Save me from my Job!

October 4, 2006 8:38 AM

JobFilter: How do I find a new job ?

I need to get my foot in the door of another field of work. I am finding that the jobs that I have been applying for are only hiring people with experience , etc. This includes office work, assistants, or anything related.

I worked for one job for four years while going to college, dropped out of school, and became a flight attendant. I have recently realised that the job is eating away at my soul, so I have been desperately trying to find a way out.

My resume seems to lack in my opinion. I have the four years at Trader Joes, one year at the airline, and no college degree. Hell, I can't even get an interview to show off my charming self. I have pounded pavement all over NYC, sent my resume out online, and still nothing.

How can I find another job with my no experience?

posted by thesiameseffect to work & money (12 comments total)

What kind of job are you looking for? Tailor your resume to highlight work experience relevant to your field of interest. Do you have a cover letter? If not, make one immediately to further explain your relevant experiences and why you're a great candidate for the job you're applying to.

Do you have any contacts in the field that are even remotely capable of getting your package to HR? If so, do that. That's one sure-fire way that a human being actually sees your resume.

Has a professional resume-writer or someone in the field of interest seen your resume and commented on it? If not, get some real advice. I went to a career fair once and saw lots of resumes that looked like laundry lists of activities. Those kinds of resumes suck because they don't highlight your accomplishments in a meaningful way.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 8:52 AM on October 4, 2006

How about trying a temp. agency? They will probably need a good resume but will do the legwork to find you an opportunity. Many temp. positions become permanent after a period of time.
posted by rglass at 8:55 AM on October 4, 2006

Get experience by temping. Office Team has worked for me and my friends in the past, and they will help you with your resume, and offer some software training.

I think that the kind of entry-level office work that you'd be qualified for will probably pay less than flight-attending, and you'll have to accept that cut if you want to break into the world of desk-work.

Talk to a few temp agencies, and ask about how to get around your incomplete degree. Maybe starting at a big corporation means you can be promoted internally so your work experience and reliability overshadow your lack of degree.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 9:04 AM on October 4, 2006

I can totally sympathize, having moved here in about the same shape about 4 years ago.

A temp agency really IS the best way to go. A lot of places that normally would never have hired you will do so after you've temped there. My sister just moved here and has zero office experience, but within a week she was working at the corporate office for Ralph Lauren as their main receptionist-- and she didn't even do so hot on the MS Word and Excel tests the agency gave her.

Crraigslist is so hot/cold. If you spend tons of time inquiring about jobs through craigslist, you should rethink your strategy, as people who post there get absolutely flooded with responses. It's so easy to dump a huge amount of time into it and not get a single call back. In this city, nothing beats showing up in person.

If I were you I would also go to as many large hotels as possible and ask to speak to their recruiters or HR. Have a resume ready. With experience as a flight attendant you may strike them as a useful asset. Or it may eat your soul. YMMV.

My email is in my profile if you want the name of the agency my sister used, or other recommendations.
posted by hermitosis at 9:11 AM on October 4, 2006

I've always had great luck with little-to-no experience at a temp. agency - this was 4 years ago in Northern California. They always seem to be looking for people willing to do that sort of office drudgery - if you have any typing skills and know your alphabet, they can probably place you. However, it generally takes a lot of determination - in my experience, temp. agencies first try to place employees who have proven themselves to be reliable and ready-to-work, so you need to do just this. I generally had to work a couple of oddball jobs (stocking shelves at a store pre-launch, working as a filing clerk for the city) before getting temp-to-perm offers. The pay was generally above minimum wage, but not by much.

Also, call them a lot. You're not bugging them, you're keeping your name fresh in their mind.
posted by muddgirl at 9:13 AM on October 4, 2006

http://www.indeed.com
posted by sdrawkcab at 9:15 AM on October 4, 2006

I have pounded pavement all over NYC, sent my resume out online, and still nothing.

Time to network. If you want to get places, there always comes a time when you have to somehow get a job you're not actually quite qualified for. The best way to do this is to use your relationships with people, the trust they have for you, to get a chance to prove yourself. Sending out the resume isn't going to help you. Start talking to people.
posted by scarabic at 9:24 AM on October 4, 2006

There are a number of recent AskMes with advice about how to change jobs/get a job in NYC - try searching for these tags: job, jobsearch, employment, unemployed, resume, cover letter, NYC, New York, temp...
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:42 AM on October 4, 2006

I am going to second scarabic's comment. Since most positions are never even really advertised, networking is an essential technique to finding a new position.
posted by dcjd at 1:00 PM on October 4, 2006

Consider finishing your Bachelor's degree.
posted by dudeman at 1:55 PM on October 4, 2006

Networking: yes.

Really, the only way you're going to get a job without experience is through the generosity and understanding of human beings. Everyone knows that people can do most jobs in a transitional capacity; no one actually hires for that, because they rarely have to. (Nursing and teaching elementary schools in the ghetto are the exceptions)

Finish degree: yes.

If you can do this, it'll help you dodge problems down the line. At this point, in the professional world, not having the BS or BA is like not having a HS diploma. "X credits from graduating" is a mouthful that no hiring manager will accept if they don't know you. (See #1 above)

Call temp agencies: NO!!!

(this gets rant-y) Or rather, get the suit ready, call 20-30 of them, take their typing tests in two/three days, and then see what is thrown your way. It likely won't be much. You're lucky if your first assignment has you working more time than you put into the temp agency interviews, and REALLY lucky if it pays you a living wage per-hour. Accept only work with growing companies, and work that pays well; try to avoid work that isn't structured in some god-awful timeframe ("Only Wednesdays-Fridays from 11am to 4pm, for the next 4 weeks") unless you know it's just a sit-down freelance assignment, as many of the temp positions are. Use your instincts; after the first couple of one-day and fill-in assignments, you know what will be a dud and what will be a great opportunity. You're going to get offered a lot of duds. Also, "temp-to-perm" is usually a lie they present to you to get you to work a job you wouldn't have taken otherwise - there's no obligation on their part to see that happen, so they tend not to care if they mislead you. And finally: calling to follow up will get you nowhere but embarassed; they will tell you gently, and then not-so-gently, that you should not call them. They only operate over the phone with people who have been selected for positions; they have nothing to say to prospective candidates who have signed up for duty but have not found it yet. (It may behoove you, though, to follow up once a month to keep your name in the database. Twice a day will infuriate them, and they will do you no favors.)

The new breed of staffing agency likes to post jobs on Craigslist and Careerbuilder when possible, in case you're having trouble dealing directly with the reps. They also tend to memory-erase themselves of anyone coming off of a long-term assignment due to the hassle of keeping a stable of workers. It's just easier to use the computer system to find resumes online and recruit new workers. In my experience, I've worked for agencies for months, have been told by my staffing reps that there is NO work for me and have had my calls dropped by the operator, only to find a week later that they've messaged me on Careerbuilder with one of their auto-generated pseudonymns (the latest in recruiting technology: advertising jobs under false contact names so that they can drop all follow-up calls once the positions are filled) asking for my resume and cover letter. Which they should already have, but seem to have lost permanently!

So, umm, if you're willing to deal with Grade A Prime BS, and you don't mind being thrown away like a wet-nap after working their depressing assignments, then give it a try and expect much of the above. If you're looking for temp-to-perm, or if you're looking to prove yourself as a quality worker, you're going to have to work freelance for actual businesspeople and ignore the staffing companies. Working freelance is a form of networking: see #1 above.

All that said, freelance work and (to some degree) networking require that you decide what you are looking to do first, then train yourself to do it, and then offer it through ads or word of mouth. I get the feeling that you're not at that point, yet. Good luck finding your path; you can always ask another question on AskMeFi, "What career is good right now?"
posted by brianvan at 4:45 PM on October 4, 2006

I would recommend temp work as well. I did my share of one day blow-off assignments, but I've also been offered a permanent job at almost every place I temped for over a week. And I don't mean that they made the temp position into a permanent position--I went from doing data entry in a cube to having my own office and managing a major publishing company project, for example. I can say this as someone who has both temped and hired temps for various companies--most people you get from agencies are very low-quality workers for one reason or another. The ones who have potential stand out pretty fast, and I always started looking around for permanent places for them in the organization.

It can be hard to get work as a temp at first, and the interview and testing process can be somewhat degrading. There are some things that can help make temping easier.

First, brush up on your MS Office skills before you go in for the interview. The key to getting work as a temp is high scores on the tests. It's all basic stuff you can get in online tutorials for free, but you'll get higher-paying assignments if your scores are higher.

Register with multiple agencies at a time. I always had resumes in at two or three temp agencies. That way, if one wasn’t giving me assignments, I could always call another. Also, find out how often you can call about work and call that often. I called my agency every day, first thing in the morning if I wasn’t on an assignment. Checking back once a month isn’t enough to get your resume at the top of the pile. The key thing with temp agencies is to show them that you’re not some kind of freak—regular contact with the agency lets them get to know you. Also, let the agency know you’re available on short notice. I got the aforementioned job in publishing because I was available at an hour’s notice at ten a.m. for an assignment.

Be willing to take short-term assignments at first. It may seem like a one or two-day assignment is a waste of your time when you’re looking for a permanent job, but they serve two purposes. First, they are a way for the temp agency to test you out. Second, companies love it when they get a reliable, competent temp. They will write down your name, and they will request you next time. Also, don’t worry about only taking temp-to-perm assignments. Any assignment can become a permanent one if the company you temp at likes you enough.

Temping is a great way to survey a lot of different industries if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for—I temped in ad agencies, real estate companies, human resources, publishing, international shipping, commercial photography, etc. If you’re hardworking and intelligent, you’ll be offered permanent positions left and right.
posted by gokart4xmas at 6:33 PM on October 4, 2006