Job Search

I'm pretty new to KR, but you guys have been friendly and supportive when I thought I might lose my job, when my brakes went out, etc. Well, things took another downturn and I was fired last week, so I'm scrabbling desperately for work. I'm not from this coast (Portland, OR is my hometown) and I have to pay rent. If anyone happens to know any work available in the northern Jersey area, or possibly in NYC, any lead helps.

I really want to be able to stay out here, if I have to go back to OR because of money problems it's gonna be with my tail between my legs, which is never a good feeling. I want to continue to join you all in Travance and make new friends out here.

/depressing, begging post

Well... lets start with what do you do for a living?

I'm a linguistics student at Montclair. Most of my background is in IT/tech support or retail. I -want- to work on reconstructing ancient languages and researching dying languages, or perhaps speech therapy. I could also be pretty content teach ESL, so long as I get to finish my degree up.

That a good start?

Do you have any experience from prior jobs?

If you need a job, Dice.com and Monster.com are the way to go for IT stuff.  A lot of it is either going to be contract / limited (3-6 months), or entry level, but if you're still in school, that is perfect.  Having just done the job hunt thing myself, I can tell you it's rough out there right now.

My suggestion would be to grab something in IT, and A) Get paid, Get experience.  From there, you can continue your studies while working, and possibly angle for a job closer to what you want to do down the line.  If you can, go for IT in archival / research or university settings, where you can then apply yourself to more academic pursuits.

If you can send me your resume, I can submit it to my company for a job at the Allentown PA office. Its not a job guarentee but they'll at least look at it. My work email is . Its insurance but sometimes they look for IT support.

This might be worth checking out, I overheard a couple of kids in the deli this morning talking about it.

2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/

T

Terry,

  Wow, $18.00 an hour is not bad for walking around asking people questions, and it's mostly evening and weekends so you can still go to school.  Rachel, get there!

Thank you all for the awesome tips - started the census testing and all just today, but hoping I find something more immediate...either way, thanks so much for all the help, and I'm always open to hearing about any other opportunities ;p Hopefully monster.com actually gives me something this time - it's always let me down, previously.

See you in Feb, I hope!

To be honest, when I didn't have a job for like 2 weeks I pretty much applied everywhere. When you need to make money you can't be picky....
I'd say, print out like 20 resumes and go local first, then maybe craigslist, dice, and monster. Since monster is kinda impersonal, you might get picked for a "job interview" by scam companies. These are the kind with "great marketing opportunities!" and "in need of some skilled people that we've never met!" when all you're doing is doing door to door selling for not much money.  Dice.com is definitely more reputable if you're trying something in the IT department.

Just be careful! I hope you find something you like : )

I've been laid off for about 2 months now... it's been rough out there.  I would give you a warning about "recruiters" and any "phone calls" you might get from them.  If they ask for a resume, that's ok.  Do NOT give a home address, social, and birthday combination of info.  If they say they need to verify your work status, tell them you can provide proof, but only in-person and when it's at an interview.  No recruiter needs your personal data up-front.  There are a lot of "phishing" scammers out there, pretending to be recruiters and trying to get ID data through fake calls about jobs.

Create 2 versions of your resume... 1 for public posting on websites (monster, careerbuilder, dice, etc...) that only contains a safe email address you trust, and maybe your cell number.  The other version can have all your home data and other stuff.