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From:Laurie Rubin <lmr -at- SYL -dot- NJ -dot- NEC -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 15 Mar 1995 09:26:42 -0500
Subject: Job Search Alternatives
--------
Bottom line, try all methods, don't get frustrated, and keep plugging. No one
method seems to work for everyone!
One method of networking that requires a little CHUZPAH (more aggressiveness)
is to keep your ears open and talk to anyone you meet -- friends, people in
service-related jobs (hair stylists, doctors, dentists, print shops, etc.),
people wandering the aisles in bookstores -- especially near technical
documentation --, even try to "eavesdrop" on lunch goers' conversations in
food courts that are centrally located in a commercial area.
At one point during a slow job search period, I used this method. I actually
got 5 leads (even one from the eavesdropping method -- you know, excuse me for
overhearing, but,...); in fact, this method of networking landed me one of my
successful, long term contracts (2 years): I had informed a friend of mine who
is a dental hygienist, who found out that one of her patients worked for a
company who was just beginning a job search for a tech writer!
Laurie
> On Tue, 14 Mar 1995, Deborah Kluge wrote:
> > Most authors of books and articles that I have read on this subject say tha
> t
> > reading help wanted ads is one of the least efffective methods of
> > conducting a job search. The "hidden job market," touted by these
> > "experts" and uncovered via dogged networking is supposedly the best
> > method and is where the "real" jobs are.
> >
> > IMHO, this is a lot of hogwash. Because this idea had been burned into my
> > brain for so long, I used to feel guilty about reading the want ads, knowin
> g
> > that this was not something I was "supposed" to do. But, I have found
> > quite a few good (freelance) jobs this way and have had callbacks and offer
> s
> > on others that I could not take or was not interested in doing. I know
> > others in my field who have met with similar success by responding to help
> > wanted ads.
> I have to support this. In a fairly long career of working--since age
> 17--and much of that in fields where turnover/job-switching is typical, I
> have found jobs by all methods, but more than a few by reading want ads.
> In fact, one such beginning led directly to a top-slot management job.
