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Spacewolf posted:3. Resume and cover letter service from Goon - Looking at this. His prices are *very* steep when you pay all but $60 of a $700 monthly check into bills. I'd need the complete package, and that runs, what, $400? I'd love to do this, but not sure how I'd get the money (aside from begging parents, who are guaranteed to say "Why do you need to spend $400 on a resume and cover letter, do it yourself and listen to your therapist")
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Aug 11, 2014 02:45
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Sure, but how do I mask stuff so that I'm not swarmed by Internet Detectives?
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Aug 11, 2014 14:39
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Spacewolf posted:Sure, but how do I mask stuff so that I'm not swarmed by Internet Detectives? What life do you have worth ruining?
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Aug 11, 2014 14:41
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Irish Joe posted:What life do you have worth ruining?  That was harsh!
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Aug 11, 2014 14:49
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Irish Joe posted:What life do you have worth ruining? Ouch.
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Aug 11, 2014 15:11
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just take out your name and address and put in SPACEWOLF, nobody is going to hunt you down.
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Aug 11, 2014 15:21
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No, but I'm tired of struggling with Word and figuring out if it even has redaction features in the latest version (excellent help files, microsoft...), so I went to the expedient of "Save as png files, put black rectangles over sensitive info in Paint, enjoy". On the other hand, can't post attachments without paying money...Money, the one thing I do not have readily available. gently caress you, social security. Eh, I'll put it up on a site in a bit and edit this to share the link. Edit: On third thought, never mind, following Moana's advice. I probably left in enough to identify me clearly, but eh. As Irish Joe so succinctly put it, what life do I have to ruin? Resume: http://www.filedropper.com/sareviewresume Cover Letter: http://www.filedropper.com/sareviewcoverletter Spacewolf fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Aug 11, 2014 |
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Aug 11, 2014 15:53
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Cover letter: -you have some grammar issues. Not a lot, but noticeably so. Also, at least capitalize your own major. -you put down your CC certificate/associate's ahead of your bachelor's, which just looks weird. You're trying to highlight your good GPA in this program over everything you did in college, but you're doing this wrong and in a way that attracts negative attention. The correct way is something like "I have a bachelor's from XYZ and just graduated from a paralegal training course with a 3.7 GPA". -don't ever say "I wish to be a paralegal in {three different areas of law having nothing to do with each other}". Rookie mistake. BTW, you -are- looking at the firm's website to check what areas they focus on, right? Resume: -you went out of your way to conspicuously highlight your gaps. Why are you putting down your months of employment in your jobs section while not giving any dates for education? -why is your references section before your employment? -more grammar issues These won't ding you on their own but they're certainly not helping. If you want to be serious about work, start here.
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Aug 11, 2014 18:02
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OK, grammar. I'm actually usually really good at that, no idea where I went wrong there? (It's like...I know there are severe errors there, Adar, but I can't pinpoint them?) The other stuff. Cover letter: Ahhhh, I was *wondering* how to put that down. Yes, I am looking at the firm's website...When they have one. A lot of local firms don't, or they're general practice firms that do a bit of everything. Resume: Gurp. Did not realize I did that. References section is where it is because I was unsure *where* to put it. Grammar. Yes...Oh boy.
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Aug 11, 2014 18:17
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- Cover letter is specific to the firm and the job posting. Yes that means you write a lot of different cover letters. - There is no information in the cover letter beyond your degrees and GPA. Everything else they know from the fact that you are applying in the first place. What can you do? What have you done? Why does it make you a fit for the position? - Matters of taste: I prefer to start the cover letter with a sentence like "I am contacting you concerning the position..." or "concerning employment opportunities at..." or something like that; get it out there right up front. Also, ditch the "Good day", it is not a standard opening for a professional letter. It's the kind of awkward phrase that I expect from someone whose native language is not English (not sure if that is you or not). - Don't obfuscate your dates of employment (it's really obvious when people do that) but do list it like this: 2007-2008: Research Analyst 2002, 2003: Telephone interviewer, SRBI Months don't matter. - Add the years of school attendance and the year you got the degree. The most recent comes first, the paralegal degree - especially since it's most relevant. - Qualifications section is full of vague generalities, and there's not evidence in the Employment or Education sections to back them up. Get specific and shoot us another draft. - References: of course they are available on request. Either take that out or list a couple of actual references (that you have asked for permission of course). Yes there are gaps - people will assume one of: you suck; you had a good reason. That is just the deal. Not everybody is going to be in the first category fortunately. Some will take you at face value as an entry level paralegal who is motivated to get in gear.
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Aug 11, 2014 19:15
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People will ask you about the gaps, so have something ready to say that doesn't make you seem quite so pathetic or fixated on the gaps. Subconsciously you view these gaps as an insurmountable barrier to future employment; if you allow the interviewer to get that read off of you when you discuss them, guess what? They will be an insurmountable barrier to future employment. Have you done any interview practice? That would be a good thing to begin as you improve your resume and cover. edit: in reading your resume, there are a lot of generalities and not many specifics. From a formatting perspective, I am in favor of sub-bullets underneath each position describing, using action verbs, the results that you achieved. I also hate the "responsible for" construction. Why not say "Operated Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) System" instead of "Responsible for the operation of Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) system?" The former also allows you to put in what your operation of the system achieved, which you should do. - Don't do 3.7/4.0, GPAs are on a 4.0 scale unless you are in high school. - "Extensive experience in coordinating small groups to accomplish assigned tasks within realistic time frames" what in the literal gently caress does this mean? - "achieving planned goals and objectives while working as both a team member and an individual" - provide concrete examples. you generally need to be more specific in demonstrating how what you did in your past could help you add value to a future employer. KYOON GRIFFEY JR fucked around with this message at 19:57 on Aug 11, 2014 |
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Aug 11, 2014 19:52
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I ditched the 'responsible for' construct with the SRBI job when I tweaked this resume a few hours ago (after posting it) because, Krydon has it right, it feels awkward. KL Communications is different, there it was a lot less "I did stuff" and more "I did extremely varied poo poo all having to do with this project", and I'm not really sure *how* to phrase it. The qualifications section: I *know* it feels mealy-mouthed and gah. I have no idea what to replace it with. When I did the resume originally (this is version..11?, and the thing has been through a *lot* of rewrites from the ground up!), people were all like "Qualifications sections are good for entry-level resumes!" but then very vague when you asked "What *do* I put there?" Part of my problem is that a ton of my skills come from hobbies and the like - not stuff you'd put on a resume. I'm *regularly* responsible for customer service as an admin on one game I play on - granted, the game is small, but you still learn how to deal with crazy people from the Internet. And so on, and so forth. Numerous times, my whine of the moment has been "Holy crap, I do this poo poo to run a game...And I can't even put it on a resume!" Well, now it comes true.
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Aug 11, 2014 21:36
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One of the things I did to help pad my experience and ensure I didn't have gaps in my work history was to start a business. I'm not very familiar with the tasks of paralegals but could you start a company yourself and do some paralegaly type stuff? Like maybe pro-bono or contract or something? I picked up my first real job doing this. Also if you're doing customer service try to add it and maybe make it sound not so nerdy or something.
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Aug 11, 2014 21:47
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Spacewolf posted:KL Communications is different, there it was a lot less "I did stuff" and more "I did extremely varied poo poo all having to do with this project", and I'm not really sure *how* to phrase it. OK, I'm gonna run through this, using the construction I would use with some follow on questions. Just FYI, most of your resume is pretty meaningless. Stop saying things like "on assignment" - it's work, everything is assigned. Also, ditch the sentences. Bullet points rule. Spacewolf posted:Responsible for the moderation, regular update, and maintenance of the TIME Opinion Leaders blog, and for the resolution of complaints from panel members. Maintained and updated TIME Opinion Leaders blog (what is this blog why is it interesting? what did you do by updating) Resolved complaints from panel members (tell me more about this. who was complaining? what did they complain about? what did you do to resolve it?) Spacewolf posted:Position also involved the regular maintenance of Excel-based databases for this and other projects as assigned. Created/maintained/updated Excel databases to track $ACTIVITY1 and $ACTIVITY2 Spacewolf posted:Position also involved, on assignment, the research and writing of profiles and analyses of competitors and prospective clients for presentation to senior management on deadline. Wrote and updated competitor and client profiles for senior management / internal use Performed due diligence research on prospective clients and presented findings to senior management Researched and analyzed competitors for senior management (i put this kind of weakly, i'm not sure what you actually did, but if you can describe it more clearly, do so)
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Aug 11, 2014 22:35
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slap me silly posted:- Don't obfuscate your dates of employment (it's really obvious when people do that) but do list it like this: Everything else slap me silly has said is rock-solid, though.
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Aug 11, 2014 23:12
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Spacewolf posted:Part of my problem is that a ton of my skills come from hobbies and the like - not stuff you'd put on a resume. I'm *regularly* responsible for customer service as an admin on one game I play on - granted, the game is small, but you still learn how to deal with crazy people from the Internet. And so on, and so forth. Numerous times, my whine of the moment has been "Holy crap, I do this poo poo to run a game...And I can't even put it on a resume! BUT. If you take the same amount of time you put into the game and start putting it into your own business or work-related portfolio (do things for free for people to build your portfolio, then start charging more) then you'll have something to fill that gap. Build up applicable skills that you can use now to create an income stream. It's exhausting looking for a job all day. Do half-job looking, half skills-building/startuping, and you'll be happier and more productive imo.
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Aug 12, 2014 05:09
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Moana: That's a good point. (I put less time than it sounds like into my gaming, but that's averaged over a while. Some days it's a little....Some days, purely by factor of "I gotta do something to fill my time", it's a lot.) The problem is that in New Jersey, paralegals are regulated by a State Supreme Court decision - if I could recall the cite, I would post it. The basic thrust is that they wouldn't even be legal except that they're supposed to be supervised, more-or-less directly, by an attorney who employs them. So it's hard to "do stuff to build up a portfolio", really. (I kept *some* of my stuff from school to use as a portfolio, but I unfortunately didn't think to keep *all* of it until fairly late in the process. Argh, brain.) So I'm not sure what I could do that would be job-relevant and yet also not unauthorized practice of law. Maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough. (I should note again, I'm really grateful for the time people are taking with this thread. I didn't expect that at all, honestly, and it's been very helpful. With that said, if I don't reply for a day or two, it's because I'm focusing my job-search energy on smacking my resume into shape and generally rebooting things.)
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Aug 12, 2014 15:03
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Is there not any sort of pro-bono legal aid organization in your county?
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Aug 12, 2014 16:51
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Spacewolf posted:So I'm not sure what I could do that would be job-relevant and yet also not unauthorized practice of law. Maybe I'm just not thinking creatively enough. 
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Aug 12, 2014 17:45
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Is there not any sort of pro-bono legal aid organization in your county? In my county? I've been looking for one for a few weeks now, I'll say that much. I know they're out there, not sure where though.
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Aug 12, 2014 18:13
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Spacewolf posted:
This is true in a lot of states, actually. Too bad you don't have sample pleadings from school. What kind of law are you specifically interested in working? As I'm sure you know, all the little subsects are vastly different in required skills, pay, ease of entry, and so forth. What was your strongest class in school, and what were you most interested in? If you decide to target a specific kind of practice (and you should), use your downtime to study up on caselaw and procedure for that legal area. A prospective employer might want to train you from the ground up anyway, but going into interviews knowing something about the current state of the field and its trends will only help you. edit: you specified criminal, real estate, and family. These are all very different and I would suggest focusing on real estate and family. Criminal law is sexy and the competition will be fierce. With real estate and family there are a lot more rich clients and probably a lot more opportunities for support positions doing diligence/research. I've never worked any of these fields and I don't know the NY/NJ market, so there is a lot of speculation here. Hugbot fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Aug 13, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 00:38
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My personal hope would be criminal law, because of the pace of the cases more than anything else, but I know what you mean re competition being fierce. Family law, honestly, is sort of my "fallback to a fallback" position - I kind of squirm at the idea of handling such emotionally rough stuff day after day. At least in criminal law there's a theoretical hope of a happy (or at least just) outcome. Divorce cases...not really. Real Estate I was good at, but they change the forms so regularly on the federal level (HUD forms, etc) who knows if my grades are any good there. And honestly, at this point I'll be glad to get *any* interviews. Prepping for interviews feels like a bridge I'll cross after the current bridge or two.
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Aug 13, 2014 01:36
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Would a legal aid office in ocean or monmouth counties work? If not, go to lsnj.org/legalservicesoffices.aspx and put in your county. It will tell you which legal aid covers your area. There's a chance you live far away from a local office. As a legal aid attorney myself, we usually love qualified volunteers who can actually help (even just filling and preparing documents).
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Aug 13, 2014 15:59
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My brain is obviously fried. I completely missed that site. The fact they don't have an email address sort of weirds me out, but eh. I'll call them sometime this week.
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Aug 13, 2014 16:09
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Spacewolf posted:My brain is obviously fried. I completely missed that site. Typically, we don't put our emails out there because we get "my wife stole my baby you are now my lawyer help me" emails. Its not uncommon. You'll get a receptionist. Tell him you want to volunteer with their office and you'd like to speak to their managing attorney about volunteering. once someone volunteers in my office for a week, a month, a year, or whatever, i have actively tried to help them find jobs with local private attorneys. That's how you get over the networking hump. That also means you have to be sociable and a good worker. If you can still live for free for a while, go volunteer. Also, it sounds like you have ssdi claims familiarity. That's a useful skill, because paralegals can quasi-represent claimants.
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Aug 13, 2014 16:19
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I have familiarity *as an SSDI recipient*. I'm not sure how that works in terms of being able to help people through the maze. Otherwise, yeah, your thoughts are basically the same as mine. (Wish: That the forums would have a thing where it'd email me when there are replies to my threads...)
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Aug 13, 2014 17:26
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OK, so. Plan of action, though I'm *explicitly not* Tox'ing myself, so nobody ban me if this doesn't happen. 1. Try to call legal aid folks (thanks for the suggestion and link, Hot Dog Day!) today and see if I can reach whoever handles paralegal volunteers. I say try because I can't find any of the receivers for the cordless phones on the house line, and guess whose cellphone is being taken in to T-mobile as we speak to get the sim card swapped in (old phone and new phone use different sizes of sim card) and stuff? Hopefully I'll have my cellphone back by the end of the day. I'm cold-calling, which is another reason why I say "try" - because my experiences as a telephone interviewer have my lizard-brain convinced cold-calling people will result in Bad Things Happening. (I was not great at persuading people to stay on the phone, no.) I'm especially eager and motivated today though, so hopefully that'll overcome my brain's reluctance. 2. If #1 is successful, see about volunteering starting in 2 weeks (next week I'll have relatives down, so gotta block that week off) or whenever would be most convenient for them to have a new person start. 3. If #1 is unsuccessful, try Wednesday (I figure I'd just be annoying if I tried tomorrow?), and if Wednesday is unsuccessful, try Friday. Hopefully I can accomplish point 1 at least.
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Aug 18, 2014 16:25
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What's wrong with cold calling?
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Aug 20, 2014 15:39
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Spoken like someone who never did survey interviewing. Cold-calling scares me because I keep expecting to be (one of): A. Swore at; B. Swore at in a foreign language; C. Threatened with bodily harm; D. Not even given a response, just hung up on. It was very rare where I got E, a polite response, or F, someone actually willing to help me at my task. Do it for a whole summer or two, like I did, and you feel like a complete and total failure at everything you ever do. I know it makes no sense intellectually, but like I said, we're trying to convince my lizard brain this won't end up like the last time I had to cold-call people. There's really no intellectual function involved.
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Aug 20, 2014 17:34
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Yeah, even if you are personally fine with it, how can you possibly not understand why some people wouldn't like a cold calling job?
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Aug 20, 2014 17:37
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Are you considered statutorily blind per SSA definitions?
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Aug 20, 2014 21:14
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SSA definitions, no. State of New Jersey definitions, yes. Schedule A...Well, I qualify for it. Whether I'm blind or not depends on whose definition you use.
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Aug 20, 2014 23:53
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Droo posted:Yeah, even if you are personally fine with it, how can you possibly not understand why some people wouldn't like a cold calling job? I get it if your job is all cold-calling, but at some point in your life you have to reach out to people that don't know you without any introduction. The sooner you can accept that those situations are by nature a little awkward, the better off you are.
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Aug 21, 2014 14:48
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HiroProtagonist and others have put together an extremely handy thread in BFC on LinkedIn networking. I was cynical myself, but despite being early days yet it's looking promising, and for introverted souls it's great as you can connect and communicate with people without that initial pang of tension. The worst you can get is ignored, which by the sounds of it, is sadly familliar by this point. Most people are happy to at least connect because it's mutually beneficial. Even if you think there's nobody to connect with, you'd be surprised how many people you know are on it. Could have zipped through the thread too quickly, but got the impression that you don't really see the depression as a seperate illness, just something 'that is'. Whilst it often comes alone (lucky me) and it's extremely common for people with disabillities (like yourself), it might help to see it as a seperate issue to be tackled. In my personal experience, having just started to tackle it myself, realising how much it holds you back in every aspect of your life (and for how long!) can be...a shock. (e: that said you mentioned you had a therapist so I could be talking poop.) Apologies if you've already posted at length regarding this one, but nobody here would want to see you into a new job, a sweet batchelor (or batchelorette?) pad of your own, coming home after a long, tough but rewarding day at the office to find that you felt just as bad as you did a couple of years back, when you were stuck at home struggling to find work, feeling like you hadn't achieved anything.
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Aug 25, 2014 17:21
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I'm male, if that matters. Tawd: For the record, the reason I see it as part and parcel of everything else is because of where the depression is rooted - basically, if I were not physically disabled I wouldn't have the roots of my depression. If you fix the disabilities, everything else might well clear up...But as that isn't possible (by this point, even if my eyes (to name one issue) magically worked perfectly tomorrow, my brain has likely long since pruned away the connections that tell it to take sight from that eye), it's something me and my therapist manage, not that we hope to "cure". It took me years and years to realize that, and it was incredibly demoralizing when I did (for obvious reasons), but it's true. I understand what you're saying, believe me. You touched on a fear I do have (everything gets set up and yet nothing changes mentally), but it's one I am trying to work on. Re the LinkedIn thread: So....big.... I've looked at that thread and the resume thread in BFC, but their sheer size scares the hell out of me.
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Aug 25, 2014 18:31
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Spacewolf posted:I understand what you're saying, believe me. You touched on a fear I do have (everything gets set up and yet nothing changes mentally), but it's one I am trying to work on. Good to hear that you're working on it. It can be managed, things can get better; you're right, though, it's all a lump. Just make sure you give yourself fair credit for battling what most people would consider a debilitating disease on it's own, let alone with everything else.  Spacewolf posted:Re the LinkedIn thread: So....big.... Yeah, I hear you. There is a bit of 'they should have sent a poet' about them, but quality additions tend to get rolled back into the OPs, so if you took a look at the OPs for the interviewing, LinkedIn and resume/CV threads you'd get 99% of what you need.  e: spacing Tawd fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 19:03
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The only point after which it'll definitely make sense give up is if you reach retirement age. Until that time, if you feel burnt out, you can spend a little less time and effort looking, but you might as well keep looking, at least passively. You finished your last degree in May 2014, so you've been going at it for about four months. When I got my first job that was relevant to my degree, it took about 11 months. At the time, I was already turning 28, and it was a B.Sc., while it was common to have M.Sc. degrees. That was probably an important contributor to why it took such a long time. A few of those months I spent actively searching, and the majority I spent just keeping my online résumé up to date, so it would get found by recruiters' scripts, and studying astronomy and political science and economics and generally doing what I wanted. Then, when I was least expecting it, I got hired. Regarding communication with the companies: - About 70% never replied, or abruptly stopped replying. - About 21% said no; most of them without even doing an interview. - Most of the remaining 9% were vague and neither said yes or no, or something came up. A very few said yes. Regarding ways of getting jobs: - Posting my résumé on an online site: Got 2 jobs this way, though the first one took 11 months. I suppose you feel more attractive to the employer because they contacted you. - Just walking right in and asking: Tried it once, got the job right away. 100% success rate! - Getting introduced by a friend: Happened twice, got both jobs. 100%! - Actually sending an application: 0%. Nada. Zilch. I sent out a good few of these. Never worked. Of course, you should do all of these things and more, and keep at it. If you're having no success, though, you could always try different methods than you have previously, like going from sending a standard application to walking in and asking personally. And you don't have to make it your full-time job to apply to things eight hours a day, seven days a week – Just make sure you're still out there and looking. Best of luck to you! Rounin fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Sep 7, 2014 |
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Sep 7, 2014 13:21
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Any news, SW? I'd PM you but you don't have 'em.
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Sep 7, 2014 16:50
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Not yet. Things have been crazy IRL, so the job hunt went to the back burner for a bit.
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Sep 7, 2014 17:33
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I think you already know this, but keep in mind that your SSI and SSD will be affected when you start working. SSI has very different rules than SSD, which is more forgiving of work. SSI is needs based, so they will cut back on it as soon as they can. Depending on the extent to which you're entitled to SSD, you can probably continue to get your benefits for a while as you start to make an income. As I'm sure you'd rather make more than $8000 a year, this isn't an argument not to find a job. Edit: Do you know about the Ticket To Work program? You are automatically eligible because you are on SSI/SSD. You have access to Employment Networks in your state that provide career counseling, vocational rehabilitation, and JOB PLACEMENT and training. It's free. Seriously look into this if you haven't already. https://www.socialsecurity.gov/work Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Sep 17, 2014 |
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Sep 17, 2014 21:12
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