I miss the old days.............

[Hound dog]

Let's just say I'm having issues with applying online. Issues I'm going to have to overcome as the vast majority of jobs these days are listed ONLINE. omg Sad thing is, I'm actually usually good at things online. This evidently, not so much. I'm used to the old way where you fill out an application, hand it to a human being.......and well with me that always meant an immediate interview in which I could explain whatever might need explaining. (yes, I realize not everyone gets immediate interviews, but I always have.....not sure if that is good or bad LOL ) Oddly enough, I never NOT got the job I was applying for either. Which is also sort of weird.

But anyway. My being Susie homemaker does not play to my benefit, lemme tell you. I just so enjoy the suspicious expressions as if I'm hiding information from them or something. I guess spending most of your adult life being a stay at home mom is now an alien concept. I've known this for a while, it just gets under my skin. It's worse, of course, with male interviewers than females. Some females have copped an attitude on me, but usually they're understanding, especially when I explain I had my hands full raising a disabled child.

My job history has huge enormous holes in it from the long stretches where I didn't work. Shoot, people the last job I held was 9 yrs ago......a temp job, just to give me something to do post accident (the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) one) it turned into a permanent job, which I wasn't sure I wanted it to do........and I eventually via talking with my bone doctor, was told to knock it off it was making the healing process of my shoulders take longer. (he couldn't believe I was working at that point, but he never told me not too lol ) I quit because the pain when I got home was driving me nuts & the store manager I worked for grated on the nerves, and frankly I hated the darn rotating hours so you never knew if you were getting up before dawn right after pulling a **** until midnight. After this job, I decided to stay home and finish healing.

Then I went to school for 4 yrs.

There are a few jobs I can apply for in person and that is just no biggie, job hx or not.

But there are 2 that I'd really like to have; 1. a dialysis technician, which looks really promising as they'll certify you and really seem not to expect to get someone already certified, my education is a huge plus with this one, especially the phlebotomy. It's full time too. And the job has been listed for 2 months, so I'm guessing no one is really jumping at it. 2. is a cna one at the assisted living facility where mother in law lived for a while. They'll also help you get certified (I already am, just not for ohio) and it's full time too. But both of these appear to only be online and the process is well, confusing. Answers to questions are a bit too black and white if you know what I mean...makes them harder to answer. Looks like I'm going to have to have easy child help me write up a resume tomorrow evening too, cuz everything online seems to want one. ugh (other than education, mine is gonna look like crappola)

I really really want the dialysis one. It sounds tailor made for me. So I'm not gonna let the resume thing scare me off. I'll just finish the process with easy child. But some prayers would be nice, or good thoughts, maybe some juju. <<<< for any job, not just the dialysis one

But at this point, I'm not picky. I need a job and I need it yesterday. I'll even work 2 jobs if I can swing it schedule wise. The nest egg I've been working with is becoming depleted quickly and is almost gone.

Only thing I will NOT do is fast food. Yes, I realize beggars can't be picky but I'd stand in the middle of the floor and scream about a half hour in. I can barely stand to eat in one (rare), I could not work in one. Sensory overload to the max. If I didn't quit, they'd fire me before the day was out. I know my limits, that is one of them.

Oddly, I've gained new empathy for Katie due to this process. She hasn't held a job in over ten years either. On top of it she doesn't have any advanced education or skills. I have both and after a day of looking.......I feel like a total loser. So I can imagine how she feels.

I will get through this to employment, some how, some way............ But a miracle would sure be nice right about now.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Lisa...
Those gaps?
For the two jobs you "really" want?
It's ALL in how you word it.

Play up Travis' disability to the absolute hilt. You have extensive experience dealing with people who need exceptional care. The fact you didn't get paid for it means nothing. You were not "just" a stay at home mom.

Play up your own (miraculous, but don't use that word) turn-around from a disabling accident. You understand pain. You understand on so many fronts.

Play up your own experience with kidney problems, and the kindness and empathy that only come with it.

---
For example, I know a stay at home mom who did NOT have kids with disabilites... but chose to home-school. Then went through and got her TA ticket... and turned 12 years of home-schooling into "12 years of experience". She was asked about it in the interview... how can you have 12 years of experience when you just got your ticket? (it was already explained on resume, it was a reality check)... and yes, 12 years of homeschooling 4 kids = 12 years of TA experience and them some.

 

[Malika]

Good luck, HD. Who looks after elderly people in retirement homes in the States? In Britain, they always need people to do this and with your experience, you would be a great asset. Not great money, I don't suppose...

 

[BusynMember]

Boy, you said it about the old days. I was shocked to find that almost every online job application has a personality profile you have to fill out too (this includes even if you want to flip burgers). A friend of mine who works in human resources at a large retail company told me that your entire application is deleted if you make the "wrong" answer in this personality profile. Nice, huh? Especially since it can take an hour to fill these things out.

I suggest maybe trying the Dept. of Workforce Development. They help place people who haven't worked for a long time or may have trouble getting jobs. I was working with them for a while. They're pretty good.

 

[DDD]

I only have one friend who is about my age. She is bright. She has owned her own businesses plus she has worked well for others. In addition to being a Realtor she is a gifted artist who paints, makes ceramics etc. etc. She now needs to get a job to keep living. She lives in the Orlando area and can not even get an interview. She is not a beautiful woman but she is sharp as a tack. Initially she thought her "aging" would be her big problem. Nope. It's the cyber applications with the tricky questions. The depersonalization of our society is a blankin' shame. Hugs DDD

 

[recoveringenabler]

Have you considered Temp agencies? You can work temporarily,(and perhaps immediately) and, if a company likes you they will hire you out from under the temp agreement. This happened to a friend of mine. And, she didn't do it online, she went into the office and applied. It may be a way for you to circumvent the online application and get an immediate job while you're still looking.

 

[hearts and roses]

Something is sorely lacking in the job search these days...oh yah, the face to face contact, the body language, voice inflection, eye contact. I miss the old days too!

 

[Hound dog]

I am so relieved that this online business is not just me. I was really beginning to feel totally "out of touch", which didn't seem quite right with how much time I actually spend online per day.

If I can talk to a person, there is no issue, I'm awesome at interviews, even for jobs I really don't want. I've talked to a really good friend of mine from school, and she's having the same issue.......and this woman is over the top smart as a tack and HAS worked until school (she did the RN program), she said she's done apps for the month since she's graduated at least several each day and she's had ONE call back........and they told her to call once she passes her boards. She's not feeling too confident with the online process either......and she has a friend who does professional resumes, and reviews them for a top company online.........who did hers for her.........and told her honey, you'll still have folks hitting the delete button on your app depending on mood and if you have something in there that rubs them wrong. omg

No wonder so many unemployed are so frustrated.

I guess I'll have to try and do as many in person ones as possible. I'm trying to avoid temp companies if I can. I may have to go that route, husband always had to because what he did was so specialized. But I'd like to know I have a job that won't vanish after so many months and I'm sitting in panic mode again. Know what I mean??

I really does make you want to pound your head into the key board after just a few hours though. I think I'm going to have to set up a time frame each day to do it, then force myself to walk away and do something else.

 

[AnnieO]

Lisa, what you need is to be a difficult child. Remember how Onyxx got her job? The only one she actually applied for called her back, now she's working there.

I hate online apps. Yeah, you have all your stuff at home, but... UGH!

 

[DDD]

Hound, don't forget that it is always easier to get a job if you have a job...even if it's a temp. Hugs. DDD

 

[witzend]

Lisa, here are a couple of things that you can do to help out with your job search:

1) Join Linked-In and get friends/teachers from school and friends in your field to link to you;

2) Be sure that your FB page is set only to friends. You never know what someone who is hiring might feel about your personal opinions and it's none of their business anyway;

3) List your resume with a job placement agency. You'll get hundreds of emails from people who want to place you. It may be for a temp job (husband's job that we moved for is temp, but the salary is 50% higher than he was getting, and we still get insurance) but they often eventually hire to full-time/permanent.

4) Don't worry about blank spots on your resume. Your children are now grown. They weren't years before, and people understand that. You don't have to tell them why you had to leave any job, you just say "My kids were at an age that they needed me at home then and I was lucky enough to be there for them. I'm glad that I'm at a time in my life where I come first now and am able to have the career that I want."

 

[trinityroyal]

Yes, the online job application process is miserable. And yes, EVERYONE uses it now. Online applications got started when I was working for a recruiter, but they've really come into flower in the last 10 years or so.

Witz has some great suggestions. I agree with the recommendation to join LinkedIn and set up a profile. With many of the recruiting sites, instead of entering a resume you can simply link to your LinkedIn profile so you don't have to keep entering the same data over and over again. Since it takes up to an hour each time, this is a huge help.

One trick I used to teach candidates when I was headhunting: Gaps in your resume are fine as long as you have a reasonable explanation and people can be assured that you can do the work. A good way to address this question when you have long absences from the workforce is to put a skill summary at the beginning. Make a list of key requirements for the job you want, and then write 2 or 3 bullet points for each one that highlight your skills in that area. For example:

Skill Summary

Project Management
- Extensive track record completing large scale projects on-time and on-budget.
- Experience managing both technical and business-focused projects.
- Blah blah blah other good stuff

Technical Architecture
- Blah blah blah
- Blah blah blah

You get the idea. Sorry, the example is from IT since that's what I know. I'm not sure what the core skills are for the jobs in which you are interested.

Once you've written the skill summary, then list your work chronologically from most recent to oldest. If you use the heading "Experience" for this, then you can also include information about projects you took on as a stay at home mom, since you're not documenting Employment only.

Another tip is to build keywords into your resume. When you're describing a skill or documenting your experience, try to build the most common search terms into your descriptions. For example, if everyone uses the term "student" don't say "pupil". You will be more likely to get through the online filters that way.

Hope this helps.
Trinity

 

[Tiapet]

Another suggestions too springboarding off someone who suggested temping, there is temping for healthcare and they often can lead you into the healthcare field you want to get into.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Here in healthcare, there are two different flavors of "temping"... what is traditionally called "temping", where you work short-term contract through an agency, and "casual", where you work directly for the health care institution, but start with no fixed hours (i.e. you are on-call to cover sickness, vacation, somebody quits, etc.). Often in health care, they hire permanent positions from the casual pool.

 

[Hound dog]

Thanks guys.

Well, like I said, I'm going to attempt to apply in person as much as I possibly can. easy child has volunteered to help me with the online apps and the resume, it's her forte and she's d@mn good at it, so I'll let her help me.

I'm chomping at the bit for the dialysis one though.........been a long time since I saw a job that actually really made me interested. And who better to empathize with other kidney patients than someone who shares the same issues? So really hoping I can get that one, even if it were part time I'd take it because I do find it so interesting.......and I'd probably be learning new stuff all the time, which is really appealing to me.