First blog post in a long time!

Boy, it looks like I haven't had a post on here for over a year. Many things have happened. I've lost my job at and I'm currently in the job search. I got let go at the beginning of July. It's funny. When I interviewed for the company I got let go from for that entry level job, I was going to college and said to Ron, the interviewer who would become my supervisor for the position, "I'm only going to be here through the Summer and then I'll move on to a better job." That was 24 years ago last March.

Boy, it looks like I haven't had a post on here for over a year. Many things have happened. I've lost my job at and I'm currently in the job search. I got let go at the beginning of July. It's funny. When I interviewed for the company I got let go from for that entry level job, I was going to college and said to Ron, the interviewer who would become my supervisor for the position, "I'm only going to be here through the Summer and then I'll move on to a better job." That was 24 years ago last March.

Since then, I have been going to networking events, and classes at the local Workforce centers. I've worked for 12 days at the Minnesota State Fair at a booth for a company called "Carpet Court". Good company. Anyone looking for any type of flooring (carpeting, tiling, wood flooring) and Silestone or Granite counter tops should check them out. They were good people to work for and they have some great products. I have also volunteered through the Minnesota Jaycee Charitable Foundation with their Bingo operation at their Hasting Eagle's site and a few days before elections calling for a political party for their get out the vote campaign. The phone calling experience was fun but that could be a blog post right there.

I had a about six phone interviews and three face to face interviews. Things have sure changed since I had to look for a job. In that time with that company I had to interview for the entry level position and a second time for the Buyer's position with the company. Now people apply on-line. You send it off and "Poof". Who knows where it goes.  If they don't want you, you may not even get a response.   This type of on-line job application process pits the applicant against at least a hundred other applicants. These companies have computer programs that would scan your digital resume and looks for the certain key words the company is looking for in their candidates. The resume has to be customized so the skill words the applicant has on it that relate to the companies skill words need to match as close as possible. On top of that, if the job description show that there are ten skill requirements and you only have nine? Forget it. In this job market there is a person that has all ten and, if you have nine of the requirements, then it's not you.

I've been mainly focusing more of my time networking then searching the internet for jobs. The way I get the networking process is that you have to help others out, but you can't just expect them to help you. It's where you get people thinking about helping me in my job search because, they want to help me since I've helped them out in their job search. I've heard some network presenters say that one should connect with five people per day. I have done that. I have quite a few people on Facebook (356 people) and Linkedin (186 people) as well as a few on Twitter. I just have to keep the network healthy. Increase the quality rather then working on increasing quantity of people. Of course, as I meet new people I'll connect to them on those sites. It's all to get at that hidden job market.