So, who's for cake?
For my 100th ever post I wanted to do something special. I wanted to come in here and say that the siege was over and that I had found myself a job. Everything was going to be all right and Wifey and I could relax a little bit. That was my plan last Wednesday when I went in for my first interview in 1 1/2 years. Like I said in my last post: “I’m either going to get a job or I’m going to hit the Lottery.”
Well Wednesday came and went and I didn’t hit the Lottery…
…yet!
However I did have what I thought was a good interview that morning for the Retail Supervisor’s position with Goodwill. I felt that everything went well and I hope that I made a good impression on the interviewer – at least good enough I hope to be called in for a second interview. However, I have gone on other interviews where I thought I did well and I never heard from the company again – so I am going to be cautiously optimistic about this one for the time being.
That said I want to tackle a topic that I know many of you are wondering these days…
Where are all of the jobs that people keep talking about?
I’m serious, where are they?
They don’t seem to be showing up in the morning fishwrap. Well, except for the same ads that are running for Teachers, Nurses, Used Car Salesmen and Forklift Drivers. And yeah, I can hear some of you “baby boomers” working it right now: “what’s wrong with those? In my day we would get a job shoveling shit and we wouldn’t complain!” First of all, all those jobs I’ve just named are looking for “experience only”, meaning that they don’t want to have to take the time to train anyone how to do the job. Second, you need some specialized training to do those jobs, not to mention a certificate or a diploma. Third, you have to be nuts to want to try to sell cars in this economic climate where people are still not buying anything.
Then there’s what I find in my e-mail box every morning from CareerBuilder, Monster, HotJobs, BoiseIdahoJobs.com and TweetMyJobs. TweetMyJobs.com is a way to get your resume out there onto Twitter. It’s free to sign up and they keep track of jobs in your area in certain categories so that you don’t have to scroll through pages and pages of jobs you’re not qualified for. Instead, TweetMyJobs will e-mail you every morning the jobs that are available, most of which we’re not qualified for. Take today for example, most of the jobs listed were from the U.S. Air Force. Now I love the military – just not that much! I don’t want to have to enlist so that I can get a good job, you know what I mean? Some people are suited for the military, and some people – like myself – are not.
Next there’s Yahoo! Hot Jobs which always lists the same three ads up top and ten more underneath them. The three up top are never for the search that I’ve entered since they are for a Part-Time Supervisor at Carter’s/OshKosh B’Gosh, an Outside Sales Rep for Healthmarkets Sales, and a New Truck Account Manager for Lake City Truck. None of those jobs are for an Administrative Assistant which is what the search was for in the first place. Underneath all of that are the ads for “Data Entry Secretary / Adminstravtive Assistant *Part Time / Full Time* $600-$3000/wk *APPLY TODAY*”, or a “Paid Survey Taker Part Time” where you have to sign up for hundreds of websites hoping that you will be able to be directed to surveys that you can take for money. The problem with this is that more often then not, you will not be the type of person they’re looking for to fill out the survey.
Then there’s Monster with jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with my skill set nor what I’m searching for. Finance Manager for Ajilon Professional Staffing, General Manager with Valley View Retirement for Century Park Associates Llc, an Account Executive for Company Confidential and a Bakery Manager for Ridley’s Family Markets in McCall which is only 107 miles one way. Hmmm, can’t say much for the commute, but at least I’ll get all of the doughnuts that Wifey and I can hork down our pieholes!
CareerBulder always gives me something special – like positions for a Secretary, Transcriptionist and Medical Coder – all in Health Care, and all advertised by Office Team who has already told me that they want nothing to do with me and that they will not help me get a job.
The thing that all of these sites have in common is that they rarely, if ever send me anything that I can actually apply to. I find more jobs on Craigslist nowadays then I have been able to at the so-called “Job Sites”.
Now in previous posts I have illustrated what some of the older generations have been saying to us on how to better get a job. “Back in my day we didn’t have these sissified computers or anything like that! We didn’t have “job boards” or “employment agencies”, the only thing we had and the only thing we needed were our wits and a good, strong back! If we wanted to work then we had to go out and hit the bricks to go out and get it! I remember one time, in the dead of winter, having to go out and look for a job to feed our family. I had to walk 10 miles through the snow that was up to my eyeballs just so I could get a lousy job sweeping floors for 10 cents an hour! And did I ever complain?!? No sir, I was grateful for what I had ya hear me – GRATEFUL!!! Not like these pantywaists that we have today who only care about ‘Health Insurance’. HEALTH INSURANCE?!? Why we had the same thing back in my day. You know what it was?!? Don’t get sick!!! That was our ‘Health Insurance’. If you had the sniffles or ya caught a cold, ya went to work anyway. None of this ‘calling in sick’ business, you acted like a man and ya went to WORK!!!”
Okay, small problem with that method Gramps. “Hitting the bricks” as you say and just showing up at a business looking to see if they will hire you unannounced is not going to work in this day and age. These days businesses don’t want people coming in off of the street trying to get hired. Mainly its because you never know how the person is going to react when you tell them you’re not hiring at the moment. You don’t know if they are going to have a temper tantrum like a 3-year-old in the grocery store that didn’t get his candy bar. You don’t know if they are going to collapse on the floor and start bawling about how their family is losing their home and has no food to eat and won’t you please help them? You don’t know if this is the 15th place they have walked into only to be shut down and they snap and produce a knife or a gun. This is not the method to use when looking for a job in a post-9/11 world. “Hitting the bricks” will more than likely get you tasered by security then it would get you into an interview.
So we have been able to change the way we get jobs with the new technologies that are available to us, and employers have – for the most part – moved with the times. We are networking through a variety of websites and blogs and sites like Twitter and Facebook because we want to get some inside information. We want to get the inside dirt, the scoop, the skinny on any possible avenue by which we can then keep a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs. We want to be able to support our families even if there are other forces out there who don’t want to see us go back to work because it would be a sign that “Obama is succeeding”.
And for those of you who say that we should just go out and “get a job shoveling shit in the sewers”, I looked it up. Right now there is a position open for an Equipment Operator with the City of Boise. The only ones they are considering however are people who already have a Commercial Drivers License. Since I do not have one I don’t think it’s possible to get one at this late date and I am betting that there are a lot of people who are underutilized as I am who will say the same thing. This job entails operating snow removal equipment, hauling heavy equipment on trailers, driving water trucks and dump/spray trucks, operating skid steers, tractors with attachments, backhoes, graders, bulldozers, loaders, mowers, snow plows, asphalt machines, and rollers; conducting preventive maintenance, trouble shooting and making minor repairs to all equipment. Call me crazy, but that involves more than just “shoveling shit.” That sounds more like a specially trained heavy equipment operator that utilizes more than just a hand-held shovel.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that there is something wrong with that kind of work – there isn’t. If you have the training to operate that kind of equipment then God bless you man, you have a leg up on me when it comes to that kind of necessary Infrastructure Maintenance. The problem that I have is that some people out there make it sound so simple to just go out there and get those kinds of jobs – its not. You have to be trained to operate that equipment and most times you have to pay money out of your own pocket to get the proper training. Most of us who are unemployed or underutilized do not have access to that kind of caysh, let alone that kind of time. We need something like yesterday, we don’t have the resources to shell out whatever it takes to get in the classes and get the training. This is why some of these suggestions for manual labor are not helpful. Some of these jobs require specialized training that most of us just do not have and can’t get.
Sometimes we do get lucky however and actually get a line on something that could lead somewhere. Only to be let down hard by something as innocuous as a credit report which eliminates us from contention. I swear, it should be illegal for prospective employers to get credit reports so that they can use them as another way of eliminating people. It is really stupid to use a credit report against somebody in this economy. There are so many people out there now who have been affected by this economy, so many people who through no fault of their own have fallen behind on their bills, their mortgage, their credit card payments. These are people who would make those payments if they could, but in many cases they must choose between being warm and fed or being cold and hungry in the dark with the mortgage paid for the month. Just because someone has fallen behind and it has effected their credit rating does not mean that they would be a bad employee, or that they are irresponsible, or that they would steal from you.
It means that they have been unjustly denied an opportunity to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” by working and paying their own way. It’s that classic “Catch-22” of you have to improve your credit score in order to get a job, but you have to have a job in order to improve your credit score. But you have to improve your credit score in order to get a job, but you have to have a job in order to improve your credit score. But you have to improve your credit score…
…we’ve been over this, haven’t we?
Look I know that everyone out there is going to have an opinion on what is best for everybody else and that their way is the right way and that everyone else is screwing up. But in the end, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we look, no matter how many resumes and cover letters we put out there, no matter how many calls or e-mails we get from scammers looking to take advantage of us, no matter how many times we rail at the darkness for an opportunity only to be told to “stop whinning” the fundamental question is still going to remain, no matter what…
Where are the jobs?
