by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
If there were a job waiting for each of us, a job search would involve nothing more than finding it. A job search, then, could accurately be called a job search. Today, with six of us scrambling for every one available job (15.5 million job seekers v. 2.4 million jobs), we need a new name for what we do every day.
Job race, job wars, employment scrum? It’s more like a melée for positions out here. While the ratio shows signs of improving, we can’t just wait for the day when there are six jobs for every job seeker—the day when our biggest headache is figuring out which combination of salaries, bonuses, perks, and benefits suits us best.
The obvious strategy for standing out from the other six has most of us working to improve every angle of our search—resumés, networking, interviewing skills, cover letters, follow-up calls. Since this is the obvious strategy, most of the other five looking at our target job are doing the same. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employment, freelance writing, odd jobs, school bus, unemployment
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
Since 1977, Cincinnati has celebrated Labor Day with a bang—a day-long festival and fireworks display called Riverfest. This year the big bang began around 9 PM and echoed off into the surrounding hills of the Ohio valley about 40 minutes later.
Many American might be surprised to learn that this worker’s holiday is an immigrant. An American labor leader imported it in 1882 from Canada. At that time, the idea of workers joining forces and speaking with a collective voice scared the bejeezus out of President Cleveland.
Something to think about as we search for jobs or wonder how long we’ll keep the one we have. The same goes for those of us looking for job candidates to hire or, more likely, how many, when, and which to let go. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: drug testing, freelance writing, Labor Day, Riverfest, Samuel Gompers, school bus, unemployment
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by Peter Lloyd for Job Hunting
I don’t know about you, but when I’m not working or job hunting, I write songs. School bus driving is my day job. Freelance writing is my other day job. But it’s the songwriting that’s going to make me rich.
It could happen. As a matter of fact, not too long ago I wrote a song about how I see it happening. It’s called Make Some Money. Writing songs does not replace my job search or making money, but it fills in the gaps. Employed or not, a lot of us are filling gaps these days. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: employment, job search, time use, unemployment
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