Please enter a Job Title and/or City.
-
Job Search “Failures” Can Be Good
July 01, 2006 by danielle fI’m sure that everyone who writes for this blog has had their frustrations and set backs on their search for a good job, including me. I finished my classes in December and officially graduated from college in January, and it took me until March to be offered a position that I could feel good about accepting. I know that a couple of months isn’t a very long time, but when you’re worried about whether or not someone will give you a change and hire you, it drags. Between the end of my classes and the begining of my current job, I worked part-time as a teller at a bank (I had started there the summer before). I hated the job and every day I wondered if I would have to resign myself to being a bank teller for the rest of my life, which is not a good prospect when you’re a college grad and you’ve set your aims much higher. In reality, the job was just something to do before I found what I wanted, but at the time, I felt a little depressed and began to think that all that hard work I put into college was for nothing. We can probably all relate to that here.
But now that I’ve been working for a couple of months now at a job that I enjoy, I realize that going through that phase was probably a good thing. If I had been hired into a nice job straight out of college, I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much as I appreciate my current job. When you have to work for something or wait it out, you don’t take it for granted, and I think that it can make you a better employee. I felt so fortunate and grateful to be hired that I still remind myself of it daily, and I think that helps me keep a positive attitude even on days when things aren’t going so well.
I know how hard it is to deal with what you perceive as failures, like when you’re told you were passed over for a job that you really wanted, were qualified for, and interviewed well for. That happened to me when I was one of the two remaining candidates for a marketing position at a local hospital and I didn’t get the job. It really hurt at the time, but I think it was for the best. If I had been hired and accepted the job there, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now, and I think that where I work now is the best place for me. I guess what I’m saying is that when one door shuts another one opens, but that’s really hard to see when the door has just been shut in your face. You have to keep trying to find a job you want as much as before, and don’t lower your standards because you think you’ve failed. You’ll be glad when you do find that terrific job. -
Contact!
April 30, 2006 by danielle fJust as I was beginning to give up on my boss and start job hunting again he called. Of course he called at the worst possible moment, and my sister accidently said I wasn’t home, but we did manage to speak. Since this is my first job in quite a long time, I’m a bit out of practice with official phone calls. I kept saying, “sounds good” as I did not know what else to day. He is an author living in Manhatten and I will be helping to edit and research for him. I want to be a writer himself so this is a great opportunity to see how getting a book published works. He is also willing to look over my writing and help me establish contacts in the writing business. Another great thing is that he’ll write me reccomendations for future jobs! My birthday is this weekend so I cannot meet him until next weekend. We decided on a time, but no place yet since I’m not too familiar with Manhatten. I’ll have to ask friends and possibly have him choose the spot if I can not. The other problem is transportation, but I can figure out the bus and train schedule and make it work.
-
Do We Have Contact?
April 29, 2006 by danielle fIt has been sometime since my last entry and that is because my internship seems to be at stalemate. This sounded like the perfect internship and a wonderful writing experience. The problem is I was hired over a month ago and I have yet to meet the guy. I have e-mailed him several times, long e-mails asking questions about the job and hoping to meet. He has responded with e-mails saying “pls call” with his number at the bottom. And I have called. Many times. Each time I get an automated service without the phone even ringing. I leave a message stating my name, number and good times to call me back. He called back once about 2 hours before i said. I am currently in college so it is hard to establish contact. The best way to communicate with me is probably through e-mail, but he seems EXTREMELY reluctant to do so. I wanted to get a head start on this job before summer started and it would be the only thing I do. It’s a 20 hour a week internship which I don’t get paid for, which is probably why I was hired since it is difficult and time consuming. The fact that he is so hard to speak to is making me a bit nervous about taking the job. He does not seem very reliable, but as the days pass by I lose the chance of taking another job or internship.
-
Job Update Surprise
March 19, 2006 by danielle fIt’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve posted, and a lot has changed since then. The same day that I accepted the job at the ad agency, I got a phone call from the wholesale company with a job offer. I wasn’t really planning on taking the job since the ad agency was more related to my college degree, but they offered me $10,000 more a year! The ad agency’s salary was low, but it was consistent with most entry level jobs in the field. The wholesale company also offered same-day health insurance coverage, and the commute is only about 35 minutes or so (it’s in a city in New Hampshire that I visit at least once a week, anyway). When I got the call from the recruiter, I wasn’t sure what to do. I had planned on saying “no,” but $10,000 is a lot of money . . . I asked him if I could sit on it for awhile and call him back the next day.
Naturally, I was very torn. The ad agency sounded like a fun job and the people there seemed to like me a lot. The job involved a lot of writing, and since I specialized in journalism in school, it sounded like a perfect fit. The only downsides were the low salary and the hour-long commute. As far as the wholesale company went, I wasn’t 100% sure what I was getting into. The salary was much higher than I expected and the commute was a breeze. I had a vague idea of what the job consisted of, but it didn’t sound like it was as much fun as the ad agency. Both jobs had pros and cons, but for me, it boiled down to two questions: Do I choose the job that I’d probably enjoy more and pertains to my studies (the ad agency), or the one that’s closer to home and pays much better (the wholesale company)?
In the end, I decided to go with the wholesale company. I called the ad agency up and told them that I’d changed my mind, and I called the wholesale recruiter and gave him a “yes.” I kept second guessing my decision for days afterward, but now I think that I made the right choice. Last week was my first at the wholesale company, and I think that it went well. My job title is associate merchandising analyst, and I’m in training for the next month or so, which is a good thing since there is so much to learn! Eventually, I’ll be negotiating prices between vendors and customers and deciding what new items that the company will carry for its customers. It’s not writing, but it involves a lot of thinking and decision making. I like to be challenged, and this job will certainly carry its challenges. My trainer told me that the merchandising department only hires the best and brightest, which made me feel good about myself and my decision to work there. So far, I have no regrets about the choice I made, and I think that I’m going to be very happy working for the wholesale company. More thoughts later this week! -
I got a job!
March 06, 2006 by danielle fThis morning I met with the hiring manager at the ad agency, and I was hired! I’m very excited about working there. The title of the job is account coordinator, which involves proofreading advertisements, updating ads, and writing some brochures and press releases. I’m really looking forward to it – advertising seems like an exciting field, and I was told there are a lot of opportunities to move up in this place after you’ve paid your dues for awhile. I’m going to start tomorrow at 8:30. The only downside is that the drive is between 45 minutes to an hour away (depending on traffic), plus the pay isn’t very high, but I’m just happy to be doing something in my field that I find interesting and exciting.
I can hardly believe that I got an offer . . . I’ve applied to so many jobs and I’ve been discouarged a lot. My biggest disappointment was about a month ago. I applied for a job as a marketing associate at a hospital, and I had a great first interview, and the people I met seemed to really like me. In fact, they called back for a second interview, and the human resources person told me that I had a very good chance of getting the job, and the competition was between me and another person with more experience (however, the HR rep told me that the other candidate was probably looking for too much money, and he didn’t think the department would be able to afford to pay the guy). Anyway, because I was working at the bank at the time, the HR rep and I had a hard time agreeing on the date and time for the next interview. He told me that he would call me back and see if a certain day I picked would be good for the marketing department. A week went by and he never called me back, and I was starting to get worried. Then, he finally called me and asked me if I remembered that I had an interview on that day! Apparently, he thought he called me to schedule the interview, but he never did! He insisted that it wasn’t his mistake – which it was – but he scheduled me for the second interview the following week, anyway. I thought I did okay at that interview, but not good enough – two weeks later, I was told that I didn’t have the job. Needless to say, I was very disappointed at not getting the job, especially after being told that my chances were great. I know the HR rep didn’t believe me when I told him that I never received his phone call, and I think that reflected poorly on me and was the factor that blew it. Honestly, what kind of person thinks he called you and talked to you when it never happened? At my second interview, I noticed that the HR guy had two big holes in the back of his pants, so I guess that speaks volumes about how much he pays attention to things. Overall, the whole process with the hospital took about six weeks, and I was on pins and needles the whole time. After that disappointment, I think I deserve this ad agency job!! -
Interview Update
March 02, 2006 by danielle fI have three job interviews this week, and I’ve already been on two of the three (the next one is tomorrow morning). Yesterday, I had an interview at a wholesale grocery company in the merchandising department. It wasn’t anything related to my degree (mass communication/journalism), but I thought it sounded interesting. The job involved selling advertising space for suppliers (the companies who make the products you see when you walk in the grocery store) and negotiating prices with suppliers. I thought I did really well in the interview, but I’m not so sure the hiring manager thought so . . . she didn’t give me a lot of feedback about my resume or my level of interest in the job, even though I spoke with her for about an hour. Since it was an entry-level job and I was told that the employer doesn’t expect applicants to have any experience, I thought my chances were just as good as anyone else’s. I can’t put my finger on it, but I have a feeling I won’t be getting an offer on this one . . .
On the bright side, I had a good interview this morning at an advertising agency. It wasn’t a very traditional interview like yesterday’s, though. I met with the company president intstead of the hiring manager, who was on vacation. He told me that he usually doesn’t interview people, so most of the questions he asked were about me as a person rather than me as a potential employee. He asked about what I like to do outside of work and school as well as about my family, etc. I thought it was kind of unusual, but maybe he’s really concerned about the character of the people who work for him – I’m not really sure on that one (or maybe he didn’t know what to ask). I only spoke with him for about 10 minutes, but at the end of the interview, he said he’d recommend me to the hiring manager, and he asked me to come in again on Monday! He said he couldn’t hire me until the hiring manager meets me and signs off, but he told me to be prepared to work on Monday. I’m really excited about it! It seems like a good company work for – they have a very professional website and group of clients, and their offices are gorgeous. I was also told that the company likes to promote its own people, and a lot of the top executives started out at the entry level job that I interviewed for. That’s a big plus for me. The only downside is that the job is about 50 minutes from home, and it’s in the middle of a city with a lot of nasty drivers (but then again, where aren’t there nasty drivers in Massachusetts?). Hopefully things go well on Monday and I get the job!
Tomorrow’s interview is at the bank where I worked during my last semester of school. I applied for a job in the back office, which is probably a lot better than being a teller, at least for someone with my introvert personality. I’m not really interested in the job, but it’s sort of a fall-back in case I can’t find anything I really want to be doing. I’m not sure what the pay is, but I only made $9.79 as a teller, so I’m guessing that this job doesn’t pay much more than that. The job doesn’t require anything but a high school diploma, and I’d much rather have a job where I can make use of my degree. Oh well, at least going on the interview will be another experience that can make me a better interviewee. -
Job Hunting: Insights and an Introduction
February 27, 2006 by danielle fTo introduce myself, I’m Danielle, I’m 22 years old, and I live in central Massachusetts. I graduated this January from Franklin Pierce College, and I majored in mass communication and concentrated in print journalism. Right now, I’m in the middle of looking for my first professional job, preferably in marketing, advertising, public relations, or journalism.
So far, the going has been tough. I started applying for jobs semi-seriously in October and very seriously in December, and I have yet to receive a job offer, although I’ve been on a few interviews. I graduated from FPC a semester early, which I thought would be a good time since there are fewer entry level candidates looking for jobs in January than in May. So much for that!
There are a few things that I’ve learned about job hunting since I began my search. I’d like to share them with you:
1. Employers want you to have experience, sometimes two to five years. But if you’re like me and you’re just starting your career, you don’t have any. Without that experience, not every employer is willing to give you a chance. Unless someone gives you a chance, you’re out of luck. It seems to me like finding a job is about convincing someone to take a gamble on you.
2. Job candidates are usually at the bottom of the human resources priority list. Sometimes, you don’t get a phone call until a month after you’ve applied for the job. By that time, you’ve usually forgotten that you’ve applied for the job and what the job even is, and you have to pretend you know what you’re talking about when the recruiter calls. (Yeah, that’s happened to me. More than once.)
3. Your odds of finding decent employment are severely limited when you live in a cow patch (if you don’t know what that is, you probably don’t live in one. But if you’re curious, it means you live in a town that has a significant cow population, a town that nobody has ever heard of. The sticks, if you will). I am one of those unfortunate people, and the closest city to me is Worcester, about an hour away. Boston is about an hour and a half away, too far for a daily commute. While I like the country, I feel as though my opportunities are limited, especially when I see that all of the most interesting, relevant jobs are located in the Boston area.
Maybe my luck will change soon. I have three interviews this week! More later.
