Here’s a quick tip for the ladies:
Sometimes you’re called in for a last minute interview, and you look down to see your wearing dark polish, or your nails are chipped. Pick up a few disposable ready-to-use nail polish remover wipes at your local pharmacy. They’re perfect in a pinch, and in five minutes your nails are handshake-worthy. Add these to your arsenal of last-minute products, and you can forget about worrying over whether you’ll look interview worthy.
Alyssa Davis, fellow WordPress blogger, provides great insight into the world of internships in an article for Papercut Magazine. Her article deals specifically with fashion internships, but the advice is universal. Worth a read!
Good morning, fellow commitment-phobes. Oh, you didn’t think this was a blog about a fear of commitment? Well, today it is. Actually, today’s topics are twofold.
1. Stop obsessing over missed opportunities and commit yourself to the present moment.
Let’s just take a moment and let Usher teach us a lesson: sometimes, you gotta let it burn. (*the original music video is MUCH racier than I recall so apologies for the annoying live version) I find, as I go forward in earnest with my job search, that in the back of my mind are a series of missed deadlines and opportunities that I tend to weigh against present opportunities. This seems to be a trend for me.
For instance, last week I spotted an amazing coat at a vintage vendor at an outdoor festival in my neighborhood in nyc. I tried it on, loved it, didn’t love the price, and moved on. Or so I thought. That coat haunts my dreams. I spent way too much time searching out its twin on Etsy and eBay, and actually found a few comparable pieces, with much more appealing price tags, but I have yet to buy. Why can’t I commit? That original coat has become so perfect in retrospect, so exact in detail, that I’ve made finding its replica near impossible.
Lesson to be gleaned from my obsession with fashion? In order to be present and available to opportunities that come your way, you must actually BE present and ready to jump in with both feet. Let the past go, and move forward. Nothing will ever be as perfect as you’ve made it in memory, so gauge your present opportunities against reality. It seems so simple, but to really let the past be the past takes some active effort. Focus on the road ahead, and take each day as it comes. Not to sound too new-agey, but there truly couldn’t be a better attitude with which to face the challenging world of job-searching.
2. The second lesson for today? Make productive use of your talents. I myself have suffered a few pitfalls in NOT following this advice. I present to you exhibit A:
A mediocre piece of art, at best, this was certainly not the best use of my time or talents. (If anyone can tell me how to rotate this image it would be much appreciated- the original image IS oriented in the correct direction) The positive here is that it does display some of my talents: patience, creativity, innovation, an attention to detail, an ability to follow through. As far as displaying these to potential employers? Not so useful. Lesson to be learned? Employ your talents while your unemployed. Write a blog, volunteer, get a part-time job that relates to your field of interest.
Nelly and Kelly got it right when they wrote a song about a bad situation that will probably work out perfectly in the end and called it, “Dilemma.” I’m not kidding. On the same token, when we (non pop-stars) find ourselves in similar situations, it’s often difficult to move beyond the stress of it and see the positive. What I’m trying to say here is, I got another interview (!!) . It’s for a job that’s maybe less “impressive” than the last, but at the same time it’s perhaps more relevant to what I’m finally recognizing as my true passion(s).
As I’m sitting here wringing my hands hoping the first employer doesn’t get back to me before I have a chance to talk to the second, I’m trying to come up with a game plan that doesn’t involve me settling for whichever (if either) hires me. What that means is, once again, that all important self-inventory process comes into play. I’ve done a lot of reflecting, and now that I know what makes me tick, I need to figure out how to make it work for me in the working world.
I read a book last week that helped me a lot in terms of determining which interests to actively pursue, and some smart ways to go about it. If you haven’t read it, definitely check out, What Color Is Your Parachute? – it is, as it claims to be, a job hunter’s BIBLE. Cannot believe I didn’t devour all four hundred pages sooner. A big thank you for bringing it to my attention to my aunt Susan, who recognized my total flailing (and failing) as I tried to answer the all important, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’ll post tomorrow in more detail about that gem of a resource. For now, good night and good luck!
I didn’t have much time to post today because I was busy at an INTERVIEW! I also managed to pop over to career counseling at my alma matter for a refresher on some tips and tricks on entering the job world. On that note, two important TIPS!
1. ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, send a thank you note. Email, fax, snail mail, doesn’t matter. Thank every person who interviewed you for their time, thank the receptionist if you have their contact info as well. This note is not the same note you send to relatives thanking them for a gift- be gracious, but also follow up with any further questions you might have, and be sure to express again your enthusiasm for the company + position. I really think some people are just too LAZY to do this, so why not give yourself an easy leg up in the game?
2. Take advantage of your career counseling department and office of alumni. Not only will they revamp your resume and aid you in the cover letter writing process, oftentimes they have helpful contacts, and at the very least they may be able to provide you with a direct email at a company, rather than a generic hiring email. When you’re looking to conduct informational interviews be sure to contact both departments with specific industries in mind, and they will be able to lead you to alums who are willing to speak with you. REMEMBER, an informational interview is just that: informational. This is not a back door opportunity for you to ask for a job. Be well informed and gracious, and the contacts you make during this process will certainly help you decide on a direction, and may even lead to a job.
That’s it for today, fellow job seekers. Keep on keepin’ on.
This post is not about how much I think Britney Spears is a GENIUS-actually, hold on, let’s make it a little about that. Talk about a career chameleon. Even when the woman was walking around shoeless in public restrooms with the worst extensions I’ve ever seen on a human we couldn’t get enough. No one ever doubted she’d make a comeback, and she herself, even in the face of the death of a career, never stopped trying to claw her way back to the top. Unintentional lesson to be learned here? Even when things look grim, even if you’ve shaved your whole head in a fit of anxiety about (employers) apparent lack of interest in your antics (read: resume), keep your head up, things will get better.
To return to the original direction of this post- “Why don’t you do something?” One of the most important things you can do while unemployed is, quite literally, SOMETHING. I’m well aware that the many components of job searching occupy a great deal of time and energy, but there are always a few extra hours in the day. Aside from never wanting to answer a potential employer’s question, “So what have you been doing since graduation/your last job/etc.?” with a long pause implying, “Are you serious? Trying to get a job”- there are plenty of reasons to keep yourself occupied and productive during unemployment.
1. By seeking out opportunities to be productive you might actually produce something that will get you a job, and at the very least you’re doing something worth talking about. You want to write for The New Yorker? Why not to write for your local newspaper? Start with a series of op-eds, ask for assignments, maybe eventually you’ll get a column. These local small papers are generally not shining examples of journalism, but if your work is worth something it will be noticed, no matter the venue. Lesson here? You have to start small, even while you’re aiming big.
2. Maybe the hobby, internship or part-time job you’ve taken on will expose new areas of interest for you, or provide you with a useful contact in the industry you’re trying to break into. You want to create ad campaigns for national companies? Check out that new yogurt shop that opened down the street and offer to create a logo for them, or a short for their website. Do something to utilize the talents you have, even if that ‘something’ isn’t earning you what you deserve.
The primary goal of doing something that is less than your dream career while you’re searching for it is not making money, but rather creating opportunity for yourself. An object in motion remains in motion, am I right? The world has more than enough opportunity for bright, creative, and motivated individuals, so while you’re staring out at your ‘green light’ across the water (Gatsby, anyone?) you may as well be putting yourself out there. After all, yesterday I watched a man spell “married” “marryed” three times after I had corrected him. Someone, soon, will recognize that you have something special to offer, but why not make their search for you a little easier by getting out and putting your work on the line? What do you have to lose?
Jennifer Lee for the NYT and Nicolaus Mills for the Huffington Post strike a similar chord in their articles: recent graduates face an economy that is anything but stable and a job market that is less than encouraging, will they fail or rise to the challenge of finding success in a new type of working world?
Lee discusses a series of Ivy League graduates doing what she seems to deem non-traditional Ivy League jobs- whether it be driving cross country in a band or joining the working class while learning how to be the working poor. She presents an gloomy portrait of over qualified graduates staffing menial and sometimes minimum wage jobs, squandering their talents and ambitions, their lives “postponed.” The graduates have in common that each has found him or herself in an entirely unexpected place, but what Lee leaves unclear is whether she sees the great merit and opportunity provided by these roadblocks, or if instead she concludes, as her title suggests, that this is merely a “generation in limbo.”
Mills, after waxing sentimental about the departure of his recent Sarah Lawrence graduates, defines this (my, or maybe even our) generation with a certain degree of optimism as one of “trial and error.” Just a little leeway, he argues, is what we need in order to get our bearings in this new world, his faith in our resiliency and ability to adapt clear. Whether financials or the traditional pressure to secure a job after graduation allow for the privilege of this “leeway” this ability to try and fail and try again, is no certain matter.
So are we simply the Lost Generation? Whether Lee is correct in her definition of our generation as one in “limbo,” waiting for time or circumstance to give us a break, or Mills is accurate in his assessment of our capacity to endure the “trial and error” path- one thing is for certain. The world we face is unique, both in its great difficulty and in its immense opportunity.
On that note, a tip: If at all possible, create your own job. Whether this means starting your own business or conducting a targeted search of companies that could use your particular skill set (even if they have no advertised opening), by creating your own job instead of selecting one from, for example, an internet posting, your are eliminating a great deal of competition and conducting a very important form of self inventory.
chronicles of unemployment 