Job Hunting (some thoughts and musings on the subject)

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:19 am

I came to Japan on vacation and worked a few private teaching gigs to get experience. I got a steady job at a company. Over the last six years, with that company, I've moved from place to place, island to island, and to more than sixty different schools.

BUT in order to get back to the area that my girlfriend lived in (so I could change her from girlfriend to "wife") I took a transfer to an area that wasn't super ideal. For one thing, instead of getting paid 11 months out of the year, I had to agree to 9 months. With the understanding that next year would be eight months.

It's next year!

So, in the interests of not spending some of my first year as a married man eating cat food under a bridge, I've decided that I need to get another job.

Here's the fun thing! I've been doing this for SIX YEARS. That's more experience that almost anybody else my age has. Which, for the first time ever, has made job hunting a less than horrible process.

What made it so horrible in the past? The fact that I have NEVER successfully gone out, looked for a job, and been hired because I was the best person for it. NEVER.

Restaurant? Mom was the manager.
Toy store? They SCOUTED me. "Hey! You're here a lot! Want a job?"
College? They had more positions than applicants. EVERYONE got hired.
Book store? Roommate's girlfriend was buddies with the manager.
TEACHING CLASSROOMS FULL OF CHILDREN? Only person who wrote "ASAP" on the "date available to start" portion of the application.

And if that's not enough, let's look at my previous employers:

Restaurant: Out of business.
Toy Store: Out of business.
College: Massive shooting leaving 13 dead a few months after I left.
Book Store: Going bankrupt
Teaching company: ...rumors of impending closure...

My resume reads like the goddamn DEATH NOTE.

But this time? I had a resume online on Thursday, got called on Friday, had a preliminary interview on Sunday, and should have a final answer by next week. For the ONLY job I've applied for.

It's nice that the interviewer said "WOW! Good answer!" to a few things I said. But the main one was "Why are you thinking about leaving your company to work for us?" was answered with "I love my company and they've been good to me, but I'd like to be in a position where there is room for advancement and that's next to impossible with my current employer." WOW! Good answer!

Really? Am I the only person who doesn't think it's a good idea to slag off their current employer while looking for other employment? Isn't that common sense?

Anyway. I'm wired on caffeine and paperwork. Thought I'd share! Jya-ne!

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:04 pm

Wish I could. I have no time to look for a new job and I want one desperately to get out of the hell that is online for-profit college, but there's no way I can take the family away from the salary for even a little while.

I hoped for a while that the tribal college where I work part-time would hire me on full-time, but it looks like they are holding out for a Native American candidate for the job, and their starting salary would be ridiculously low, too. (Good luck, guys, finding a Native who teaches English and wants to put up with a low salary when he/she would be highly desired by four-year institutions with higher salaries.)

So I find jobs that I would like to apply to but I'm so busy working every second of every day... or being exhausted from work... that I don't apply. Bah.

Sorry to threadjack with complaints.

Darth Aux · Post by **Darth Aux** » Mon Feb 18, 2013 9:48 pm

Professor Smooth wrote:
Really? Am I the only person who doesn't think it's a good idea to slag off their current employer while looking for other employment? Isn't that common sense?

Very good move.

I gave the same reason to my new employers, that and after 3.5 years you have to leave for 3 months and you can return again. So with no room for adavancement and only a year left (they only consider people with 1.5 year left for promotions), I decided to look elsewhere.

I started that new job today. They just threw me in the deepend to swim (I know a lot of aspects from this job already and more), so my new colleagues asked me to slow down lol.

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:42 am

One of the things I do as an organizational psychologist is interviewing and selecting people.

And well, actually very few talk derisively about their former jobs (If they do, they are usually doomed unless they prove they are very qualified).

And Smooth, you can see the other way around about your past jobs. When you resigned they couldnt perform well without you, so they all went bankrupt.

You were unreplaceable!!!

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:43 am

And yet not good enough to get this job.

Post by **snarl** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 6:22 pm

Have you ever considered that you're pretty well placed to set up a company shipping Japanese stuff to the west?

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 10:43 pm

snarl wrote:Have you ever considered that you're pretty well placed to set up a company shipping Japanese stuff to the west?

Yeah. But I love teaching. And more importantly, the kids like that I teach. I take the least popular subject and make it interesting enough to get kids to WANT to study more. That's more important to me than the size of my bank account.

And it's made me a better person. I really don't want to back to how I was before. Some of you remember that guy. I hate that guy.

saysadie · Post by **saysadie** » Wed Feb 20, 2013 7:34 am

I think it's been pointed out already, but I think they were simply being polite when they told you were answers were good. I wouldn't think that anyone who actually wanted to be employed would trash-talk a former employer to a prospective one; it doesn't take much more than common sense to realise that that's probably a bad idea.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:06 am

...I've asked around. Some people really do go out of their way to bury their previous employers. While it's true there's some inter-company competition, that's still a terrible idea.

Taught my last classes yesterday. Due to a misunderstanding, everybody (except for the teachers I worked directly with) figured I was leaving next week. And, for the sake of making "goodbye" easier, I figured...just let 'em keep thinking that.

And I made it all the way to five o'clock. When the vice-principal said, "See you next week!" and I had to correct him. It's one thing to sneak past. It's another entirely to outright lie to the guy.

The way that my job works is that, on the last working day of the month, I have to fax in my time sheet. He had just stamped it. But immediately, he said "Wait! Uh! The ink is still wet! Let me make you a copy so it can...uh...scan better!" He made a b-line for the copy room...and then snuck into the broadcasting room.

"Everybody come to the teachers' room! NOW!"

Then he came back with the copy, somehow imagining that I didn't understand his broadcast.

They got all the teachers and staff together to say goodbye. The VP made a VERY nice speech. But, man, I don't know. When the kids make my little "Goodbye" cards, or sing a song to thank me, I love it. It's so touching. But when the Principal or VP does it? It feels like I'm sitting in at my own eulogy.

This one more than most. Here's a snippet.

As teachers, most of us approach lessons with blinders on. We follow the book and teach our students according to the way it's always been done.

But not him. He never viewed anything with tunnel vision. The things he came up with... I watched his lessons. And I enjoyed them. ME! The kids loved his classes. He taught English in ways that I've never seen before. And I've been teaching for a VERY long time.

His classes were fun, memorable, and completely unique. And all miss him.

Very nice. Validation of the work I've been doing for most of my adult life. But, dude, I'm not dead.

I've got 99 problems, but a job interview ain't one. It's several. Man, do I have a lot of interviews. ...yay...

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:39 pm

I feel you on the previous employers note...

Phone store - out of business (I pretty much expected this when the former business partner of the boss, who was on the run for embezzling from their previous business was LIVING IN THE BACK ROOM OF THE SHOP)
Security firm - out of business (Because other guards on the sites were STEALING EVERY DAMN THING IN SIGHT)

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed Feb 27, 2013 6:14 am

Sweet, dude.

I am officially job hunting. Filling out resumes and hitting people up for recommendations. In academia this is a Long. Ass. Process.

I hope that I can get enough offers that I might even be able to leverage the tribal college into finding a full-time job for me, because I'd rather work at an institution I'm already invested in.

Wish me many kinds of luck. I have got to get the hell out of the current workload: lots of work for a school I hate, part-time work for a school I love that can't pay me ****.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 2:57 pm

I have sent in two long-ass applications. Phew.

Unfortunately, this isn't really the road to getting hired in academia. They usually prefer to full-time someone out of their adjunct pool. You have to work there for a while, possible a few years, for very low pay.

It's the equivalent of saying "Oh, you went to school for six to ten years? Well, you still have to do a low-paying internship with no guarantee of being hired. Good news is, this internship can last for a while. If we have the work. If we don't, you're S.O.L."

I'm full-time at one job, but I just don't like it much.

Maybe I'm karma-jinxing this. I am a good candidate. Like Smooth, I think I'll have a great answer for every interview.

But arg. Waiting.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:38 pm

I had an interview today. I thought it went well. At the end, the interviewer said "usually, I take a day or two to think about it...but I don't need it. Come back for a second interview next week. If it goes well, we can hire you on the spot.

The company and I seemed tailor made for each other.

Tonight, at midnight, I got a message. "A second interview wont be necessary. We'd like to offer you the job."

Yay!

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Sat Mar 09, 2013 9:07 pm

Beats my 20 months of constant applications, CV submissions, calls with agencies, and sometimes interviews...

Alas, my main problem, I don't see changing for a good 40 more years or so, until most of my generation and the one preceding us have retired. "Your CV looks great, you have all the personal qualities we're looking for, and your educational history is exceptional. But we're looking for someone with at least 3 years' experience."
Well, it'd be nice if I had experience, but since nobody is actually hiring anyone without experience, the only people with experience are those who got it years and years ago before employers got so elitist about experience.

Professor Smooth · Post by **Professor Smooth** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 1:24 am

My father is such a wet blanket. He somehow managed to poo-poo literally every bit of the new job.

"Every bit" in this case meaning:

No more worrying if my job won't exist from year to year.
Independent from the Board of Education
Opportunities for advancement in the company.
Shorter commute
Better working hours
Financial incentives for some new materials.
Much higher salary.

Seriously. There was a "yeah, but..." to EVERY one of those.

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 4:03 am

Sunyavadin wrote:Beats my 20 months of constant applications, CV submissions, calls with agencies, and sometimes interviews...

Alas, my main problem, I don't see changing for a good 40 more years or so, until most of my generation and the one preceding us have retired. "Your CV looks great, you have all the personal qualities we're looking for, and your educational history is exceptional. But we're looking for someone with at least 3 years' experience."
Well, it'd be nice if I had experience, but since nobody is actually hiring anyone without experience, the only people with experience are those who got it years and years ago before employers got so elitist about experience.

Sorry, Sunya. Are you working in education? It's been my experience that part-time slave-ish labor is the only way to get experience in any field of education.

Shanti418 · Post by **Shanti418** » Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:07 pm

Ditto response from me: "You're also working in academia, Sunya? You sad sack, what department are you in?" lol :P

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:11 am

Shanti418 wrote:Ditto response from me: "You're also working in academia, Sunya? You sad sack, what department are you in?" lol :P

We sad sacks gotta sack together.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Fri Mar 15, 2013 11:21 am

I even, while in education, worked for two years on a voluntary basis as a Lab Technician, and since leaving education have worked part-time for charities, again voluntarily, trying to diversify my experience so maybe an admin or graphic design job might take me. "Experience" is apparently "Industry or nothing" so any experience I've managed to get is utterly worthless.

As for your questions? I'm a biotechnologist. Which'd be great if we still had the booming biotech sector we had in 2008 when I applied for my course, where this was a one-way ticket to guaranteed employment in a growing sector. Right now? With investment at an all time low? It's a qualification that makes me eligible for school lab technician work. Which I guess is at least a useful stepping stone to my eventual hopes for following in my parents' footsteps and getting a lecturing career in middle age.

Optimus Prime Rib · Post by **Optimus Prime Rib** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 6:38 am

I am probably leaving texas for michigan soon to have a better support group with the kids. I have an interview set up for "whenever I can get up there." Which sounds great, but also worries me that noone else seems to want that job if they can just hold it open indefinitely.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sat Mar 16, 2013 11:12 am

I wouldn't slag off a previous employer in an interview.
The new employees will think your a back stabber...

bumblemusprime · Post by **bumblemusprime** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:24 am

I just realized it's been ten days and the jobs haven't closed yet. Getting irritated... want something to happen.

Going to have an annoying conversation tomorrow with at least one boss. And my something score is down. Let's see if we can make it two annoying conversations.

Sunyavadin · Post by **Sunyavadin** » Tue Mar 19, 2013 8:09 am

The best, sorry, I meant stupidest, thing is the massive impediment provided by the government's stupid outsourcing to cowboys like Action 4 Embezzlement.
I was scheduled to see someone at an agency supplying educational staff this week, but because of a stupid appointment with A4E, had to reschedule it to 2 weeks from now. TWO DAMN WEEKS that I could have been on that agency's books, and getting access to more jobs. I can definitely see why the statistics show the rates for people getting jobs on this programme are lower than the rates for people off it.

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Job Hunting (some thoughts and musings on the subject)

Re: Job Hunting (some thoughts and musings on the subject)