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Structuring a confusing resume

MPnonot3 — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:46:02 -0800

Another resume question. For the past 4 years I've been going back and forth between freelance grip work and a self-started videography business. Where do I place these on my resume? I'm a recent college grad and over the past year and a half I've had your traditional post-college-film-major jobs (kids camp video instructor, unpaid internship at a DVD distribution label, night shift mosquito sprayer around rural Illinois). These have all had firm beginning and end dates and on my resume I've listed the most recent first and go back chronologically from there. So far so good.

What I'm trying to figure out is if I should place the videography business and freelance work "jobs" above these clear cut job jobs since they presently pay the bills and also explain the month or 2 (or 4) long gaps between the more traditional work. These ongoing projects have been on and off for about 4 years and have made the move with me from Philly to Chicago so I'm worried it might look weird having a "Freelance Film and Video Production....Philadelphia, PA;Chicago IL....6/2004 - present" above a "Mosquito Job...Chicago, IL...5/2009 - 8/2009" for reasons of the massive date/location overlaps.

This is geared to a more general resume for marketing positions, administrative positions, anything, etc. I already have a production resume that lists all my projects individually that I use for freelance gigs.

So where should I put these general jobs that span years and states?

I want a job with you, just not right now.

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:24:02 -0800

I want to have a coffee with some potential employers, but they might think it is a job interview. How I can eloquently backstep this sticky situation? I seem to have gotten myself into a rather sticky situation.

I am an advanced grad student in field X. In a week I am taking a trip to Los Angeles and staying for an entire month (for my boyfriend's job). To make the trip worth my while, I asked a close friend if there was anyone in field X in LA that I should meet while I am there.

Without my knowledge my friend then sent out about a dozen emails to people in field X in LA basically claiming that I am graduating in a month and am looking to meet with people in LA. The email implies I am looking for a job.

The thing is, while I will definitely be looking for a job in LA eventually, I am only graduating in two years.

A few people have already emailed me about meeting "for a talk", and I am worried they are considering it a preliminary job interview or something.

I would love to meet these people, and knowing them might get my foot in the door so I can get a job in two years, but I certainly don't want to start our meeting with them thinking I am looking for a job right now.

How can I still meet with the people while politely taking back my friend's claims about looking for a job right now?

Hotel Uniform November Tango

itstheclamsname — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:55:14 -0800

I'm creating a scavenger hunt for friends and family, and the first step for participants is to figure out what they're looking for through a series of riddles, codes, and puzzles. I'm looking for fun ways to encode or otherwise obfuscate the clues. The clues (objects or signs the participants must find) are generally single words or short phrases, like "mermaid," "bird decoy," "the words 'great fun'" and "lighthouse." Each one will be the answer to a puzzle of some sort. The teams include both kids and adults, so I'm particularly interested in obfuscation techniques that are fun to figure out and don't require a lot of time or outside resources.

Some ideas I'm using are a rebus, a substitution code, and hiding the clue in a find-a-word puzzle. What other riddling means can I employ?

Where can a person find a tiny handy netbook around here?

amtho — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:57:13 -0800

probably-hopeless-filter: Where can I find an 8.9" netbook with a "real" HD (not solid-state) running linux in a store? I'm in Chapel Hill, willing to go to Raleigh, Durham, Hillsborough, Cary, Apex, wherever (Charlotte or Greensboro would be too far). I've checked all the obvious-to-me places. Places I've checked: Intrex (in Chapel Hill), Staples, Office Depot, Sam's Club, Target, Best Buy @ Southpoint. I've looked at web sites for other vendors. I also looked at Craigslist.

I want to try one in person, running linux, before I purchase it, so ordering online isn't going to do it for me.

I e-mailed Acer's customer support and they were unhelpful.

I do believe I want an 8.9" model; my fingers are small enough that the size is fine for typing, and this would be mainly for travel.

I don't know why I can't think two steps ahead...

Anonymous — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:03:25 -0800

How do I get references for a second job (one I'd leave my current job for, not a concurrent one)? I swear this question has been asked before, but I can't find it! Please help.

I got my first professional job out of grad school (a thesis-based MS in engineering) with only my advisor as a reference. He did not find the job for me; I found it through a relative. I'm still here, but a couple of years later, I'm feeling a bit restless and even though my company is massive, most of its opportunities seem to be of the paper-pushing rather than actual engineering sort and I'd sort like to go elsewhere and see a different environment.

Problem: I can't let people at my current job know I'd like to look outside the company (particularly because my manager has stated my retention as one of his goals) and I'm being asked for work references. My internship and undergrad experiences were more than 6 years ago, and I've totally lost contact with my supervisors from then (what an idiot 19 year old I was)...

---(1A) Is it odd to use my MS advisor again as a reference 2.5 years out of grad school?
---(1B) If not, what's the best way to approach him for this, since things haven't changed much for me professionally in the past couple of years (no real updates needed) and I felt weird just emailing to say hello? I believe we got along well, and he would remember me without prompting since our department was small and he didn't get a ton of grad students, but our relationship was not as close as say, that of a PhD student and his advisor.
---(2) What should I do about a work reference for my current job? I have a coworker in another department, but the same office whom I would trust to keep quiet, and another couple of coworkers from my [small] group whom have moved elsewhere in the company, but we're all at the same authority and work level. Would these references highly frowned upon by future employers? I'd be happy to furnish a copy of my very positive annual review in lieu of a reference.
---(3) How can I force myself to be better about staying in touch with coworkers, advisors, etc so I can worry less about this in the future? I'm rather introverted, and I feel this has harmed me throughout my life, and will continue to do so if I don't take some good, measured action here.

Best apartment search engines for Toronto?

kate blank — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:26:25 -0800

Where can I find a decent one-bedroom apartment in Toronto that is NOT in a basement? I've been looking for an apartment in Toronto for about a month or so. It seems like there are tons of apartments but so many of them are in basements, which is an absolute no-go for me.

Neither Craigslist or Kijiji have an option (that I know of) that can exclude basement apartments from search results. Do you know of any apartment search sites for Toronto that will let me exclude basements? Failing that, got a decent one-bedroom near the subway for $1000 a month or under?

(And yes: I know that viewit.ca has an option to exclude basements, but so far, I haven't found anything good there.)

Find and delete hidden files on Mac

wavejumper — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 13:12:33 -0800

Help me find and delete hidden files on my Mac! I've been using the program Graphics Converter to try to make a large .MOV slideshow out of 1500 JPEG images. It keeps crashing because it runs out of disc space (I think that's why anyway), and then I end up with even less hard drive space available...it's leaving hidden temporary files behind. I've narrowed them down to somewhere in my System folder...about 13 gigs worth, but I can't actually see them. How do I locate them and clean them out?

Remember Name that Tune? Here's the Itunes version. Only without prizes or a host in an ugly sportscoat

rileyray3000 — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:06:11 -0800

Help me identify the LAST unknown songs on my Itunes. Mostly jazz, some blues and one or two pop songs. These are the last 20 unknown songs in my Itunes library. I know neither the artist or the song title. While I'd LOVE the album too, it's more important to get the other two things first. Here's a link to the songs in a fun flashy format

The SONGS

Some of the songs I think should be easy for a more eclectic musicologist than myself. But for the jazz numbers, a specialist is going to be needed I think. Most of the songs are of the bebop variety. I don't need every sideman, but I'd love the main artist and the song. That should get me most of the way.

So that's it team. Do what you can. Thanks.

Mefi High School Football Rules!

Help me find a book on fictional folk, with a super secret prize!

The Giant Squid — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:42:32 -0800

I'm trying to recall a (likely) out-of-print book. It was released in the eighties (or perhaps very early nineties). It was largely a comedic/humorous encyclopedia of various forms of fictional characters (fairies, dwarves, elves, etc). But... with a twist Apparently along with the book came a contest, in which some sort of secret treasure is/was buried someplace on the Earth's surface. If you correctly decrypted the clues scattered throughout the book, you would uncover the treasure, which, I believe at the time, was some flavor of cash prize.

I'm sorry I can offer nothing else. I stumbled upon the book in a cabin during a family trip somewhere in Mississippi, around 1993. At that time, the contest was over, I'm just curious as to what happened with that little book, and if there was ever a winner.

DC Scavhunt!

milestogo — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:24:04 -0800

DC Mefites! Help me plan my scavenger hunt in Washington, DC I am running a scavenger hunt in Washington DC (for 6 groups of 10 campers). I have a list of 30 great scavenger hunt ideas, but they are location-neutral. I would like to add 10 Washington-specific challenges/things to find/do, etc.

The (15 yo) kids will be going around the mall area and beyond with digital cameras, so the objective can be to find some specific location or take a certain type of picture with a certain type of person. The more Washington-y the objective, the better. I am not familiar with Wash, DC so I couldn't come up with any questions that relate directly to the district. The rest of my questions are scavhunt style and I would be overjoyed if the washington ones were as well.

Thanks so much!

How can I use RFIDs and some sort of detector to create a city-wide treasure hunt?

ab5000 — Wed, 09 May 2007 08:13:31 -0800

How can I use RFIDs and some sort of detector to create a city-wide treasure hunt? For my wife's birthday, I'd like to create a treasure hunt around the city we live in (Boston), taking us to different places we've gone. Is it possible to buy some sort of wand/detector/geiger counter type thingy that I can use to find the clues? I was thinking of something involving RFIDs that would make the device beep louder as we got closer (within a reasonable distance, like 30 feet or something). That way I could hide clues at different places and not have to worry about the impossible-ness of finding them. Is this at all possible?

They wouldn't be big clues, probably just a sheet of paper folded in half, in an envelope, either taped to a wall or something, or being held by a person at a restaurant or hotel or something. Is that enough room to put the RFID thing in? I really have no idea how this all would work technically, but I think that the concept is cool! If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

Should I call about a job, again?

badger11 — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 14:20:55 -0800

There's a job I really, really want. I spoke with HR today and I was told that any decisions could be made starting next week. Should I call again next week? I submitted my resume last week for this position. Today, I called to do a follow up and managed to briefly talk to someone in HR about the position. I was told that there was a a big response and that the hiring manager is reviewing resumes. The manager probably won't be making any decisions until next week at the earliest. Unfortunately, no one in my "network" has any connections to this company.

Besides sitting on pins and needles, what should my next step be? Should I call again next week in addition to my job search or should I forget it and keep on with my search?

Why Can't He Find A Job?

Teevee's Bella — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:21:49 -0800

My boyfriend's fresh out of college, and is having a really hard time finding work in his field (graphic design). My boyfriend's fresh out of college. He's been having a really hard time finding work in his field (graphic design), although -- by all accounts -- he's incredibly talented. In the three or so months that he's been job-hunting, he's had one interview, this with a major Seattle staffing agency recruiter who professed to be very impressed with his portfolio. The guy said he'd definitely be able to find my boyfriend work, but my boyfriend never heard back from him after the initial interview, and the recruiter failed to answer any emails or voice mails.

We both suspect it's because he's short on actual work experience (save for some freelance design gigs for local politicians and a now-defunct commercial website, and some intermittent production assistant work for friends who used to host a television show). He's growing more and more depressed each day, and it's stressing us both out.

Any ideas on how an inexperienced but talented graphic artist can get his foot in the door of a company so that he might finally begin his career? He's got a great online portfolio and an excellent cover letter (if I do say so myself, since I wrote it!), but we think it's his resume holding him back.

I've suggested career fairs, other agencies, a ton of various job boards and even the career center at his alma mater. He focuses mainly on Craigslist, with glimpses here and there are CareerBuilder and one or two other sites. He seems hesitant to try something new, and I suspect that his confidence is waning so much that he's scared even to try. (I've even suggested getting a part-time retail job so that he can bring in some money and gain some legit work experience while he keeps looking for a job in his field, but he hates the idea.)

I'd be eternally grateful for some sound advice -- whether it be about finding a job, or coping with the stress of a job search.

Thanks so much!

Was it just a bad acid trip?

hobocode — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 13:20:20 -0800

I'm working on a story idea which involves the European witch hunts in the middle of the last millennium. I have read that they may have been caused, in part, by mass hallucinations resulting from a fungal infection on the rye crop. Rye ergot is an ingredient in the manufacture of LSD. Is there anyone who can point me to some research (valid or not) which might confirm/deny the mass hallucination angle?

Planning and participating in a scavenger hunt.

thebabelfish — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:58:33 -0800

Today I thought of staging a team scavenger hunt among our friends at the end of school in June. The idea was mostly mine, and as such, I'm the most likely planner and organizer for the whole activity. I'm perfectly up to the challenge, but the problem is I'd also like to participate in the hunt. I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a way, possibly involving another person(s) also participating in the hunt, which would allow me to plan and organize the event (taking creating care of clues and/or placing specific objects, etc) and also participate on a team without creating an unfair advantage. Anyone have an idea on how to accomplish this, or if it's even possible? I'm thinking getting someone to do all the planning and organizing without wanting to participate would be hard, which is why I'm asking this question. Should I just settle for trying to outsource the work to someone else or not participating?