through doing trivia gigs and working at a lovely gas station that after three months of busting my rear end at cut my loving hours down to two days a week because I guess they're getting ready to drop me entirely or something. I'm leaving a perfectly good job and moving 2800 miles away. I have a college degree, almost 10 years of experience. In the past 3 months I've only had 2 legit interviews and few callbacks. I have a car payment, student loans, own a house I can't sell, and will be moving in with my wife's parents when we get to our destination. I haven't lived at home since a brief time after I finished school. poo poo sucks. The rejections I get tell me they're going to hold out for someone with very specific experience, someone who has been doing that exact job in that exact industry with these exact systems. The other half are looking for a "solve all of our problems" guy who has extensive experience in four completely separate disciplines. I've only been taking this thread's advice for a couple of weeks. Since updating my resume, I haven't yet gotten any what I want to call real callbacks, but recruiters have been all up my rear end for ridiculous jobs that I don't really want to do. But then I could just be in my 30s living in my wife's parents' house while all of my friends move into management and senior positions and go on vacation and have kids and other adult bullshit. As a bonus I get to be near my sister in law who got put into a senior position a year out of school, meanwhile I'm running all kinds of poo poo and telling all of these supposed "senior analysts" how to do their damned job. Management tells me they don't have the budget for a promotion for me, that their vision for my position is having someone in place with only a few years of experience. I outgrew the position and its a business decision and I should look to other departments and they'll give me whatever references. Yeah gently caress references when you can't get a callback. FogHelmut fucked around with this message at 12:39 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 12:30
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Busy Bee posted:I would highly recommend getting the goon discount and ordering ResumeToInterview's service here - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2444033 Don't do this.
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Aug 11, 2015 15:30
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Don't do this.
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Aug 11, 2015 15:33
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Any resume service is probably a scam at this point, and honestly, if you'd read through the thread, you could probably look at how people have fixed their resumes. Here's a hint: Your tasks and accomplishments at a job should not include keystroke count. What were you doing? Even if it was data entry, what KIND of data entry?
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Aug 11, 2015 16:29
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No Butt Stuff posted:Any resume service is probably a scam at this point, and honestly, if you'd read through the thread, you could probably look at how people have fixed their resumes. Glorified mail sorting. An envelope would appear on the screen and I keyed in the information based on what I could see. If it was return to sender I'd hit a button for that, if it was upside down or backwards or couldn't read it I'd hit reject. If I could read it I started with the zip code, then the city, then the street address, and rarely the apartment number.
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Aug 11, 2015 18:12
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What's the best way to handle the change in scope of a position? Should I rewrite the entire entry, or just add the additional responsibilities? More specifically, my team handled technical change management for a specific division of my company, and after the previous director of TCM for the entire company took a new position we absorbed the work. My resume currently lists my accomplishments as the change manager for the division, what I'm wondering is if I should just leave those lines as they are now and add an additional bullet for the assumption of control of the TCM program.
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Aug 11, 2015 20:21
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Skunkrocker posted:Glorified mail sorting. An envelope would appear on the screen and I keyed in the information based on what I could see. If it was return to sender I'd hit a button for that, if it was upside down or backwards or couldn't read it I'd hit reject. If I could read it I started with the zip code, then the city, then the street address, and rarely the apartment number. "Data Validation."
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Aug 11, 2015 20:28
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No Butt Stuff posted:"Data Validation."
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Aug 11, 2015 20:50
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Vulture Culture posted:I wasn't happy with what they did to Briantist's resume either. DustingDuvet's great, but since he's expanded and started farming out a lot of the work, some of the people working for him really don't seem to have a clue anymore. Interesting. I ordered his service about 1.5 years ago so maybe things have changed since then. I was very happy with his service and thought they did a great job. I definitely believe I got my foot in the door in more places because of it.
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Aug 11, 2015 21:58
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Busy Bee posted:Interesting. I ordered his service about 1.5 years ago so maybe things have changed since then. I was very happy with his service and thought they did a great job. I definitely believe I got my foot in the door in more places because of it.
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Aug 11, 2015 22:03
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Vulture Culture posted:"Validated results of critical OCR systems in company's customer service funnel." I'll put it a different way. I worked for the postal service. So I dunno if that particular terminology continues to apply. It's not like the mail was anywhere near where we were; our office was doing this for locations across the country, not a single one of which was near us, with the intent that we would never see mail addressed to anyone or from anyone we know. I bring this up because it wasn't really customer service as it was literally mail sorting. We were just telling the machine where to send the letter so it got loaded in the correct truck to go to the correct state to the correct region to the correct county to the correct city and the correct neighborhood. Skunkrocker fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Aug 11, 2015 |
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Aug 11, 2015 23:11
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Firstly, thanks thread -- it's been an awesome read over the last few years. I have a question about interview etiquette: I was contacted on LinkedIn by a recruiter about a position in my field of IT. I've had two phone interviews with the recruiter that went really well. She said that based on her communication with the hiring manager (who would also by my boss, if hired) he really liked my resume/cover letter and what he heard about my initial phone interview. So, the recruiter set up a time today for me to speak with the potential manager. The recruiter asked for my number so the manager could call me. Well, the agreed upon time came and went with no call. I waited 45 minutes before I gave up. I emailed the recruiter a respectful email about not receiving a call and she is reaching out to the manager. I completely understand that stuff comes up, but if I end up hearing back that 'something came up' as the reason I didn't get a call, how should I read it? I thought there was some sort of established rapport to at least warrant a call from an admin assistant or something to let me know since I had to step out to take the call. The call was set during the middle of the day so there would have been lots of time afterwards to reach out as well. Does this raise a red flag or is this just something that happens sometimes? Once again, thanks thread!
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Aug 12, 2015 01:44
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Fireside Nut posted:Firstly, thanks thread -- it's been an awesome read over the last few years.
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Aug 12, 2015 14:59
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Fireside Nut posted:Does this raise a red flag or is this just something that happens sometimes? I wouldn't read too much into it other than your potential manager might not be the best organized. It's entirely possible that a production server went down and they spent the day fixing it.
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Aug 12, 2015 16:49
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Fireside Nut posted:Firstly, thanks thread -- it's been an awesome read over the last few years. Flags should be raised if it happens more than once.
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Aug 12, 2015 18:37
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Speaking of red flags, I've accepted a job offer and start in a few weeks. Whenever I email my contact about something, she gets back to me a day or two later, but at like 9-10 pm. I'm curious if this role is going to involve me constantly checking email or something all night, I sure hope not haha.
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Aug 12, 2015 18:40
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Chaotic Flame posted:Flags should be raised if it happens more than once. Agreed. Thanks for the responses. I still haven't heard anything from them but it actually might help me in making a decision. I've been leaning against taking the job should it be offered (barring an offer I simply couldn't refuse). I also had some developments at my current job that have changed my outlook the last few days in favor of staying. Once again, thanks thread!
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Aug 12, 2015 22:32
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Question about job offers... Company A is a company I've contracted with before, great pay, but has a disappointing culture and lack of opportunities to become full-time with benefits. It also has some management problems in that I was offered a contract extension three months ago but they were not able to follow through with it due to how their contracting system is set up. Company B is a company I've never worked for, but the culture is more relaxed, I adore the project managers I've networked with, and they're experienced with the type of work that I do. We've been going back and forth on the possibility of relocating for a full-time salaried job for about a month. Company A just offered a new contract starting right away, with a solid start date, and when Company B heard about it, they suddenly decided they had an opening local to me, I just need to re-submit my application and get another interview in. Problem is, I'm not sure if Company B will move fast enough before I have to behave like a reliable employee for Company A. What can I do in this situation? I'm not interested in burning bridges with the people I did get along with in Company A, but overall I was disappointed with my experience working there. Company B seems like a great fit with a better project and better opportunities, but I don't want to string them along while doing work for Company A, and I have no idea if I'll get an offer. It also seems kind of sleazy to be interviewing under Company A's nose, but the contract is only six months long.
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Aug 13, 2015 01:36
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GreatJob posted:It also seems kind of sleazy to be interviewing under Company A's nose, but the contract is only six months long. I dunno about any of that other stuff, but the quoted bit isn't the case. Looking for work that you like to do, with people you like to work with is not sleazy, it is more or less what you are expected to be doing.
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Aug 13, 2015 02:05
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FogHelmut posted:I'm having trouble getting callbacks applying for jobs in California while I live in New Jersey. Should I use a California address? I do state in my cover letter that I am in fact moving to California regardless, which is scary because holy poo poo I don't have a job, but I'm feeling they're just passing me over based on my current location. This is from a few weeks ago, but since I'm also doing a long-distance job search right now, I thought I'd put my two cents in! I'm moving to Seattle and I'll be living with my boyfriend, so I have his address listed on my resume (and on any forms I have to fill out). My cover letter says that I'm currently in Texas and planning on moving by October, but that I can essentially leave at any time if I'm given an offer, which is true (I'm not even going to pick a date/buy a ticket until a month out, because I want to be as flexible as possible). I think that listing an address in your new location on your resume is fine, so long as it's actually, you know, a real address where someone you know lives. It's a good way to get your resume immediately thrown out, and to let them know that you have a solid base established there! (Source: I have a phone interview for a job in Seattle tomorrow, so clearly I'm doing at least something right.)
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Aug 13, 2015 05:41
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A few questions. A few years ago I had an internship and now have been assisting a friend with some technical stuff at his small company. I have a few questions about how I can flip this into relevant experience and try to get out of my lovely retail job, and I'd really appreciate any help. I looked into the R2I guy but $195 for resume help seems like a lot, and multiple posters said to definitely not pay him and to post here instead, so here I am. 1. When I was 18 my father roped me into a 9 month unpaid internship with the intention of being moved up into an entry level helpdesk position. It ended up not turning into a job because the position was applied to by a guy with a master's degree and the boss basically told me thanks for working unpaid for 9 months, now hit the road, this guy is way overqualified so we're hiring him instead. As such, I have a bunch of menial retail jobs I've been working (three months at 7-11, two years at Target, one year at Lowe's) while I go to school. Should I mention these on my resume, if I am looking for a tech job? If I don't, I have gaps, but there's really nothing (as far as I can tell) that is relevant. 2. My friend does a small company on the side where he writes RPG books for certain fandoms. He isn't very good with computers outside of word processing, so I have been assisting him with registration and hosting of his websites, his SEO, his social media and managing the website. I also created a registration form and a character creation form from scratch in PHP. I receive no payment for this -- I do it because it's a skill I have and legitimately enjoy doing it, and it helps out a friend. Should I just treat this like a job and list it as such, even if it's unpaid and not really an "internship"?
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Aug 13, 2015 17:10
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AbrahamLincolnLog posted:A few questions. A few years ago I had an internship and now have been assisting a friend with some technical stuff at his small company. I have a few questions about how I can flip this into relevant experience and try to get out of my lovely retail job, and I'd really appreciate any help. I looked into the R2I guy but $195 for resume help seems like a lot, and multiple posters said to definitely not pay him and to post here instead, so here I am. AbrahamLincolnLog posted:2. My friend does a small company on the side where he writes RPG books for certain fandoms. He isn't very good with computers outside of word processing, so I have been assisting him with registration and hosting of his websites, his SEO, his social media and managing the website. I also created a registration form and a character creation form from scratch in PHP. I receive no payment for this -- I do it because it's a skill I have and legitimately enjoy doing it, and it helps out a friend. Should I just treat this like a job and list it as such, even if it's unpaid and not really an "internship"?
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Aug 13, 2015 18:42
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Would you accept a job offer after just Skype interviews and no in-person interviews? I am a U.S. Citizen, in the U.S. but have been actively interviewing for jobs in the UK. Mostly because my wife and I would really liked try the living overseas thing and I'm in a field that has that opportunity (biotech, PHD level). After three Skype interviews with a company in the UK they have made me an offer. The salary is 5,000 pounds lower than the salary I've been told I would be offered at UK company #2 if I was hired (stuck in bureaucracy right now before they can fly me out for a final round interview). Also company #2 has a 4,000 pound cash bonus vs unknown bonus at this offer. My plan is to email them back and discuss salary/relocation that I would be comfortable with, but is it unreasonable to say I can't accept without first being flown out to meet and see if it is a good fit in person? Because it seems sketchy to me that they don't want to have me meet them in person first. To be fair, they are a smaller company than #2. Edit: I'm currently employed for at least a few months so it's not like I need this to live.
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Aug 13, 2015 22:24
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Hawkeye posted:Would you accept a job offer after just Skype interviews and no in-person interviews? But on a bigger level, you're living abroad to learn a new culture and meet new people. Dive in and do it.
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Aug 13, 2015 22:59
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Vulture Culture posted:Yes, definitely, especially if your managers/supervisors from these positions would make good professional references. When I'm hiring for an entry-level position, I rarely care much what someone knows. I try to gauge their interest in learning/self-improvement and their work ethic. Anything that demonstrates either of these things is a net positive. The issue is a lot of chain retail places don't allow management to give references -- I've left all of my jobs (except one) on glowing terms for one reason or another but was outright told to not put them down as references because of company policy. That's why I was really hoping to use the website designer thing as a "job" because it is actually an incorporated business with my friend as the owner who has no problem giving me a reference. I have a reference from my manager way way back during my internship five years ago, but I was afraid it would look bad if I worked four jobs in the interim and none of them would give a reference. Here's the resume I have so far. Maybe it will shed some light on it. Should I still make a separate section for "projects" even if I don't have any others?  Also, a final question: what's the limits on omitting info? I worked at a thrift store for a single day (the job was heavily misrepresented to me) and a gas station when I was 18 for two months. Should I list those? I assume no, but I didn't know if they would pop up on a background check and gently caress me by not listing them. Edit: I am also really struggling to think of any useful skills for the super lovely basic retail job in the middle that applies to tech support. Everything else either had something that shows I'm a good employee or had a transferable, useful skill except for that one. AbrahamLincolnLog fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 03:57
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Your resume is backwards, I thought at first you hadn't worked in 5 years.
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Aug 14, 2015 10:50
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Ok, So I'm working on putting a resume together because it's time to think about moving up in the world and am kind of stumped on what to put for an employer... Basically I work for a franchise for a major hotel brand and I kind of torn between putting the franchise company that's technically my employer (but unknown) or just using the major hotel brand that I am working at. Edit - Didn't want to triple post so going to put this here. Went ahead and put together a quick resume and asking for where I can improve it. I'm going to take a shot at a management position for a movie theater that is opening in the next couple of months.  Thanks for the help! SLICK GOKU BABY fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 14:06
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AbrahamLincolnLog posted:The issue is a lot of chain retail places don't allow management to give references -- I've left all of my jobs (except one) on glowing terms for one reason or another but was outright told to not put them down as references because of company policy. That's why I was really hoping to use the website designer thing as a "job" because it is actually an incorporated business with my friend as the owner who has no problem giving me a reference. I have a reference from my manager way way back during my internship five years ago, but I was afraid it would look bad if I worked four jobs in the interim and none of them would give a reference. You gotta keep in contact with the managers that you worked under and left to go work for another company! They are no longer restricted on giving you a great reference to what you did while working for them!
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Aug 14, 2015 14:42
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SLICK GOKU BABY posted:You gotta keep in contact with the managers that you worked under and left to go work for another company! They are no longer restricted on giving you a great reference to what you did while working for them! I never even considered this -- I always just assumed I would use the store's phone number as a contact number. I am a dipshit. Too late now, but thanks for the advice, I will keep it in mind in the future. Xandu posted:Your resume is backwards, I thought at first you hadn't worked in 5 years. Never thought about this.  Will fix. Thanks!
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Aug 14, 2015 16:37
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My friend has been looking for work for like 6 months now, is at the end of her rope. She's in the graphic design field. Anyway she asked me to take a look at her resume/etc. I load up her website, and the first thing that pops up is a blog. Most recent post: "You may have noticed I've given up on my Photo a Day, life got in the way" blah blah. Second post is one from like 3 months ago, the last time she updated her photo a day. Her actual work is on another page you have to click through to see. I told her to ditch the blog entirely, especially since it's a double whammy of her not being able to commit to things. Also to make her site focus on the thing that will get her hired, you know , her work? I don't get how people can apply to work for so long and miss seemingly obvious red flags.
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Aug 14, 2015 16:49
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SLICK GOKU BABY posted:Ok, So I'm working on putting a resume together because it's time to think about moving up in the world and am kind of stumped on what to put for an employer... Basically I work for a franchise for a major hotel brand and I kind of torn between putting the franchise company that's technically my employer (but unknown) or just using the major hotel brand that I am working at. Don't start a bullet point with "Responsible for..." Go with an action verb like: "Balanced and audited hotel charges at the close of each business day" or something like that. In stead of "Respond to....", I'd go with "Resolved guest concerns efficiently, while providing courteous customer service." For the trained item, I'd throw in a count of how many people you trained. For your theater server jobs, what the gently caress is up with your use of the word 'strong'? Are the skills you don't list 'strong' for 'weak'? Drop it. Show, don't tell. Instead of "Provided strong leadership....", Go with something like: "Lead a team of 2 bartenders and 3 runners at the service bar during dinner service, achieving average ticket times of less than 5 minutes." Rather than your guest service skills section, which isn't worth addressing, I'd suggest putting in any certifications you have. Like Safe Serv or IT certificates from your degree. You probably had to have some sort of background check or something to manage the night shift at the hotel, right?
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Aug 14, 2015 18:03
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I see I mixed some tenses up for the current job, I started doing it all in past tense before realizing it made sense to put my current job in present tense, missed some in trying to switch that. Will take everything else into consideration as I work on improving the resume. As for certifications, I really don't have too many, Serv Safe sure, but that's pretty much it, never really went after IT after I graduated, realized I didn't like it at all. Also you'd probably be surprised/scared how little of checks they actually do for a hotel job (it's just a regular old background check). Also while I'll improve it, I like having some sort of basic skills section as it's something that can easily be tailored a little bit to specific job postings, although I'm only planning on sending to one place at the moment. SLICK GOKU BABY fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Aug 14, 2015 |
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Aug 14, 2015 19:17
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Three interviewers, one group thank you note or three?
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Aug 14, 2015 20:38
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