I wanted to share some knowledge I picked up during 8 months spent unemployed. This is a conglomerate from personal experience, trial and error, and input from other friends who have been through the same.
This is really long, and I hope none of it is really painfully obvious, but I hope it helps somebody out.
Read on for tips on resumes, applying, interviewing, and following up!
Saving, because I obviously need this. Ughhhhh.
this is great advice and all, but I think something needs to be added:
don’t be arrogant. be humble, even if you KNOW you are the person for the job.
you see, there is this tendency of young people, starting from a very early age, to believe they know a lot more than they do. there is simply too much in the world for any one person to have a handle on it all, and time is the only real way (barring that direct download chip in the back of your head, nbd) to gain knowledge and experience.
if you have a college degree: just because you do, it doesn’t make you better than a) people without college degrees, b) people whose knowledge and/or degree may seem outdated just because it was earned 20 years ago, and c) people in your field who have an unrelated degree.
over the course of the 18 months I’ve been working at this small technology company, I have watched the guy who hired me (the tech support manager) interview probably 20 people. many times, he has received a resume from a younger candidate with good qualifications and been very eager to sit down with them – but then returns after the interview shaking his head. when I asked him last time what had changed his mind, he told me, “she was just such a know-it-all.” without any immediately relevant experience, a 20-something woman had basically informed him of several ways his processes were faulty and should be overhauled.
even if you managed to hide arrogance during the interview, you will quickly become the hated one in the office or workplace if you display it while on the job. the moment you act entitled to your job or delegate work in a way that makes others feel demeaned, it WILL be sniffed out and everyone will know about it. arrogance makes you unlikeable, intolerable, and frustrating as a co-worker, and will earn you many complaints to the boss. complaints to the boss = reprimands, firings, and absolutely no references.
and it’s just courteous common sense. treat other people like they matter, and when you are struggling with a task on the job, they will jump right in and help you.