Day 3

Slowly but Surely

Well, no job offers yet, but I'm not surprised.  I've been talking to a lot of people who aren't in the position to hire me.  Right now I'm gathering information, which will allow me to adjust my Master Plan as I learn more of what I want to do and what I can do.

What I did
Today was another day of travel.  I started by heading to Salem to talk with another church career resource center.  She gave me a new list of resources, but even more important, she told me of someone she knows who works at a community college in the area.  So now I have a specific name, and I can say X sent me (not her real name).  It's always better when there's a previous connection.  I would have followed this up immediately, but I had to drive 45 minutes south to my next appointment.

I had a meeting scheduled on another college campus.  The person I talked to was able to, among other things, give me more insight into a job I'm currently applying for.  This allows me to customize my resume and cover letter to exactly what they're looking for.

I had already driven for over 2 hours by this point, and I decided I didn't want to leave yet.  So I wandered around the building, carrying on mini-interviews in various offices.  I walked into the registrar's office, where I got a 6-minute interview with the director.  It turns out I don't want to be a registrar.  Then I went to the career services center, and talked to the receptionist, who was very helpful and gave me a lot of information.  Then I went to another promising-sounding office, where I interrupted them from their work, and I got the impression they just wanted me to go away (not my best interview of the day).

I then headed off to the admissions office (they are extremely busy this week), affirmative action office (very informative interview), disability access center (too busy again), and intercultural student services office (another helpful receptionist).  I learned a lot about quite a few offices on campus, and I feel like I have a better idea of what each area requires in the way of education and experience, and which ones I'd be interested in exploring further.

On the way home, I stopped at a wildlife reserve and got pictures of some very interesting animals.

What I learned
While it's possible to just drop in for informational advising, it works better if you schedule beforehand.

Leave enough time between scheduled appointments to follow up on leads (especially when your appointments are long distances apart).

Receptionists/secretaries/office managers generally have helpful temperaments; don't dismiss them as a source of information, and always treat them with respect.

I've got to come up with and memorize a 30-second introduction

Not all people are people people.

How it went
Interviews – 4 interviews with professionals, 2 with support staff, 2 were too busy, and 1 failure
Cold Calls – 0
Friend reunions – still none
Mood – Confident in my informational interview ability, still not sure how to find a job.

Day 2

Talking to “real” people

Today worked out pretty well.  Both my scheduled appointments were on the same college campus, in the same building, and on the same floor.  But 5 hours apart.  So instead of waiting around (which would have been dumb), I did some stuff in between.

What I did
My first appointment of the day was in an office where I recently applied for (and didn't get) a job.  After I called the office and set up an appointment yesterday, I emailed the person I was going to meet with and let him know that I was coming and what to expect.  Because of this, he was able to review my application and tell me why I hadn't been chosen for an interview.  It turns out, I was close, but was a little lacking in education (I'm still working on my Master's) and experience (I haven't worked specifically on a college campus).  He gave me all sorts of other helpful information, which was good.  I had a list of questions to ask him, but most of them were answered in the course of the conversation.

My next stop was at my church's employment service.  If your religious organization has an employment service, I highly encourage you to check it out.  Unlike some for-profit employment agencies, there was no hidden agenda there.  The man I worked with gave me some very good city-specific advice, as well as some general job-hunting information I already knew.  But if you are looking at this blog to find out how to get a job, reading information online doesn't compare with talking to someone face-to-face.

The final interview was back on the college campus with another advisor.  I never felt like our conversation got into a smooth rhythm, and I went through all my questions quickly.  It was a little awkward, and I'm still not sure why.  Basically, it was a repeat of the earlier conversation – if I want to work on a college campus, I need to already have experience working on a college campus.  Oh well, I've still got a week and a bit left.  We'll see if I can't get an answer I like better.

What I learned
Get an interview with a company that already rejected you.  They can tell you exactly why you weren't selected.

You're not going to click with every person you meet.  That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with either one of you; it could be a cultural difference.

It's possible to be doing “everything right,” and still not find a job.

Make sure to have enough time in the morning to pack a lunch, and enough time to find a parking spot, allowing for detours.

If you have time between interviews, make sure you have something to do (like a list of companies to cold call).  Otherwise, go sightseeing.

Get a watch, so you know how much time has passed, so you don't overstay your welcome.

If you're going to take pictures of yourself, try to time the shots between rainstorms, or bring one of these.

How it went
Interviews - 3
Cold Calls - 0
Friend reunions - 3 in the works, 1 planned

Mood - Worn out, a little frustrated, but still hopeful.

Microcultures

At the international school where I work, I recently noticed an interesting phenomenon.  There are three female friends who don't fit the usual patterns.  Now, normally the students group themselves according to language or level.  For example, either the Koreans hang out with other Koreans, or the low-level English speakers stick together.

Not with these three.  Two are low-level English speakers, one is advanced.  One comes from the Dominican Republic, one from Portugal, and the other from Mali.  Two are in their 20s, one is in her 30s.  Two are Christian, one is Muslim.  There are other Spanish, French, and Portuguese speakers around, so why do these three hang out together?  If you saw them, you might understand.

They are the only Black girls in our school.

Now for some reason, their commonality of skin color and gender has overcome the usual social and language barriers.  Something about the experiences they share draws them together, and it's enough to start a friendship.

Think Small
Over the past couple of years, I've developed the concept of “microcultures.”  We generally talk about cultures and subcultures (like the American culture and the African-American subculture), but working with international students has shown these divisions to not be sufficient.  There needs to be one more level of division.

We all belong to multiple microcultures, and just like cultures and subcultures, each microculture influences us in different ways.  For instance, my WASP background gave me one set of values, while my experience as an ESL teacher gives me another.  I'm a college graduate and tend to associate with other educated people, but at the same time, I lived in Brazil, so I love to hang out with the Brasileiros, educated or not.

There are two teachers at our school that I often talk to.  One is a recently-married White American male who has no kids.  The other is a single Black female from the Bahamas.  Which one do I gravitate towards?  Although my life experience has been very similar to the male's, I feel a deeper kinship with the teacher from the Bahamas.  Why?  Because we are both Gen-Xers who are borderline Millenials.  We both remember G.I. Joe and Transformers as cartoons.  We remember the fall of the Berlin wall.  The other male teacher is about 5 years younger, and it's enough to change the dynamics between us.

What am I?
So which culture do I come from?  A better question is which microcultures.  I'm not just a White American.  I'm also a college graduate, Humanities major, ESL teacher, advisor, middle class, married, Oregonian, Gen-Xer, male, small-town type, mountain unicyclist . . .  All of these have influenced me in different ways, and are part of my personal culture.

What does this have to do with job hunting?  I'll explain that in another post.  For now, just ask yourself, which microcultures do you belong to, and how have these influenced you?

Day 1

And I'm off!

Today was the first day of my job hunt.  After traveling all day yesterday (16 hours is a long time in a car by yourself), I wasn't ready to spend hours driving around again.  So I stayed home and called people.

What I did
Before I left, I started a list of organizations I wanted to contact; in my case, academic advising offices in schools.  I'm not contacting them to ask for jobs; I'm exchanging information with them.  I'm receiving information on the field of advising, more specifically, on how to get a job in the field.  In return, I'm giving them information about someone who has the desire and, I think, the talent to fulfill a future need they might have.

What I learned
I learned something very important in the midst of my calling.  There's a reason I want to be an advisor; advisors are people people.  Everyone I talked to was nice and friendly and more than willing to set up an appointment for me.  Of course, I mostly talked to office assistants, but still.

After one day of job hunting, I have 5 interviews set up.  Remember, these aren't job interviews – they are informational interviews.  Two of the places are hiring at the moment, one just finished hiring, and the other two don't have any openings right now.  But the important thing is that I'll be talking to people in my chosen career, even in my chosen location.  This is much better than the last 15 months, where I got almost nothing but rejection letters.  Kind've hard to see what to do better with no feedback.

Worst case scenario – after telling a bunch of advisors that I'm interested in working in the field, nothing happens.  I will still have gathered very valuable information, and will be able to adjust my future strategy according to the suggestions I hear.  No matter what, it will have been a good experience.

One more thing I discovered – with a limited time frame, I've really got to learn how to organize my time and plan ahead.  Right now, I'm traveling to opposite ends of the state on different days for single 20-minute interviews.  I need to figure out how to fill that time better, like stopping at other colleges in the area.  If I master this, I'll tell you how.

How it went
So at the end of the day . . .
Interviews – 5 set up
Cold Calling – 0
Friend reunions – 3 in the works

Mood: Optimistic, a little nervous, enthusiastic

The Hunt is on!

You may be wondering where I'm at in the job hunt.

Well, to tell you the truth, I'm pretty much nowhere at the moment. That is, I've sent out resumes, and that's it so far.

If you've read “What Color is your Parachute,” you know that sending out resumes is one of the least effective ways of finding a job (he gives it a 6% success rate). 

So although I've been sending out resumes for the past 15 months, I've only had one nibble, and that was over a year ago.

That's about to change.

As of Monday the 26th, I will be starting the job hunt in earnest.  I will be spending 2 weeks in Oregon, hitting the street for 8 hours a day, contacting businesses, contacting old school friends, contacting anyone who will talk to me.  I have a Master Plan, I have business cards, and I have the determination. 

And soon you will have daily updates on my progress.  During this time, I will be posting every day after I return home from the Hunt, describing my experience, describing my mood, describing how well my great ideas are working in the real world.  I hope this will be valuable as well as entertaining, as you get to feel what it's like to be on the job search.  And in the process, I will talk about which techniques I'm using, and how they turn out.

What to do
Speaking of techniques, I want to mention the three main methods I'll be employing.  The first is cold calling.  This is essentially either calling or visiting every business that sounds interesting and asking if they're hiring.  It has a low chance of success per call, but it relies on the law of probabilities.  By sheer numbers of companies I'll visit, there's a good chance that someone will want me.

The second method I call “Friendworking.”  This technique has me getting together with all my old friends and asking if they know of any job openings.  It's a way of having 100 pairs of eyes open for jobs instead of just 2.  Similar to the cold calling, by the sheer number of people looking, there's a good chance that someone will know of something.

The third method is true networking.  I will be talking to specific people in specific businesses that I have previously researched, where my skillset is particularly strong.  I will gain as much information from each person as possible, including names of other people I can network with.  In the process, I will get my name out there, so that when it does come time to hire, they will remember who I am and will want to contact me.

At least, this is how it should work in theory.  We'll see how it works next week when it's the real thing.

Wish me luck!