leads, recruiters, public transportation (Re: [lbo-talk] Help!!!)

bitch at pulpculture.org bitch at pulpculture.org
Tue Jan 30 07:28:42 PST 2007


chuck, j, andie

first, Chuck, when I was helping my partner search for gigs, I happened upon USF's site and realized that they had publicly accessible archives via mailman email list software. There are a crapload of job announcements sent via various mailing lists -- e.g., engineering stud mailing lists, etc. What I noticed was that these were from companies that you rarely see in recruiters' job lists, let alone via the job boards. Plus, sometimes you can angle into an entry-level gig when you don't exactly have the best experience record since they are specifically recruiting to fairly inexperienced folks. And, even though that's what they were doing, they still seemed to be offering fairly competitive pay when salary range was included.

So, I'd poke around on local community college, college, and university web sites to see if they have such lists. I went ahead and subscribed to the publicly accessible ones. Others, closed to anyone who's not affiliated with USF, are still available via archives, so you could theoretically keep tabs on them.

sorry if this is redundant advice, I know you've been busting a hump searching and could write a book on it, but just in case it's useful advice....

As for portfolio blurbs, I handled it this way: Handed out the portfolio and noted that I had included feedback on my work and, while some of them included names (e.g., I had a hard copy of the feedback or it was specifically written for the purpose of including their name), the rest didn't because I was honoring an NDA. If you'd like to speak with them personally, I said, I can provide you with names and contact info (which I brought along). By time interview was done, was all forgotten so they didn't ask. That sort of thing is prob. an HR fetish, anyway.

Also! One Big Thing I learned! Not knowing it is a function of rarely working for big outfits. I know you shouldn't have purse *and* briefcase. So, I dumped money, credit cards, and license into briefcase (which is very cool and classy!) and tucked purse under car seat. Get to the desk where i have to sign in and... show proof of ID. HA. There I am, looking like a total fool, sorting through my bank card, credit card, dept store cards, lib cards, the punch card from the discount bread store, younameit!

Guess where my license is this AM? Tucked in handy little holder for biz cards. *rolls eyes* Maybe I should write a book: How to find a job when you're a total dork who knows ZIPPO about crap like this. Also? Next time I buy suit jackets for interviews, I'll be looking for ones with real pockets. Christ.

At 07:44 AM 1/30/2007, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>Good chemistry is right, if the recruiter doesn't
>care a bit about you, or at least seem to, it will
>show.

i think that's prob. advice for high end professions and people making big bucks comparatively. here, we're talking lucky if you make $15/hr. at the average job. Typical administrative positions go for $8-12/hr. It's considered "good" if you get hired on at $15/hr doing any kind of design work. Tech writing, here, a good salary is mid $30s/annually and that's with five yrs. experience. Web dev is better, but bias against older and female is something that I'm constantly up against and the recruiters make no bones about this.

You'd think that the COL is low: it's not b/c housing is incredibly high here. property taxes are low, though. but that doesn't do you any good if you don't own. health care is low, but doesn't do you any good if you can't afford even $5000/yr and morefor crap insurance. You can't afford 5k+ plus a year living on 30k/yr.

I read the other day that something like 35% of the adult population of established workers (25 - 50 yo's) in this area earns below what's necessary to afford rental housing (in this area). I see signs of a slight turn around since ppl are having a hard time unloading homes. Still, I can rent more of a place in W. Palm Beach and Jacksonville than I can rent here. And what I can afford here puts me 30 miles (1.5 to 2 hrs commuting time) from work.

And fucking people do NOT seem to believe in ride sharing. Fucking my-car-is-my-castle people anyway! Yesterday, the tech guy at the interview told me to take x route back home because he lives in the same northern part of the county, 25 miles away too. Now, this guy is already talking to me as if I'm a sure fire hire, speaking as if I'm already on the job right? But never once did he say, "Oh hey, it'd be cool to car pool!"

Cost of fuel these days, I'd leap at the chance to carpool -- to save on wear and tear on car, save on gas, etc. But you could tell that it wasn't just that he was playing close to his chest about my candidacy. They'd both already spilled the beans on that deal, talking as if I was already on board and making arrangements as to when I could start. It was just clear that this guy had zippo interest even in saving himself $20/week on gas or even saving the environment!

Oh and you know what else? When the hiring mgr first interviewed (phone), she worried about the commute. I mentioned something about taking the bus. It's right next to hospital and easily on bus route. She SNIFFED about that. "oh, you don't want to take the bus. Believe me." Recruiters have done same.

I can see why ppl don't carpool and ride the bus: it's seen as declasse, you're too poor to afford something better. Gotta have money to make money. Riding the bus, I get the impression so far, is seen as someone who's "not professional". Christ.



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