What do you do when potential employers ask for your salary requirements with your application? Because right now my salary requirements are "Yes, please."

Also, what's a good way to include them in your cover letter? I can't think of a way that's not tacky and awkward. I would just say something along the lines of "Salary requirements are available upon request," except they did request it. So I don't know what to do. Help?

*waves* Hi all! My name is Amanda, I'm 23 from NYC, recently graduated with an English BA, and I am currently ready to sicc a Nazgul on the economy because I am unemployed.

I aspire to be an author and am working on a fantasy manuscript, but in real-time I'm looking for office work (secretarial/receptionist/office assistant, whatever), music promotion/promotion in general, working with dogs (like at a doggie day care), or anything to do with writing. I'm at the point where I'll take almost anything as long as there's semi-decent pay.

I know the economy sucks right now, but I wish I'd had a part-time job as a teenager. I didn't because a)I had...well, issues b)I was a lazy bum and c) dysfunctional families are always fun. I can't be the only one with this sort of issue, so how do you guys deal with it when doing your resume and such?
( More rambling here )

On the bright side, volunteering at the pet adoptions has really been uplifting my spirits, so that's one good thing.

But yea, glad I found this community. ^_^

I never finished a college degree, but I have about 3 years taking one major then switched and had a year of a totally different major/different college. How do I put this on my resume? Do I put college name -years attended and the major or do I leave the major blank? I don't want anyone who looks at my resume to assume that I completed/got my degree in said major but I don't want to leave my college education off of my resume.

Help?

Thanks.

from craigslist:

Account Case Coordinator

( detailed posting )

You will get an email from support at eaglesoftwareservices dot com. This email directs you to their website & will ask you to pay $40 to download their software to process "mortgage refunds". Of course I didn't actually give them money... but I'm annoyed that I listed this as a "job search activity" for my unemployment & it turned out to be a scam. Hopefully the state won't hold it against me. I mean, how was I to know it was a scam until I checked my spam folder?!

*shakes fist at sky*

I went to a job orientation tonight for a position that I am interested in. There are 4 spots open and 12 people showed up... so I figure I got about a 1 in 3 shot at this.

In the beginning we had to introduce ourselves. Out of the 12, only 3 were unemployed. (including myself) The other 9 already had jobs. And they were GOOD paying jobs that they had. Marketing directors, sales manager, dental hygienist, guidance counselor, etc.

I'm not saying necessarily that people with jobs already should be excluded, but it IS kind of annoying that with unemployment rates as high as they have been that some of these people are dissatisfied with their current jobs. I would kill (almost) for a good paying job right now and they simply want to hop from one to another.

Sorry if that came out the wrong way, but it's kind of frustrating.

Sup team_unemployed!

It's that time again.

MOTIVATION MONDAY!

This is the post to share goals, hopes and plans for the week.

How did you do on last weeks goals?

The Department of Labor's employment data for the month of October was released today. It seems the nightmare isn't over. Oh no, my children, it seems the nightmare has only just begun.

The following is from an article that appears today on Bloomberg.com:

By Timothy R. Homan

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the highest level since 1983, casting a pall over the prospects for a sustained recovery and risking further erosion of President Barack Obama’s popularity.

Payrolls fell by 190,000 last month, more than forecast by economists, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September. Factory payrolls dropped by the most in four months, and the average workweek held at a record low.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCyf_4ilb5Hc&pos=1

Hey T_U.

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN.

This here's officially FEELGOOD FRIDAY!
Post things that make you happy, on the job front or no.

Post your good news, your best macros, your happy-making anythings.

GO GO GO :D

I maybe, maybe, maybe (maybe? Maeby?) got a seasonal job at Macy's despite not being able to work until mid December. Even though winter break is technically my vacation from college, I opted to work ANY hour.

If you'll take anything and/or want experience in retail, I encourage y'all to apply for seasonal work RIGHT NOW in any popular store that has such a position! Don't just apply for one position. I applied for 14 similar positions at 3 different stores (and that was the maximum they would allow for applying).

And yes, they had one of those dorky ridiculously long questionnaires. I put Strongly Agree or Strongly Disagree at the appropriate places, nothing remotely in between.

Because no post would be complete without a profound loser comment:
Why do I find phone interviews so fun even though I have telephone-usage anxiety?

I'm a 20 year old Army wife, my work experience  includes:
Papa Johns Pizza
Walgreens Pharmacy Technician and Cashier
A pizza place and cleaning job in Ireland
And a nanny

however, I guess it seems not to be enough when I apply for jobs.

It's like every time I apply too late , or the times they need people I can't work, because me and my husband have only one car in between us, and his is stick shift. And for me to get a car, I need money which means a job. I don't mind having to walk an hour to go to work though. And it seems everytime I call a place asking to speak to the manager, they always say the manager isn't there or w/e. It's like shouldn't there always be a manager on site??? And when I actually take the time to walk to the store to talk to a manager, they're not on site either....
 

I'm sorry I'm ranting. It funny how people think Army people make alot, but they don't really unless they're higher rank. And me having a job would really help with bills and groceries and extra spending money and a car. I've been jobless since April 2008 and so far no luck with anything.


It's lame... ._.;;

I just (literally) sent out cover letters/resumes, and have noticed I had a typo in the company's name.

EPIC FAIL

I want to crawl into a corner and die.

My pharmacy interview with Walgreens was today.

I... I can't decide if I should laugh or cry.

I woke up after two hours of sleep because I'd been so nervous about the interview. What I woke up to was my cat biting my nose, not the alarm. I tried calling Walgreens to confirm my appointment, but the woman seemed confused. Her attempts to transfer me to a manager failed because everyone was so busy the phone rerouted itself and kept ringing back to her. After three cycles of this, I hung up without confirming my interview.

When I got out of bed, I realized I'd somehow hurt my back in the middle of the night, and just standing in the shower was painful. I looked in the mirror to find a deciduous rain forest growing on my left eyebrow, and I couldn't find my tweezers anywhere.

I read my horoscope, and it told me I'd be accident prone today. I thought, "Silly horoscope! You're not real! You don't matter!" I went to make some fried eggs. Shit, okay, I can make perfect, brilliant sunny-side up over-medium eggs. I could make any delicious egg dish blindfolded in my sleep during a bad trip on LSD while applying mascara. Somehow, I cracked the eggs into the pan so hard the yolks broke. I dumped them out, and went for the oil to remake the eggs.

No oil. Where the hell is my oil? I grabbed a can of Pam and sprayed the pan down only to find it crystallize in the edges of the pan. Realizing the can of Pam was as old as the lease on my damn apartment, I boiled some water in the microwave to set the yolks, considering my lack of oil (which, I swear, was there at some point), and I put a piece of bread in the toaster.

Somewhere in all of this, I managed to find my tweezers. Yay.

The water was finished boiling, so I went to set the yolks only to find that the crystallized Pam had turned my egg whites into some weird, burnt sludge. I thought, "Well, at least I didn't fuck up the toast," but it was precisely at that moment that I realized the bread had been in the toaster for an incredibly long time. I forced the lever up to find my toast blackened. And then I burned my hand on it.

In an attempt to make me feel better, my boyfriend suggested grabbing a cup of coffee before he went into work and I went into my interview. We were half-way there when I realized that the woman on the phone was confused because I was calling the wrong store. The pharmacist who initially called me hadn't given me his location, and I never thought to fucking ask! I just assumed it would be at the store I chose in my application. The Boy and I ran into the coffee shop, opened up the laptop (which took forever to boot up), and desperately tried calling each Walgreens. At this point, it was 2:15, and my interview was scheduled for 2:30. He finally reached someone and found out that my interviewer worked at a Walgreens all the way across town from our apartment (but, serendipitously, pretty close to the coffee shop). I tried calling that location, and discovered they had JUST updated their recorded greeting with the longest possible way to say, "NO FLU VACCINES FOR YOU, LUBBOCK."

I was stammering and almost crying and saying, "I can't do this. I am going to have a nervous breakdown." The Boy got mad and exasperated. I took one look at him, one look at my untouched, shitty coffee, and bolted out the door before I could even get someone from Walgreens on the phone to talk to about being late.

I made it on time, but I was so goddamn nervous I almost walked into the store in my flip flops. I had to get back into my car and change into my heels. My mind was racing so hard the entire time, I have little cognition of anything I said or saw during the interview, save brief excerpts of awkwardness that I must have perceived during moments of horrified clarity. I barely had enough time to notice that the pharmacist interviewing me was extremely handsome, but I definitely had enough time to realize that I was wearing a dress, hadn't shaved my legs, and my grandparents' dog must have chewed on one of my heels.

And I dropped my phone on the way out. I didn't even know I was fucking holding my phone!

The interviewers had to reassure me that I'd "done a good interview." I think the only smart thing I've done all day is be open about my nervousness.

What say you, Community? Laugh or cry?

I was fired from Sears this morning.  They gave me two or three different ID numbers, and I can never remember which one I'm supposed to punch in at the start of my shift, so they have me listed as coming in late or not at all.  (Though I think missing the bus today was what broke the camel's back for them; apparently the driver did not see me at the stop and sped right on by.)

I don't know what I'm supposed to do at this point.  Being hired, then fired again in less than a month, is even worse on your resume than if you'd never been hired in the first place.  And you don't get unemployment benefits if you were fired, only if you're laid off or disabled.  So there go my food stamps and my bus pass, and winter's coming up again... 

AGGGHH!!!

I just got done with the worst "interviewing" experience of my life and needed to share it with people who would understand.

( Read more... )

So I've become a bit of a night owl in my unemployment--no real reason to get up early, so I don't, and over time my sleep cycle has kind of shifted. I seem to wind up doing most of my job hunting at night, which is making me wonder if employers notice or care what time you send in your cover letter and resume or application. I mean, does it reflect badly on you if you're emailing them your stuff at 3am? What do you think?

I had someone close to me send me an alert for a recent job opening. It's part-time with a very likely possibility of it going to full time in a couple of months. The pay is... less than I like admittedly, but it's a job and maybe someday it could lead to bigger and better things. This person that alerted me to the job said that if I go for it and get hired, I could live with them rent free until it became full time. (so nice of them)

The problem is it is located somewhere that I absolutely hate. I told myself that I would never go back there because it depresses me, but I am seriously conflicted. I don't have anything going on where I'm at right now, but I really would rather not move everything to this place that is 1,000+ miles away.

But it is a OK job that could lead to bigger and better things like I said. I am SO conflicted... D: what to do, what to do?

On a side note to job postings in general....

HOW DO I GET THE EXPERIENCE WHEN NO ONE IS WILLING TO GIVE IT TO YOU?

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:
• Speaking, hearing and reading
• Visual acuity
• Fine and/or gross motor skills


I don't know what to think...

An AIM Convo while writing cover letters/prepping for interviews

Friend: Toboe, what did we do wrong in college? http://venturebeat.com/2009/10/22/technorati-full-time-bloggers-are-making-more-money-than-ever/
Toboe: we didn't blog publicly about our woes in commercialism and college engineering courses
Friend: nor did we discover insider info
Friend: :p
Toboe: well, for that we needed a job

Quick question:

Is there any benefit at all to getting NCSA* certification? I took their basic PC test and passed, but it wants $34 for an actual cert and I don't want to pay if it's just going to be a useless piece of paper.



*National Computer Science Academy