My lack of a job thread

[Kelric]

I hate goals.

[dbt1949]

Especially when they're scored by New England.

[Kraken]

Your real goal is usually just to make a little more money without doing any more work or getting in trouble, but your company will not appreciate your candor...even though your boss's real goal is to complete these reviews and forget about them until next year.

[RunningMn9]

The magic of being a contractor for the govt, I don't have to deal with this sort of review/goals nonsense anymore. The govt employees do, and it's the most horrendous process I've encountered. But as a contractor, my "goal" is to make sure the customer (govt) is happy with me. That's it. My review is more centered around any feedback my boss has gotten through the grapevine (an odd feature of this is that although I work for the customer, and their satisfaction is paramount to my success or failure, the govt is not actually allowed to provide *any* feedback for this purpose). And that's always top notch.

[Kasey Chang]

My attempt at finding a job is not yielding any results.

I've applied at two places that need drivers for their robot cars to handle emergencies and watch the data gathering. Figure my driving record and my old EE degree should fit. Got back "we're not moving forward" basically means they hired someone else.

Applied to a sales position for professional headsets. They made me take some personality tests, never heard back from them again.

Applied to something within walking distance. The job description made it sound like a customer service position. When I went in for the interview it turned into a technical position (help them redesign SalesForce workflow among other things). My resume was all wrong. Haven't heard back from them, probably didn't get it. Argh!

[em2nought]

Hmm, Californication? I'd think VR Porn might be the next "huge" thing out there with the advent of the Oculus Go.

[Kraken]

Last month the number of open jobs exceeded the number of unemployed people for the first time in, like, forever. This is due, in part, to the workforce participation rate still being 6 points below where it was before the Time of Cold Rocks and Shedding, and that is due, in part, to today's jobs being undesirable and paying too little. "Full employment" ain't what it used to be.

This isn't a dig at Kelric or Casey or anybody else in particular, just a neutral observation.

[mori]

VR Porn combined with a sex robot... no one will leave their house again.

[Isgrimnur]

That will certainly liven up Smoove’s posts.

[mori]

I have been looking around the last couple of months on what jobs are out there. Applied for a few of them. How most companies handle filling job openings, I am surprised anyone gets hired. Recruiters are aggressive and try to sell you on a bag of magic beans. But then the people who are suppose to do the interviewing and hiring never contact you when they say they will. Sorry, you did not call me at the agreed time, did not even get an email, I am no longer interested. Only one company acted as they really wanted to fill the position. Unfortunately the job turned out not to be something I was interested in. Another place I had a sit down panel interview and have not heard a word from them since. It has been 3 weeks and they cannot even be bothered to email to let me know I am no longer being considered.

[Isgrimnur]

'No contact' is de rigeur these days. If they never contact you, they can't say something that would trigger a complaint or lawsuit. Telling you that you didn't get the job opens the door to, "Why not?" which is not a question that anyone wants to answer due to liabilities.

[Kasey Chang]

I finally got my own job, and it starts on Monday, after 10-15 years helping my dad. Oh well. First time back to a job in a decade can be traumatic. I hope I am ready.

Need to relay a funny incident though. My IRL friend, knew him for more than two decades, since college. He's slightly physically deformed, so he knew he'd be single for life, pretty much. He has no job, lives at home, blah blah blah. He blabs about how nobody would hire him. I told him about this "blogger for hire" website I found that pays pretty decent. ($10 for 300-word articles) for spare time work. Gave him the URL. Turns out he can't even get past the grammar quiz they gave at the beginning.

I know $10 for 300 sounds okay, but the amount of research that had to be done... It's below minimum wage if you go by "per hour". But it's better than content farms out there that only pay you from ad revenue.

[Jeff V]

$10 / 300 words would be ok I guess if there wasn't a research element involved. It would take me about 10 minutes to regurgitate that many words and polish them for publication.

I used to get paid $25 for 200-250 word game reviews that explicitly targeted the level of vice in the game. Since this was not a conventional review, I could do this playing demos and since the publisher wanted as comprehensive a list as possible, I could dive into my catalog of old games (not so old they can't easily be played) and throw up that many words about it. It didn't even matter that the game had no vice whatsoever (such as a railroad game). For a few months I managed to make as much as $1000 per month. Then their seed cash ran out, the service ( a paid website) never took off and the whole thing went under.

Good luck at your new gig! What will you be doing??