More Job Search Blues

[eggwards]

It just brings me down when I'm looking for jobs online, and all I see are requirements and requests for skills I don't have, or can't fake (and they won't teach you).

It really makes me wonder about the wrong turns I may have made in college. Of course, I couldn't imagine that I would have actually gone an majored in business, or accounting or comp sci or something, but man, it would have meant a marketable skill, rather than the idea that I'm supposed to be able to write my way our of a paper bag or something.

Journalists are one of those that Douglas Adams would have put on the spaceship with the hairdressers and the telephone receiver cleaners.

So, skills for me are just trying to heard my little folks from one day to the next, trying to keep the micromanaging idiocy of my superiors from crushing the life out of my associates, and by association, me, and to get manage and get through any project that comes my way. It's common sense stuff, really, and it doesn't easily translate to a resume.

Of course, I did switch from Theater arts to Journalism, for what that's worth. Still, most other things called for math, ick.

My current job was remarkable for the training involved with it, but then again, it was entry level when I started. I guess there is no such thing as training people for a mid-level job...you were supposed to pick up something by now.

My job has allowed me to get somewhere, that's why I can't just give up on it and just jump into something entry level again and start over, but it doesn't seem like I've set myself up as well for the future as I would have liked.

Still...there's got to be something, right?

Comments

[garebear.livejournal.com]

My degree was in biology and earth science... sometimes the degree has little to do with what you end up doing in life... sometimes it's a matter of taking a chance.

Sometimes you have to take a step back to leap forward.

[eskiebear.livejournal.com]

Having an education helpd in jobs but too much can be bad as well. Being over-qualified has been my problem for a long time. Luckily I have a good job now but when I did do a job search a while back to see how the market was, I was dismayed at all the jobs I could do that I was passed over for. Most people doing the hiring up here want someone with a bit of education they can groom, not someone who could replace them in a heart-beat without trying.

[dedos.livejournal.com]

I see it now.... On the next "Springer":
I am a major porn star because I couldn't get a job with my journalism degree!

Think about it! :)

[jaybear.livejournal.com]

It seems to me like you do not know how to translate your current skill set into a marketable resume, which is something that most people do not know how to do effectively. It is not something that I am very good at, myself.

It also sounds like you don't really know what you want to do next, other than "get a job in Dallas that isn't a step backwards."

My only suggestion at this point is career/resume counseling. Three ways to get that relatively inexpensively are through your work's Employee Assistance Program, if they have one, the local ISD's community courses, or a local community college.

More expensive options, such as individual counseling, are out there, too.

[redcub.livejournal.com]

Much of your "real time" job hunting has been "in-house" and that might be your stumbling block. Many companies develope cultures that simply do not value "hiring from within" beyond a certain level.

In the outside world, not all job postings are created equally. You need to start networking with target career fields to get leads on positions that might become open (and filled) long before the official channels list them. Only about 15-20% of jobs are filled through want ads. all the rest happen as a result of networking.

And to echo other comments, your degree is not the final determinant of your ability to do any job. If you know a position requires certain skills and knowlegde that you already have, then you have to find ways of translating that to the resume, and then again also in the interview.

If you walk into a meeting saying, "I've never done that, or anything like that," then you will end the meeting in the same place.

BTW, have you considered checking with media firms and newspaper business offices to see if there are openings there? Put the degree to use by attacking that job market from the flank.