job hunt

well, it's been three-and-a-half months since i was laid-off. some good things have occurred. i have gotten better about managing my budget. i have even used coupons at the supermarket. on the other hand, i still have more money going out monthly than coming in from unemployment insurance and so, i have depleted my savings in large part. i also feel like i have gone from being a novice in the job market to something of an old pro.

when i was first unemployed i was especially aggressive about hunting for the right job for me. i used monster.com, careerbuilder.com, callcenterjobs.com, indeed.com, craigslist and a couple of other website job search engines. initially i was sending my resume everywhere and casting a wide net. as it turned out, i received very little positive feedback from my process. as time went on, however, i learned and improved my technique.

eventually i realized i was not hearing from any company whose posting was older than even a couple of days. so i was really wasting a lot of time addressing those postings. in time i came to realize that i needed to check in on these websites daily, which i had done anyway, but more importantly, i needed to narrow my search. for example, on monster, i refined my search so that i was choosing customer service jobs with the subsets of call center and customer care. I used two keywords for my search: manager and supervisor. i chose the city of los angeles and i asked the search to include a 75 mile radius. after clicking on search, i sorted by date. then, on a daily basis, i looked for what was new right at the top of my search and ignored everything else.

as i refined my search in this manner, i started getting contacted by employers interested in me. the same thing worked on craigslist. on that site, i could literally check back in every few hours if i had the time, and see postings as they arrived.

i have been interviewing with a couple of companies for call center positions similar to the one i had a couple of years ago with sparkletts. i am expecting a job offer in one case and a call from the other today to find out if i am one of two finalists. on monday i received a message about another position i applied for and i have not returned the call, which i am slightly nervous about. (it is a position with at&t.) i really do think these two companies i am in the latter stages with are good options though so i am focused on those.

two months ago i was a finalist for a position but did not get it. in that case, i received great feedback on my resume. on the other hand, one of the employers i am engaged with now asked me a couple of tough questions about the resume and so, i made adjustments based on that feedback. it is hard to know exactly what is right with a resume, with interviewing, with all aspects of this process that is searching for employment, but i am confident i am learning and getting better at most aspects.

i am on a website too, called linkedin.com. linkedin is a networking site where one can network with their friends, peers, coworkers and others for the purpose of advancing their career. i am linked to plenty of people from my last two positions with retention ed and with sparkletts. i have also made contact with many of my friends and acquaintances. i think linkedin is good for networking but in order for it to be a fruitful tool if you are in the job market, you still have to ask for the job. when i made contacts with others or sent invitations to link up with me there, i made a point of letting people know that i am currently unemployed. what i found though was that no one came out of the woodwork to try to help me find the right job or connect with the right people. this could be entirely my fault and i am sure linkedin could work for some job hunters.

i did make contact with a couple of former colleagues from sparkletts through linkedin both of whom had been unemployed for extended periods of time. it was ironic that both of these guys offered me advice on my job search and suggested they had become experts to some degree. i took their advice and found value in it.

speaking of networking, i read this article in the blogosphere and think anyone in the job market should read it. i never really understood how networking should work or how one goes about it until i read this piece. it bridged a longstanding gap for me.

at the same time, i am concerned about both of them. looking for employment is such strange terrain. i suppose some people are comfortable with it but i can hardly imagine feeling like that myself. every time i have gone out on an interview i have left it thinking of things i might have said differently, or of other things i might have omitted or included.

just yesterday i was asked by a group of would-be peers what i would hope for from a position with this particular company and i wanted to speak of career development and the opportunity i saw there to grow, develop and improve my own skills. instead, i actually mentioned the word ambition and said i hoped to develop my skills so that one day I might be a call center director. i left that interview second-guessing the wisdom, (or lack thereof,) of mentioning ambition to peers. the truth is, i will not be in any hurry to move up. i will be ecstatic to again be gainfully employed in a stable environment and to work with a group of customer service agents to improve and develop their skills and career path. but i may have come off in another way altogether.

such is job hunting. when i was not getting hired these past few months, i felt my self-esteem and confidence dwindling like a slow death. logically, i knew i had to persevere and things would work out in time. illogically, i felt rejected by both of my last employers. sometimes the words of my loved ones seemed insensitive or worse, hurtful.

in any case, i am so anxious to get back to work. this project that has been finding employment is is more difficult than work.