Please enter a Job Title and/or City.
-
The Edge and How I Know I’ve Reached It
April 30, 2006 by suzanne yThough this is my first entry it has certainly not come too soon. I graduated a year ago in May and my job search has not been easy. I left my job as a bartender to get some 9-5 experience, or rather 8:30-5:30 experience.
I got a job 7 months ago as an administrative assistant at a local car dealership. I’d never worked in an office before so I thought a couple months of filing and answering phones would be good for me. I was promoted after 3 weeks to title clerk. I thought this was great! I have worked very hard for the last 6 months and have reaped the benefits, kind of. My supervisor loves me! She can’t give me enough to do. In the last year this dealership has been through 6 title clerks. They struck gold with me. A college education with no experience to back it up! Jackpot! My pay is just not high enough to support my work load anymore. I have a $30,000 education and I am still below the poverty line in an industry that I have no interest in growing with. I have no money saved up, I don’t make enough money to save, and I haven’t got the time during the day to find another job.
So where do I go from here? I haven’t figured that out yet either. I suppose this can be the beginning of my new journey. The inevitable moral of this story is to do well in school and participate in as many extra-curricular activities as possible. For those of us who have to work to pay our way through college there just isn’t time to take unpaid internships or join clubs. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place and now I have to figure a way out. -
3 Quick Resume Tips
February 28, 2006 by suzanne yI’ve picked up a few resume tips over the years. They’re pretty basic, but are often easily neglected. Here goes:
1. Always make sure your References are up-to-date. I’ve noticed a lot of my former employers’/supervisors’ phone numbers have changed, either because they’ve moved around in the company or because they’ve moved onto other companies. I always recommend maintaining as much contact information from each of your references as possible because it’s always a major bummer when that star reference you’ve been relying on is MIA!
2. I like to include a small “Leisure Pursuits” or “Hobbies” section at the end of my resume. This is especially appreciated by employers who are hiring you for your creative abilities. It also allows you to appear more personable with your potential employer, especially if they’ve been seeing the same resumes over and over again for the past few weeks/months and need some sort of differentiating factor to separate one candidate from the next.
3. Lastly, and maybe the most trivial, print your resume on quality paper. The actual shade of “off-white” you use isn’t going to be a deal breaker, but I do recommend picking a kind of paper that at least has that cool watermark seal (you know…the fancy emblem you can see when holding the sheet up against the light!).
I agree, these tips are no-brainers, but again, can easily be overlooked. Just remember, every little bit of perfection you add to yourself can go a long way! -
My Most Challenging Hurdle of the Job Hunt
by suzanne yI’ve only recently realized what I want to do after I graduate…and right in the nick of time (since I’m graduating in less than three months)! I’m majoring in Business Administration with a concentration in Management, but I’ve only recently acknowledged my strength as a writer. Given my newfound forte, plus a need to foster my much-neglected creative side, I’m looking into getting an internship in the Marketing sector of Business. I’ve been utilizing my college’s Career Center, which features an online job/internship database. A few jobs listed on the site caught my eye and I plan on submitting my resume as soon as I get a break from the onslaught of midterms.
If none of my job prospects fall through anytime soon, I won’t be too upset. I’ve already gotten over the most challenging hurdle of career searching, which is determining one’s passions and finding a way to relay those passions into a career! I know that as long as I’m dedicated to achieving my goals, the rest will fall into place.
