unemployment

I’m going to say, right off, that this should be by no means misconstrued as “instructional”.  If I really knew was I was doing, I probably wouldn’t be in this situation.  On the other hand, I’ve been in this situation enough to have my own Job Search Procedure down to a science, so here it is.  If anyone sees any glaring flaws in this, or perhaps could suggest something more efficient or comprehensive, I would love to hear it.  There’s something about blogs that seem really authoritative, so it’s important to me that I make it clear that the position I’m writing from is not that of an expert, but someone as lost and scraping as anyone.

I do all of my job searching from right here at my desk.  I heard rumors years ago of job opportunities being listed in newspaper and other print mediums, but there’s more than enough right here to keep me busy, so I’ve yet to have the need to explore such radical options.  When I was looking for a production, media, film and entertainment jobs exclusively, my search was limited to Craigslist.org, Mandy.com (which is just production listings), entertainmentjobs.com, and, if those failed me and I was getting frustrated, Google helped me fine a couple of other, less reliable sites.

Now that I’m free from the chains of direction, I’ve actually become more limited in the number of sites I check.  This is because I’ve been sifting through more or less EVERY SINGLE post on each of them, and investigating anything that seems remotely interesting, or that I might be qualified for.  I’ve limited myself thus far to Craigslist.org, Idealist.org (which focuses on non-profit jobs - remember, I’m looking for a new career that will make me feel like I’m making a positive change in the world), and Monster.com.

Every time I see something that seems like a possibility, however vague (sometimes that means just not knowing what it is), I open that post in a new tab in my browser.  When I’m done going through all of the days latest posts on  one of those three huge sites, I end up with a few dozen open tabs describing jobs that mostly sound terrible and/or unattainable.  I try to root those out and in a new window completely, open the best sounding of the list.  That usually leaves me with about, say, 6.  By then, I’m usually frustrated, exhausted, demoralized, and unfortunately, more than once, where I gave in for the day, which doesn’t help anything at all.

If there are some that I’m excited about, or if I have the energy to persevere anyway, submitting a resume online is a pretty painless process.  What takes awhile is tailoring my cover letter to send with it to show that I really am interested in and uniquely ideal for this particular job, and that I’m not just copying and pasting the same cover letter to the hundreds of other jobs I’m applying to.  Which I am doing, of course.  I’m not going to sit and rewrite a brand new letter each time when I have hundreds in my Sent Mail box, but each one does have to be tailored, which can take awhile.  Plus, I really have to read through each one before I send it, as much as it pains me to do so.  I really think that leaving one glaring error can cost you a job, and what could be worse than copying and pasting the same stupid error to who knows how many potential employers?  Or what about the date?  I put the date at the top of it, you know, part of the formal business heading, and what if I left a date from a YEAR ago?  Yeah, rereading is necessary, especially if I’m applying to a job that would incorporate proofreading.

Another inevitable deal breaker is forgetting to change who the letter is addressed to, or forgetting to attach my resume, or attaching it where I should have pasted it, because they don’t accept attachments, or getting the email address wrong that I’m sending it to.  There are so many ways in which the slightest mistake or oversight could render the application completely useless, the job opportunity lost, and so much time wasted, that the moment of actually committing to it and hitting “send” is always fraught with anxiety.  I suppose I’ll start feeling that way about the “Publish” button on this page, too.

Ok, I know, a lot of this was really dry and really obvious, but I think it’s helpful to see what it is I’m actually doing before I get into the nuances of what I’m looking for in a Job Post, and what I’m specifically trying to avoid, and all of the other deeper issues of trying to find a new career and direction for myself.  Not to mention as a preface to any observation I might have about this process, it’s helpful to know what the process is.  This is my first week, here - I have to lay out all of this groundwork before I start getting deeper or more current.

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