Back to Jobsearchland

Good Day Blogger world!

Once again I have been an absentee. To rectify that I've come back with nothing particularly new to tell you. The job hunt continues. I have recently been handed a link to another potential job. Walk with me as I explore this new lead.

Seasonal, but well paid. Buzz words "fast-paced" and "dynamic" in their usual use of describing the work place. Looks as if I qualify. Haven't got much extra to boast, but I qualify. Candidates will be required to complete a security screening process. Should be fun. Seems they're looking for the business-minded, leadership-oriented type of candidate, and I'm more than willing to fake it 'till I make it...or don't. I will also be required to pass pre-employment tests. Looking forward to those too. Really. I'll be required to present a character reference letter. Can't remember the last (or possibly even the first) time I was asked for one of those. I'm assuming that's in the case of an interview.

Let the games begin.

"This job is not a permanent full time job. We cannot guarantee when you will work or how often you will work. This job is for on-call casual employment. Are you still interested?"

I pretty much have to be. Full-time work is the unicorn of today's job market.

"Do you have the ability to lift up to 22.7 kgs (50 lbs) and carry up to 15.9 kgs (35 lbs)?"

Clearly I need to start hitting the weights, if only to figure out how much I am currently capable of lifting.

"You have been moved to two different area's and you are close to the end of your shift and you are asked to move again. What would you do?"

I have no idea what this would entail or how it would effect what I'm doing or when I leave. The truth of the matter, in any case, is that I'll probably be going along with it.

"What is the main reason you applied to this position?"

Mortgage money. Probably should have chosen something better sounding that "Prefer not to say", but it was an option....

These are just a few of the questions I must consider.  All told, it's not too arduous.  Inevitably, I am creating yet another profile. This calls for another resume. I remove my most recent stint in retail from my work history with a certain satisfaction, as though it had never been there at all.  Only the good stuff belongs on this page.

"My primary career interest". Is not on the list. Perhaps they mean at this particular place. Employers do have a way of implying that the only candidates they want to see are the ones that want the job they're offering more than anything in the world. Optional question, thank goodness.

Alright, t'is done. Another foray into jobsearchland completed.

I have not grown to like this process any better, but I'll keep at it until I land something permanent or manage to get on my feet some other way. This will be my motivation - once I'm on my feet I won't have to fill out job applications anymore ^_^.

In other news, I've been entering the weekly contests on Spoonflower.  Haven't won anything yet, but it's worth it to have some new designs in my library. Here's the one I'm entering for the next contest:



As I write this, I also have an entry in the current contest, which will probably close tomorrow: 

Feel free to go over to Spoonflower and vote! Always worth checking out! :)

I'll end tonight with a Facebook haiku.  I believe I've posted these here before. The process was invented by my Mom, where you take statuses and pieces of statuses posted by people on your Facebook feed and put them together to form a haiku. It can be very entertaining. ^_^

I watched the debate
New season, 1st episode
It is bad enough

'Till next time, Blogger world!

Do I really have to sign up for everything?

February 16th 2013:  Priorities... by ~Eseopia on deviantART

February 15th 2013:  Another Day... by ~Eseopia on deviantART

February 14th 2013:  Wriggley Oversees... by ~Eseopia on deviantART

Hello blogger world!

I'm trying to edit this entry to make it sound more civilized.  I am writing today with regards to the amount of signing up that is involved in job hunting these days.  Some places still accept a resume and cover letter and let you let that be that.  Others, as I may have mentioned before, have full-on psych exams to fill out so they can make a profile of you, to go with your resume of course.  Ideally, this makes it so that if you want to apply for multiple jobs, you can just select whichever ones you want and they do the rest.  What really bothers me is the number of passwords I have out there.

There are a number of things you may have to sign up for during your job hunt.  With some places, you just have to create a profile with the company itself.  This on its own can lead to quite a few profiles depending on where and how many places you apply.  Some companies hire through job search/hiring sites like CareerBeacon.com.  This can potentially cut back on the number of passwords you need to create, but only when applying for jobs at places that hire through the site.  And of course, you have to sign up for the site itself.

One thing that has become a little bit irksome for me is when I find a job I want to apply for on one of these sites, only to find that it's been posted by another, similar site, who is doing the hiring for said company.  In theory it's good to have profiles on 2 sites instead of one, but I've often found the second site to be a little more weakly structured, and honestly, it's just one more layer of 'security' I don't feel comfortable being compelled to deal with.

Beyond that, I recently discovered a new potential layer of password-guarded security.  While applying for jobs at Michael's (arts and crafts), I was required to create a profile with PeopleAnswers (the site that created the questionnaire I had to fill out for my Michael's).  Granted, this ultimately made it easier to apply for job openings, but it occurs to me that my information is getting spread around quite a bit in an age where information is a hot commodity.

So let's review:  There's the company itself one may have to sign up for, and the job search site that lead you to that company (and potentially the job search site that posted on that job search site on behalf of that company), and even, potentially, the company that created the questionnaire you must fill out in order to create a profile on the original company's site.  So far I haven't run across that many levels of passwords, but in theory, it could very easily happen.

On that note, it's easy to feel gypped when job searching.  I can't help thinking someone out there (probably a few someones) are making money on my efforts to find gainful employment.  I'd like to be making money too here.  Every site I have to sign up on starts looking like a password guarded information eater.  Maybe I should ditch the job hunt and start an internet job search engine.

So that's been my pet peeve of late.  Thanks for reading!  :)

'Till next time, blogger world!

Venturing into the Talent Industry

February 9th - Coin Belt,... by ~Eseopia on deviantART

February 8th - Rise Above by ~Eseopia on deviantART

February 7th - Time for Questions by ~Eseopia on deviantART

The game of catch-up continues.  In fact, what follows is a draft entry from a few months ago :P.  Enjoy!

Good Day Blogger world!

In addition to a few more entries to my picture-within-picture daily journal, I bring you another scenario from my job-searching experience.

I am creating a profile on Hennessey Casting.  This is fairly new experience for me, despite the fact that I've accumulated more than a few years of dance training.  I've been training as though I will ultimately audition for something, though my forays into actual auditions have been few as yet.

Understandably, Hennessey wants to know more about me than the typical recruitment site.  My dress size is something I'm going to have to do a little research on (I suspect they don't mean department-store vanity sizing).  There is also "Leg size".  I can only assume they mean length, and I'm uncertain where to start from.  Maybe they mean inseam.

So far this is kind of fun.  I get to talk about the things I like to do, like singing and dancing :).  I consider myself a competent singer, and years of training have given me dance abilities.  I'll have to make up a resume specifically for this - a res-CV of sorts.  I'll also have to get together some good photos of myself.  They need at least 2, and I know I at least have that many.  Hopefully I can give them a good idea of what I look like and what I do.

I'm non-union and self-represented.  Not sure what that'll do for my chances.  Doesn't exactly scream 'experience', but it's the truth.  The final multiple-choice question is "Are you human".  In any other context I'd take this as a security question, though in this case I suspect they recruit performing animals as well.

The last section to fill out is "More Wonderful Details about ME".  It says, "So, what's your 'thang'?  Fire Breathing?  Figure Skating?  Stunts?  Thirty hot dogs in under a minute?  I want to know!".  This section seems to be open to interpretation.  I try to think of what, specifically, a caster would be looking for.  Here's what I came up with:

"I am a visual artist, singer, and dancer with better-than-average flexibility.  I can do full splits, left or right leg, with front leg on 2 yoga blocks (full middle splits are also possible for me, but only after considerable warm-up).  I can bend backwards into bridge from a standing position."

I really ought to have paid more attention to this category of employment.  This is the first site like this that I've come across.  So far it seems very user-friendly.  Time will tell if it turns up anything, but it's not like I've had significantly better luck with other recruitment sites.  I'll have to explore more of those with you in future blog posts.  For now, I think I'll wrap this one up, hoping for some opportunities to come from my favorite sector - the cultural one.

Later Blogger world :)!

PS:  Taken aback that the Hennessey Casting website gives a non-existent physical address.  Went to all the trouble of signing up, so I guess I'll stay there a little while at least.  The twitter feed seems to have legit casting ops.  The phoney address is the only thing that throws me off, really.

Catch Up and Job Hunt

Good Day, Blogger world!

(I started this entry a while ago, so bear with me.  Most of it was written earlier today, and only edited just now.)

I actually just got back from Cayo Coco, Cuba.  Hadn't counted on having zero internet access for most of the week, so I am REALLY playing catch up now.  At this particular moment in time, I have gotten caught up on another online job application process.  Wasn't the first thing on my to-do list, but I have to grab these things as they go by.

Job application in the digital age is always more time-consuming than you think - kind of a series of nesting-doll steps, where you don't know where or when the process will end.  Time was you just passed in a resume.  These days you have to create a site profile just to apply to work in a store.  That's how this all started.  I saw the ad on Facebook:  The Home Depot, looking for workers.  Sounds not bad.  I go to the site, from which I can apply to any Home Depot in the country. With some business you can apply to locations in other countries, but I guess The Home Depot is more of a down home type of outfit.

At first it looked pretty straight forward:  Create a profile, upload a resume, write a little cover letter...discover my references list is crooked because one 'tab' is off, even though I've corrected it repeatedly >_<.  Hit back, find that the information I entered just now has disappeared, (had intended to copy the fresh new cover letter I was typing, so of course that didn't happen), get frustrated, give up, go back to the resume screen, submit it as is and hope the original cover letter made it too....I'm currently at the part where the "machine" has tried (unsuccessfully), to fill in my work history from my resume.  This might take longer than I thought.

Now I've gotten to the "Education" section.  Better try on the part of the machine.  I must fill in the name of the institution, then the "Subject or Area of Study", "Qualification", and grad year.  The term "Qualification" threw me just a bit.  The machine had chosen the word "BACHELOR" for this slot.  Just "BACHELOR".  So I'm going to assume they mean the qualification I achieved (ie, what I earned).  Sometimes you have to interpret.  I think they'll understand, though sometimes I wonder if there's any "they" to "understand".  The way the machine has interpreted my resume, I must think (and hope) that there is.

There is the constant reminder that by pressing "next" I am submitting the Home Depot Privacy Policy.  That's another potential time sink - the Terms and Conditions, followed by the Privacy Policy.  I generally give these a look, but not much more.  It is ever so slightly infuriating when certain sites (so far not this one) feel the need to tell you that you "MUST" read these terms to know what you're agreeing to.  Terms that could easily take at least an hour to read.  Terms not designed for the human mind to take in and process in one, two or even three tries.  There must actually be that many people out there looking for a loop hole, or else we are all just hopelessly entangled in a web of fine print.  In the meantime, I have a job to apply for.

OK, on too...a questionaire.   What kind of employment am I seeking.  Full Time, Part Time, Temporary/Contract, or "Flexible".  Since I can only choose one, I'm taking a chance on "Flexible".  I'm hoping this is similar to "All of the above", because I'd like to keep my options open.  Now they want to know how effective their recruitment techniques are.  How did I hear about this job?  The list is lengthy - The Home Depot is not one to be left out of the loop.  They have a list of possibilities beginning with "Online".  "Online - JobBoom.com", "Online - Monster.ca", "Online - Workopolis",...I'll have to go with "Online - Other (banner, ad, adword)".  OK, almost done, I think.  Yes, I do, once again, consent to the Privacy Policy.

"Please Answer a few additional questions".

It's a survey, and it's optional.  *Procrastinates on Deviantart*

I'll bite.  It's an equal opportunity survey.  Questions pertaining to my gender, ethnic background, whether I am disabled or otherwise challenged... and that's it.  Short, which is nice.


Overall, the Home Depot application process was not bad.  They have me on file now, so hopefully that'll make other applications easier.

The new job market can be by turns amusing and infuriating.  It's convenient to be able to do some much online, but harder to know where one's information is going.  Some of the recruitment techniques out there seem a little extreme, like the veritable psych test that began the last Chapters/Indigo/Smithbooks application I filled out.  Then there are those ads that are big on pep talks but never quite get around to telling you things like the name of the company or what, specifically, the job is.  These are just some of the things I get to thinking about while on the hunt for additional income.

Well, this ended up being a long one.  Thanks for reading to the end, and for visiting my humble blog :).  Later Blogger world!