On Hiring From One Who’s Hired, Good News, and Ye Olde Bartering System
Days unemployed (8). Jobs applied for (44). Company/Job search websites joined (7) Responses(3). Interviews scheduled (1) Networking opportunities created (3).
It’s hard to keep the days straight when you’re unemployed. I nearly forgot to put out the trash for the second week in a row. It’s also hard to avoid the impulse to clean and organize the house. Repeatedly. It’s like I’m nesting or something- anything to avoid the drudgery of the job hunt. But I’ve started using my computer to create task lists and calendar appointments to make sure I keep track of all the daily goals I’m setting.
On Hiring From One Who’s Hired
The absolute worst time to look for a job is when you need one. Unless you’re un-American and not living on credit and actually have the recommended 3-6 months worth of salary saved up for emergencies like these, the pressure to take a job just to have any income puts you at a disadvantage in terms of what jobs and salaries you are willing to accept. Plus, not being prepared can cost you a good 8 days of time… I’m just now at a point where I feel I have a good strategy in place. Although I’ve decided not to include an objective in my resume taking the time to actually put an accurate one into words has done wonders for me in terms of knowing not only what ads I should respond to, but how to best design my resume and pitch myself in the cover letter.
Notice I said “which ads I should respond to.” During the initial application step, I’m less concerned with which jobs will respond to me, as I am which ads I should respond to. If I do enough diligence objectively matching myself with positions I want, my response ratio should be much higher than it is now. The other factor, of course, is whether I’m getting myself across in my cover and resume. But I find the jobs I’m most interested in and confident about are the easiest ones to write cover letters for. They’re also the ones that tend to write back. I feel the resume should showcase the accomplishments and skills applicable to any job that meets your objective, and the cover letter should be tailor made to each position.
I could tell pretty easily when I did hiring who actually wanted the position and who wanted a job by the cover letter (or lack thereof). Unfocused desperation was not a quality I looked for in an employee. Well qualified disinterest wasn’t much of a step up, either. But even if the cover letter was lacking, if anything at all peaked my interest it was worth checking the resume. Between the two, what mattered to me was a professional looking resume reflecting appropriate experience, and a professional, concise cover letter which demonstrated genuine interest. They didn’t even have to pitch themselves in the cover letter. Professional, genuine interest was enough to get me to look at the resume. As long as I was drawn to the key criteria from one place or the other, I’d consider them further, but it was always better to be a little (not entirely) redundant between the two, just to make sure I saw what I needed to see,
Despite the demands of a number of applicants, I didn’t owe any of them a damned thing. Not a response, not a thorough read, not a first-come-first-serve consideration, not even sanctuary from the arbitrary deletion of anyone who came in on a day I was in a foul mood. My HR rep might have a few objections, but as long as I could prove my random acts of discrimination were in fact random and not targeted toward any category or status protected under state and federal law, I say again: I didn’t owe the applicants a damned thing. I did, however owe the position and my boss a thorough attempt to find the right candidate for the job in an acceptable time frame.
Understanding the process from the hiring team’s perspective taught me not to take any lack of response or rejection so personally. It’s not a callous slight to my life’s accomplishments as summed up in a one-page bulleted outline, it’s just business.
Good News
One of my networking opportunities has a short-term project to throw some work my way. We were able to work out a bartering deal where they’re paying me in equipment I get to keep and gift cards for groceries. They don’t have to claim me as an employee and I don’t have to claim income to the unemployment office (I don’t think… I’m behind on the detailed research I owe you and myself on the ins and outs of unemployment). Now this isn’t intentionally underhanded; we’re not trying to screw Uncle Sam and if it turns out I’m supposed to report this I will immediately. I’m sure there are some legal lines between “gifts” and “payment,” especially when it comes to business dealings, but to my knowledge there are no laws requiring compensation to be in the form of dollars.
Difficult times call for more creative and time-honored solutions. The system of bartering for goods and services certainly predates any concept of money. Monetary compensation is in fact, just one form of bartering which introduces a more permanent intermediary step (precious gems or metals, shells, beads, promissory notes, checks, etc.) to the exchange of two perishable goods or services.
We’ve just grown so accustomed to money as the standard of exchange, that bartering is often overlooked. I owe you some more research on the government’s stance on bartering and whether it can or does regulate it at all.
You may also notice I have an interview scheduled! As I understand it, the position will be a step down from my previous position monetarily and career wise. It’s certainly not inline with my starry eyed hopes of this great unemployment adventure actually forcing me down a quick easy path toward my dream job. Beggars can’t be choosers, I know. Drawing from my previous lesson learned about looking out for number one (see my Company Man post), worst case scenario is I take the job (assuming I’m a shoe-in) until something else better comes along. My fear, of course is getting complacent like before, and not actively looking for that next step away from a job and toward a career.
My only hesitance to taking the job with the intention of jumping ship ASAP was that a friend who works there alerted me to the position. I cleared my conscience by being straight with her that I didn’t intend to reveal that little bit of trivia during the interview process. Thankfully, she completely understood and wouldn’t feel put out if that happened.
Also, I’m sorry, but I took one of those cheesy, fly-by-night type internet jobs making social network applications to get more ad space in your face. For every ten people that view my app, I supposedly get one cent. I haven’t gotten a check yet, but I’ve earned 36 cents. The appeal is in the hope that an app will go viral. In college I signed up for a similarly sketchy sounding job where I got paid to click on websites and banners. I actually did get a check for that. Less than ten dollars, maybe less than one, but it was well worth the money- a buddy of mine hooked me up with a program that randomly clicked on websites for me. I just set it up to run at night. So far I’ve probably spend an hour’s worth of work creating apps. Only 6640 more people and I’ll be earning minimum wage…
But actually, the main reason I even put that hour into it is to get more insight into the social network marketing world and even beef up the cover letters I’ve been sending to positions in the burgeoning field of social marketing. There’s a growing number of jobs out there for companies who want to design strategic marketing campaigns based on blogs, social networking sites and the like.
Finally, I got another bite, too. I don’t feel qualified for this position, but after years of people telling me I’m a pretty valuable employee, I’m starting to believe them, so I decided to let the employers decide whether I’m qualified, not me. That’s what I did with this job I just got laid off from. I didn’t think I had the experience they were asking for. They did.
Lessons Learned: Don’t wait until you need one to look for a job or prepare for the job search, don’t take rejections / lack of response personally, don’t overlook alternate means of exchange, don’t decide for the employer that you’re not qualified if you want the job.
Tomorrow’s Tasks:
Upload revised resume to job sites, begin creating search agents with them. Review jobs applied for, mark top 5 for potential follow up. Ace the interview.
Some great insights there from the employer’s point of view. I’ve always felt like to be a better X, it’s good to have experience being the one who judges X.
By the way, I have no idea how bartering affects unemployment, but as far as the IRS is concerned (and it is concerned!), bartered stuff has value, and it needs to be reported, by you and the company (in a 1099-B).
Yes the IRS will want to get a piece of the cake…However that doesn’t change my opinion that bartering is a great idea. I have been bartering for over 1 year now and think is is an amazing idea to keep costs down. There is a site called http://barterquest.com where you can barter anything you want. I think they were even mentioned on CNN the other day.
I stand corrected. I was sorting through the IRS site, but it was like, um, reading tax code. Now I’m off to the unemployment page, but don’t expect the reading to be much lighter. Have either of you actually had to use the 1099-B? Do you pay taxes only if there is a difference in value of the items bartered? If you barter at a loss, do you get to write it off?