>
>
>
>
>Even though they may not have "Officially Listed"
>openings, it probably couldn't hurt to put in
>applications. ( thats how I got my job).
>
Yes. This is an excellent and often very successful technique,
especially with small and mid-size companies. Many years ago I spent a
short time working for an employment agency. I didn't enjoy the work
although I did very well at at it, so I didn't stay long. But I learned
a lot, including:
1) The reason a lot of companies have "unadvertised" openings,
especially for jobs that take specific skills, is that if they run an ad
they get hundreds of phone calls from people looking for "any job you
got, I don't know what a Linux (or Unix) is but I been a janitor and
dishwasher and done maintenance work too so I bet I can learn it real
fast," and these calls can totally tie up a receptionist so that regular
calls can't get through.
Personal side note: Many, many years ago I was a partner in a small
manufacturing operation in Tucson. We put an ad in the local paper for
fiberglass layup people, "will train." Those two words were a BIG
mistake. Our phone didn't stop ringing for a week. Places like Tucson
and Tampa (Sunbelt in general) have a lot of unskilled, marginal people
who just sort of packed up their cars in Chicago or wherever and went
South because, I guess, they figured if they were going to be unemployed
and broke it might as well be someplace they didn't need to pay for a
lot of heat in the winter. This was for a crappy job paying just above
minimum wage. Later, a friend who was an HR person for a hospital in
Baltimore told me the saddest people she met were the ones who came in,
desparate, saw job openings for "physician's assistants" and said they
were very helpful so they could sure learn to do that in a hurry. It
takes as much training to be a PA as to be a programmer or sysadmin. As
an employer, you really need to watch what you say in help wanted ads. (
If you've read the Kurt Vonnegut book, "Player Piano," it was sadly
prophetic. Our society is undergoing rapid change, and that change is
catastrophic for at least 60% of the population. Sad.)
2) Sometimes small business people who need help are too busy to screen
applicants so they don't look for additional employees. Sure, they'd
*like* to hire someone, but they're too overworked to interview many
people. Yes, this is self-defeating, but it's also very human to dream
about the perfect applicant walking in your door and making your life
easier instead of going out and looking for that applicant. Be that
applicant!
3) Lots of geeks -- including managers -- are shy. Someone needs to make
the first move. It might as well be you.
4) Don't rely on headhunters or employment agencies. They don't do
anything you can't do -- and do better, since you only have one
applicant to deal with while they typically have dozens or hundreds.
Besides, you don't charge agency fees, and any sane employer given a
choice between hiring someone who comes with a multi-thousand dollar
agency fee attached and one they can get without paying a fee is going
to make the same decision *you* would make in that situation.
5) Resumes are nice, but it's always better to make personal contact. No
one has ever hired a resume. People get jobs -- and are hired by other
people.
6) A cautionary note: Applicants frequently lied to me while I worked at
the employment agency, but employers lied worse and more often. Believe
only what you hear from people you will be working directly with/for. No
one else's word counts.
- Robin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 18:13:30 EDT