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I recently spoke to a technical communication class and was trying
suggest some job searching techniques, one them being to contact a
headhunter. Sue Gallagher asked about the Bay area; what about
other areas? How *can* a student locate information on headhunters
besides the yellow pages?
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Let me tell you a little story...
About four years ago, I came out from CA for the purpose of 1) going back to
school for my masters and 2) help out a member of my family with some financial
problems.
So that I could concentrate on my education, I got a mean-nothing job working
nights stocking shelves at a local Pathmark. It was a no-brainer, left me my
days free to go to school and was the type of job that I could walk away from
at a moment's notice.
Anyway, one day, I realized that: 1) School wasn't as tough as I thought it
would be. Either I got smarter over 20 years or the standards for education
has declined a way-bunch and 2) the family problem got was under control much
faster than anticipated.
So...one night, I plugged in my handy-dandy 286, dialed the Internet, and
downloaded about 700 job postings from the Usenet Misc.Jobs.Contract. I didn't
care what the content of the posting was...I wanted the email address and fax
number.
With about 10 MB of messages on my hard disk, I ran alittle routine that
extracted just the email address and fax phone number.
I created a 2 page ASCII resume, blasted it against about 200 email address and
about 60 fax numbers. I then got dressed, called a friend of mine and went out
for a few beers.
I GOT RESPONSES!! I'm still getting calls. Among the maybe 20 responses
within 48 hours was an email from a contract house with a position "that was
defined by my resume", had an appointment three days later, and a job one week
later. Great job ( I can wear jeans to work!)..great money (WAY in excess of
80k), great conditions (as I type with Pavarotti on the CD player on my desk),
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!
Pretty cool, huh?
John Posada
Technical Proposal Writer
Bell Communications Research, Piscataway, NJ
(908) 699-5839 (W)
jposada -at- notes -dot- cc -dot- bellcore -dot- com (W)
"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things"
- Vice President Dan Quayle 11/30/1988
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I don't speak for my employer and they return the favor
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