I'm on a job hunt. It's not fun. I've never really had to interview for a position in the last 20 years, and I'm kind of freaking out. Everything has changed. Now you can't even get your foot in the door if you don't know someone. And if you've been out of the loop even a little bit, you have a lot to learn. I think I interview well, but just getting an interview these days is difficult. I can't tell you how many resumes I've sent out on these vast job-hunting sites to never hear a word back. I just know my resume' is drifting off in cyber-space somewhere like an abandoned rocket in space.
As a kid, I got pretty much every job I ever applied for. Must be my charming personality that got me this far; but now, things are so different. You have to learn how to socially network in this vast new black hole we call Linked In. Personally I can't imagine how my moment-to-moment thoughts on Twitter are going to get me a job, who really cares after all? Isn't it just another plugged in way to waste time?
And spending an hour or two a day to update my accounts and network some how seems out of reach, I mean if I don't have enough excuses not to devote an hour a day in the gym, what do I use to get out of the social media time commitment? But, I'm learning, I'm trying to reconnect with old colleagues. I had my first re-connection today, and it went pretty well. Fortunately, the gal I hooked up with was a sweetheart and I didn't have to twist her arm too much to agree to meet for coffee. But it was a positive experience, something to keep me going until the next time I get up the guts to ask some one for help.
I've started going to networking groups too. Boy, that sort of freaks you out. You know how it is when you are afraid to get up in front of a class to speak, same thing now, only it's grown up strangers you are meeting and in 30 seconds you have to give your schpeal, impress them and hope that they are willing to take time out of their day to help you. I'm ok with that, I mean I try to do good deeds and help people if I can, I would hope that karma comes back to me and helps me out some day.
But I sort of feel really sorry for well-connected people. They are probably being bombarded by old colleagues and high school friends coming out of the woodwork hoping to hook them up. "Hi Joe, remember me, we were in first grade together, say I'm sort of remotely qualified to work in a business that's twice removed from what you do, so if you don't mind could put in a good word for me and get me an interview??? Poor Joe, he just wants to be left alone and unplug.
As for me, I'm going to keep trying. No one is going to change my course of fate but me, so I have to keep going. I will Facebook, I will Link-in, I will blog, I will network...I will seek out new people from careers far beyond my skill set, to boldly go where no one in my family has ever gone before....
