I was headhunted more than once in my life, but only once for a position that paid a ridiculous amount of money. I got an excellent reference from someone and I went for an interview for a position that I wasn't really qualified to do. But it was an interesting experience and it showed me that I could make money in my business (writing) if I applied myself in a certain direction. The interviewer was very kind to give me some pointers on how to get started on that track and it was nice to think there was that possibility out there ...

But the thing about high paying jobs is that they are usually hard to get. Sure, you can potentially make almost 100 K from writing (okay, here's how: corporate writing or copywriting for a big-name agency, for example). Sure, you can get rich doing what you do for living but the reality is those high-paying careers are one in a million.

In the article Executive Search Engines the author, Gary M. Stern, talks about one job search engine that promises to hook people up to jobs with salaries over 100 K. The site has more than two million (paying) members but only lists about 76,000 jobs. Many people use the site to network and receive newsletters, but the consensus is that actually getting work from such engines is not really that plausible.

ttyl

Jowita

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Ever since I can remember, I've done work for free. I've designed websites, page layouts, took pictures, made business cards, created tags, banners and logos. I've written articles, stories and essays all for free. Currently, I work full-time but I have two projects on the go where I work (long hours) for absolutely free. I do both in the hopes that they will eventually lead to paid assignments. Sometimes I tell myself that it's art and I'm doing these projects for fun, but a part of me is a little bitter and frustrated with the fact that I've become such an enthusiastic charity institution and can't seem to get out of my work-for-free mindset.

The New York Times article When to Work for Nothing addresses the issue of working for free, including the misperception that it benefits self-employed workers to work for payoffs such as "exposure." The author, Michelle Goodman, reminds freelancers that agreeing to work for free can "reinforce people's misguided ideas that the self-employed are independently wealthy hobbyists."

My partner, who is a full-time freelancer, is constantly asked to work for nothing; in fact, many people seem to expect him to do so since he's established in his field. In his case this is no longer for "exposure" but rather to "give back to the community." He gets phone calls and email requests asking him to speak at this or that meeting, write this or that speech, judge this or that contest. or edit this or that book. For free. After all, isn't he free to do so? He fulfils many of these requests, but I know that sometimes it's hard for him to justify working for free and that he often does it out of guilt.

But seriously now, I don't see "the community" paying our phone bill or buying us groceries. I'm not saying volunteering is wrong but that's the thing about volunteering ... you have to volunteer for it.

ttyl

Jowita

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I know a smart guy who is extremely fidgety. It's almost painful to watch him perform little dances with his feet as he steps nervously from side to side while speeding through a story. It's impossible to look him in the eye because his eyes never stop moving during a conversation. When he listens, he nods so enthusiastically that you stop talking because you worry he will hurt himself if he continues his headbanging. He calms down eventually, once he eases into the conversation, but by then you feel exhausted from trying to keep the whole thing afloat. As I mentioned, he's a smart guy, so it's fun to talk to him but sometimes it seems that it's just not worth the effort.

I wondered why that is, why I feel so turned off sometimes when I'm around that guy. A colleague sent me this article, Body Talk, about how people perceive certain non-verbal cues in work settings. For example, a person who walks too fast may appear too nervous or someone who walks too slowly may seem less ambitious than others. Looking at someone while talking is good, looking someone right in the eye while they talk appears creepy. Also, the article gives this advice: "To encourage the other person to relax, you should open up your posture -- sit back and open your shoulders, for example." I think I will try that next time I talk to my nervous friend.

ttyl

Jowita

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I used to think that it was somewhat impractical to tell people (especially kids) that they could do anything. When I was a kid I really wanted to be a veterinarian, but, as I got older, I realized that I wasn't really good at sciences and I started taking fewer and fewer biology and chemistry classes and I never bothered to get to know math better. Eventually, I changed my goal. Becoming a veterinarian was going to be too much hard work. Now, many years later, I do wish that I had been less of a pessimist and had at least had given sciences a genuine try. I wish there had been someone to show me that it was possible (it probably was) to become a good science student even though I never felt confident in those subjects. The most critical thing is that I didn't really try.

It's hard to know what you're capable of if you don't challenge yourself. A wonderful organization called the DO Lectures sets up events where speakers talk to a group of people about something that they DO -- be it building schools in underprivileged countries, writing, climbing mountains or raising bees. Their talks are meant to be inspirational, meant to show that almost anything is possible ... once you set your mind to it and put in the time and effort.

ttyl

Jowita

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The "automotive industry" and "job loss" seem to come in the same breath these days. Job loss is certainly a hot topic with talk of whether or not to bail out the US auto industry and the uncertainty of recovery in the American auto makers' sector.

I grew up in a small industrial town in rural Quebec where jobs were scarce. I remember my older sister years ago losing her job as an administrative assistant and being faced with no prospects whatsoever at working at what she was trained in. After a few sessions with a career counsellor, she decided to retrain through a provincial government initiative similar to the present government of Ontario's Second Career program. She chose her new profession from a career sector where there were jobs (like jobs in demand). She signed up for the one-year course at a college 60 km away, packed her bags, found an apartment and said good bye to her past work life. The subsidy she was granted, once her tuition was paid, left her little to live on and she had to use up the small savings that she had. But in the end, she graduated as an aesthetician and found a great job right away at an upscale spa -- mind you she had to move again.

The Canadian Auto Workers' Union and Chrysler, with some financial help from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, set up an Open Action Centre in Brampton this May in order to assist laid-off employees at the Chrysler plant. In an interview with CBC Radio on Nov. 10, Cammie Peirce, head of the Open Action Centre, talked passionately about the hardship that the auto industry employees are going through and the loss of a lifestyle they have grown accustomed to. "There's no way that they are going to find a job making that kind of money. Those kinds of changes are scary," she said. Ms. Peirce also shared that after working 21 years at Chrysler, this is the first time she's been afraid of losing her job. She mentioned how destabilising that feeling is, adding, "I don't know what direction I would take but I know that I would do some kind of retraining as fast as I can."

It seems that with the current economic climate, retraining may be the answer to unemployment. Two thirds of the readers who took our October poll answered that they would be willing to retrain. Would you?

Josée

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Whenever I read something about how to ask for a promotion, it suggests keeping track of your achievements. That way when the time comes, you'll have a whole record of your accomplishments. Hopefully. The reality (at least my reality) is that I never remember to keep track of my achievements. I mean, sure, I remember what they are from time to time, but I hardly ever write down things, like: "So-and-so said she liked my blog today, Nov. 11, 2008 at 9:23 p.m." No, not hardly ever. I never write them down. I'm probably too lazy and can't work out this routine. So then, when it comes time to remember who said what, when and why, I am unable to produce anything to prove that I deserve a raise or promotion.

I used to work for a bank where the manager kept a record of all the praises that staff got from customers, based on which we would get raises or Christmas bonuses. That was the only time I had a concrete proof (other than reference letters) that I did well in my job.

One way to keep track of your achievements (or just day-to-day events), as an article on Jobacle suggests, is to start an online diary that will remind you to do so. You write down five things that happened that day and that's all. My solution (since I eventually worked out one) was to make notes in my daily planner. I am still working on developing the discipline to make a note every time something good happens and I'm slowly getting there.

ttyl

Jowita

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I've been hearing this for ages that soon babyboomers will all be retired, freeing up some spaces for next generations in the job market. But to be honest, I have a hard time imagining my parents, for instance, becoming retirees in a few years. They're both very active and youthful -- they play sports, travel, go to parties. They dress "young" and neither of them has grey hair -- not that it means anything, but they certainly don't look like people who have to stop working because they are too old. My mother laughs when she talks about retiring. She just can't picture herself that way.

The new retirement article on jobboom talks about the new trend among retirees, people over 65, who often decide to keep working anyway. They are often invaluable experienced workers filled with energy. No wonder they are reluctant to "move on" or "free up some space." Why would they? My friend's father worked right until he was 70 and he was a highly competent person. The sad thing was that he had to move from one province to another in order to continue working. The working part wasn't hard at all, but it was the adjustment to the new place that caused him the most trouble. As they say, "age is just a number" and we should just treat it as such, nothing else.

ttyl

Jowita

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There's a certain practice on the Internet that helps to generate article topics based on "searchable" words or phrases that bump sites to the top on search engines. For example, let's say that you have an online business that has a lot of competitors and you want your site to come up on top when a Google search is performed so that people click on your site first. You can generate text for your website that will have popular combinations of words, ones that get searched a lot, like "huge bonuses."

Full disclosure: long time ago, I used to work for a (horrible) company that made its writers use this method to write articles. We writers didn't know what we were doing at first, but once we found out, most of us quit. So when I read the blog posting Need Help Making Your Site Search Engine Friendly?, I felt quite incensed and thought I'd stray away a bit from employment-related news today and make you aware of SEO.

The blog posting doesn't condemn this method so I will do that for them: how are you supposed to trust a website (a writer) that uses this method when writing articles? Would you trust an employment site that used this method? (These are rhetorical questions, naturally.)

Out of curiosity, I searched for the company I used to work for and here's what I found under the description of the SEO service: "Our writers will provide you with content that is written specifically with SEO in mind. They can spin a series of nonsense keywords into a coherent, readable article—transforming your site from babbling keywords into optimized and fully original content [...]. SEO is tricky business, and without the right content you won't be ranked at all."

Jaw-dropping.

ttyl

Jowita

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When I was a kid, I thought being a cashier was the coolest, most glamorous job you could ever have. In fact, I lied to my teachers in preschool and told them my mother was a cashier -- I so wanted to impress them. My parents were called in and we had a long talk about making stuff up. I wondered later: why did I think that a cashier job was the coolest job that there was? Well, my guess is that my four-year-old brain thought it made total sense that the lady who dealt with money all day was rich. I also remember thinking that cashiers were very pretty with nice makeup and fantastic long nails. To me they were princesses with money.

I worked as a cashier years later and it wasn’t like that at all although the job was easy and I enjoyed it while it lasted. Naturally, by then I understood that cashiers really don't get to keep all that money and that the job is not always easy as it often requires you to stand on your feet for long periods of time.

Similarly to the beliefs of a four-year-old, media, specifically TV, often perpetuates myths about certain professions. We end up being envious of rich journalists (Sex in the City), or indie movie stars (Entourage). In the article What Real TV Stars Would Make in Real Life, the author, Rachel Zupek, talks about real-life earnings of TV heroes. And where some professions come out quite favourably (psychiatrists always make a lot of dough), others fail short of what they are portrayed to earn on the screen.

ttyl

Jowita

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Lately, I've had to spend a lot of time on a plane. I don't like flying but last time I flew I was grateful for a certain airline crew that was very professional and friendly and made it all quite a painless adventure. This is not always the case -- I've been on flights where passengers are scolded and barked at, where you want to cower in shame for daring to ask for water, or when you are lectured on the safety of blah blah blah. Anyway, passengers can be quite annoying too, I know, so it's no wonder that not all the members of a flying crew are ecstatic over their job.

But one British Airways crew seemed to go beyond dissatisfied. They formed a Facebook group where they made fun of passengers and called them all kinds of names. The BA Staff Brand Passengers "Smelly" on Facebook Page article lists some of the more interesting epithets that were passed back and forth between the crew ...

Which, by the way, is now no longer a crew, as all 13 members involved in that Facebook fun have been fired.

So, once again: Facebook + Work stuff = Big, fat NO!

ttyl

Jowita

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According to the Globe and Mail's recent article Generation Shocked, people born after 1980 "grew up coddled, courted, spoiled, feeling entitled and figuring the world was their oyster and they’d have an easy career ride." The Gen Yers are allegedly stunned by the recent economic changes and the fact that they have to fight for jobs, worse -- that there may not be any jobs left to fight for. The article talks about how unlike Gen Yers are compared to the self-sufficient Gen X (people in their 30s and 40s). Gen Yers are said to be completely unprepared to deal with the market crunch and have a hard time accepting the fact that they are no longer so special.

I think it's a little harmful to make generalizations about people based on their date of birth. I know smart 23-year-olds who have struggled finding work despite higher education and great references and I know mediocre 40-year-olds who breezed through high-paying careers because they were simply in the right place at the right time. I'm Gen X and I myself had an uneven record with careers -- sometimes working three jobs at once, other times seriously thinking about re-entering the fast-food niche of my teenage years, despite two degrees and great connections, because there was nothing else on the horizon. The present tough economic times and job shortage are a lesson for all of us, regardless of our age and backgrounds.

ttyl

Jowita

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I haven't been laid off for a long time, but I have been out of the workplace for a while because of disability. When I was off I had to deal with a combination of physical pain, no money and lots of unstructured time. I knew that if I didn’t watch out the black dogs of depression could descend on me and eat me alive.

So this is why this month's article, Boost Your Spirits Without Breaking Your Budget, is especially close to my heart. When I was off work I had to take a lot of the actions mentioned in the article otherwise ... well, who knows?

So, I made sure I got up out every day. I also joined a meditation class. I attended support groups; and, when I felt a bit better, I volunteered and took a creative writing class. I also did one other thing -- I attended a Laughter Yoga class as a lark, with a friend. And, after that one class, I made the decision to go back again, and again, and again.

I didn't find too much yoga in Laughter Yoga, but I did find lots of laughter. You had to laugh a lot, in public, and whether you felt like it or not. Being a serious sort, the idea of forcing myself to laugh in front of strangers appealed to me about as much as being eaten by one of those black dogs for breakfast. But I couldn't deny the boost to my endorphins. So I trudged across town each Saturday morning and put up with the awkwardness and embarrassment because in the end it lifted my spirits.

kathyo

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So. We have this blog here at poss.ca to give you news and views on employment, and from what I've been reading having a blog is one way to actually find employment. To be more specific, it should be a blog that relates to a job you're interested in.

So, a great resumé and a cover letter may not be enough any more -- you might need a solid online presence to find your dream job. According to It Takes More Than a Resumé, we have "a techno-savvy world where recruiters search for candidates and job seekers find positions virtually, or in the 'clouds.' It's a world where people speak in terms of Web 2.0 (the trends toward an increasingly interactive Web) and Mobile 2.0."

And, as one expert says, even involving yourself in a discussion on a professional blog may lead to a job, "If you can figure out the top five blogs in your industry and participate in the dialogue, you can be perceived as someone who knows what he is talking about. It is possible to blog your way into a job," says Paul Terlemezian, a president of iFive Alliances LLC and of the Atlanta chapter of the American Society for Training and Development.

Sure, I agree, but who has the time to not only look for a job but to also build and maintain a blog and intelligently comment on other blogs to impress everyone with professional knowledge? I am guessing one has to make the time. It's a brave, new tech-y world out there.

ttyl

Jowita

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