Looking For Job Finding Tips

[DemocratSinceBirth]

My girlfriend is a senior accountant with nearly two decades of public and and private accounting experience in the real state, travel, and air line industries. She lost her job in October, through no fault of her own, when the company she worked for in Fort Lauderdale was purchased by a company in Dallas and her position and that of her colleagues was filled by existing staff.


We respond to job posting on careerbuilder, monster, and craigslist, et cetera.

I want to expedite the process by "carpet bombing" companies with her resume.

What do you think?

[HopeHoops]

1. Sounds like a waste of postage.

The selective process is generally more productive. The resume and cover letter should be tailored to the job that is advertised. I've gotten a shitload of "carpet bomb" resumes and it is so fucking obvious as to be comical.

[Sanity Claws]

2. I wouldn't advise that

Helping her network might be a better way to get at the unadvertised openings.
One thing she should do is create a LinkedIn profile (linkedin.com) and link to as many people as she can and as many groups as she can. This may help.
Also she should connect her Alumni office. Some universities are offering career and networking help to Alumni.

Carpet bombing her resume sounds like a complete waste of time.

[hunter]

3. So far as I can tell unsolicited resumés have no value.

It seems there are two kinds of jobs left --

Those where you have the proper credentials and someone knows you because you've made yourself known, and those where the employer makes you fill out your application while sitting in the lobby because it demonstrates that you are least somewhat literate and not the sort of person who would spam them with resumés.

I remember resumés meant something and you could be encouraged in your job search to occasionally get a personal reply back rather than a form letter, which let you know you were qualified and briefly considered for the job.

Now resumés seem to fall into some kind of black hole.

[applegrove]

4. Yup. Do a mail merge on microsoft "word". Go through the telephone book

and write down the numbers of places where she'd like to work. Call them and get their address first and then ask for the name of the personnel manager second. Do a mail merge but don't print all the letters quite yet. Go into each letter and personalize it a little bit. Then print out all the letters and labels and get a stack of resumes (in some classy colored paper to make it stand out). Collate and send. Good luck.

[LibDemAlways]

5. My husband was unemployed for 6 months earlier this year.

The job sites you've listed were (for him) a complete waste of time.

My advice to your girlfriend: Contact everyone she's ever worked with. Network. Network. Network.

My husband is working today because he attended a get-together of former employees of the company where he had last worked. At that gathering he reconnected with a former co-worker who had since become a manager at another business, and that encounter led to my husband's new job. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of personal contacts. And, I wish your girlfriend much good luck in her search.