Thank God for Training

In my last post, I mentioned that I was interviewing for a volunteer position. Since then, I have completed my interview, survived training and orientation, and even worked a partial shift. This Wednesday will be my first full shift.

The whole process has made me realize how well some organizations train their employees and how poorly some others prepare their employees. The Newseum, my new place of volunteer-ployment, definitely falls into the former category. As a visitor services volunteer, I received a full 8-hour day of orientation, plus two 4.5-hour shifts of training.

I have to admit I was  a little nervous about the orientation — 8 hours of sitting in a classroom being oriented to a new job doesn’t exactly sound excited — but I was very impressed with the whole process once it started. 

Sticky Points

Since I moved home from Chestnut Hill last August, I’ve been mostly unemployed. The only work I have had has been blogging, which can be done from a distance and does not require going to an office. While I’ve been trying to look for a job this whole time, I haven’t actually turned in all that many applications, and the ones I have turned in have not resulted in any calls, let alone interviews.

Suffice it to say, I’m a little out of practice for interviews.

Therefore, I’m a bit nervous about an interview I have this afternoon, even though it’s only for a volunteer position. Mostly I’m nervous just because it has been so long. I’m also nervous, though, that they’ll wonder what I’ve been doing this past year, since there isn’t much to show for it on my résumé, or that they’ll think there’s something wrong with me, since I graduated college at the top of my class but am still unemployed a year later.

A Dearth of Jobs?

Today my Google Reader was filled with an apparent contradiction: in one category were more than 3,300 job postings since Friday, while another category contained links to two illustrations of the current dearth of new jobs.

The first illustration I found was from GOOD magazine:

The infographic illustrates, on the left, the 218,000 private employer jobs created in April and, on the right, the 41,000 private employer jobs created in May. Not a good sign.

The second illustration I found was from the CalculatedRISK blog:

The chart illustrates the percent of job losses during all the post-World War II recessions. As you can see, our recovery progress in this recession is not doing as well as previous recessions.

Super Cool Job of the Day: The Resorter

The job of “Resorter” at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If chosen, you’ll get paid to live at the resort from July 1st through the end of August, eating 3 gourmet meals a day and documenting your experience.

The requirements include that you be:

• Social media savvy. (Who in our generation isn’t?)
• A recreational photographer/videographer. (With the capabilities of point-and-shoot cameras today, that should be a breeze.)
• Interested in resort activities — fine dining, hiking, biking, golfing…
• Skilled at writing. (After all, your real job is documenting and promoting the resort’s amenities.)

If this sounds like your dream job, and you’re over the age of 21, then what are you waiting for?

Job Search Tips

By now, you’re (hopefully) aware of the job search resources available through Chestnut Hill’s Career Development office. The downside of having so many available resources, though, is that it can be hard to figure out where to start. That’s where I come in. Having been on the job hunt for more than a year now, I’ve gathered up a few tips and tricks to help you make the most of your job search.

One year and counting…

Some people like to say that there aren’t any jobs available right now. I can tell you that that’s not at all true. Each day, I sift through more than 1,500 job listings — and those are just jobs that are in my region and/or the fields I’m interested in entering. What is true, though, is that it can be difficult in this economy to find a job for which you’re both qualified and interested.

I graduated from CHC in 2009 with a self-designed major in Publication & Culture. (Yes, you can design your own major and no, it’s not the easy way out — you still have to take just as many upper-level courses.) By designing a major that included courses in writing, editing, design, and advertising, as well as courses in philosophy, anthropology, and psychology, I hoped to cover all the aspects of the publication industry so I could, potentially, obtain any publication-industry job. So far, it’s served me well: I’ve interned on the web-side of a tween magazine, written for a trivia magazine’s blog, designed the iPlan for CHC, and worked in the marketing department of a university.

Unfortunately, those jobs were all part-time or temporary, leaving me mostly unemployed since last August. For the last year, I’ve been searching for jobs on all the usual sites (Monster, Yahoo!, and Student Central) and setting up RSS feeds so I don’t miss a single listing. I have to admit I’ve gotten distracted now and then with personal projects and the plans for my upcoming wedding. Still, I’ve submitted more than a few applications and résumés.