First Friend's Advice

FROM: Kirsten Navin

Ok. here is some of what I've been doing.

My first recommendation is take advantage of anything free. For example my church hosted a job search workshop for it's members (more on this in a minute) but libraries and other public venues are all doing something, look in your local paper.

The workshop I attended I did so a little skeptically, I'm coming from a specialized field so what could they really offer me. I was hoping to get a tip or two. Happily I couldn't be more wrong. It was an all day event, most of the people were wall-streeters, cpas even a lawyer, however there was another woman in publishing so I at least made a connection. Making connections was the main theme of the seminar, and how to be prepared to sell yourself. The people who were running the session had all lost jobs before and all three are in some form of recruitment now, hearing their antidotes eased some anxiety. They did a resume critique and I offered mine. I thought I had a pretty good resume going in but now I'm very confident that it reflects who I am and where I want to go. One of the main points they made was that they felt I was underselling myself. And to focus on the unique things that I did to shine at my job rather than just list my responsibilities. The recruiters even offered to look over our resumes again after we re-worked them from the critique. I was most impressed with how much of their personal time they gave to help the group.

Here are a few tips:
1. Take advantage of free seminars and workshops - check your library!
2. Keep your connections updated, use professional based web-sites like LinkedIn.
3. Join or attend local networking groups
4. Have your resume in both PDF and Word formats.
5. use bullet points in your resume
6. Try to personalize cover letter.
7. Have an on-line portfolio. can be your own site or join one of the many groups like coroflot.
8. Don't use the oversize portfolio case with the big zipper - too 80's it's like showing up with big poofey hair and MC hammer pants. (which I did by the way - not the poofy hair but the oversize book)
9. Have business cards, or what some people are now using resume cards - name, contact info and a few lines on their experience, special skills or what they are looking to do.
10. Recruiters do have real jobs, but recruiters find people who are easy to find see #4. Recruiters are looking for ways to quickly screen people out so check spelling etc.
11. Get some web skills, Almost every job wants at least a little familiarity with web design.
12. Ask friends for advise or feedback. (I got great suggestions for my site and believe it's so much better with those few tweaks)
13. Be flexible and try to develop a thick skin.
14. Remember looking for a job is a job in its self.

That's where I am, still trying to accomplish many of these.
-k

Where can we go? (to our friends of course)

Ok. Now we are all intelligent, talented, professionals, who are currently un- or kind of-employed. Each of us have our own unique situations. Each looking for many answers and some advice.

We've been doing a lot of research on our own. Yet, we wake up everyday wondering what to do. Oh, there is plenty to do, we know that, but in what order? We need a job now. We need insurance now. We need leads. We need contacts. We need to pay the bills (baskets of them). Additonally, some of us must also tend our children's and/or parent's needs. 

Are we going about this the most efficient way? Reading web articles, researching on-line and at the library, speaking with passerbys. Each article, book and person has a different approach to give. We are gathering job hunting knowledge and experience. 

We try to help each other individually, forwarding thoughts and some posted job ops. But I think we have a lot of power together. We are in the same field. We are watching it change. We've done that before...remember the computer revolution? Typewriters and mechanicals surrendered to the "new wave"?  We had to take a fresh approach, and figure out a way to morph (grow?) our current talents to the new situation.

Here's my thought (finally, right?): a place we can share experiences and new tidbits of information as we collect them. We can concentrate on our specific issues.

Answers to questions like:

--How do I approach this huge endeavor? Am I just looking for a specific position?

--I've polished my resumes but how do I repurpose it to try for other positions? 

--Do I need more education? Should I take the time and money to sign up for a class on web design? If so, do I concentrate on a program (Dreamweaver, Flash...) or code (XHTML, HTML, CAD)?

--How do I write a cover letter? Can it be modified easily?

--How do ask my friends for job referrals (to keep an eye out for me) in such a tough economy?

--Should I have 2-3 letters of reference available?

--How do I effectively use the internet? When does it become a waste of time?

--Portfolio website? Can I figure it out with little or no web training? Do I need one before I start?

--E-mail or snail mail? Is one better than the other?

--PDF resume or a MSWord resume attachment?

--Why am I gaining weight?

--Does prayer help?

There are tons of questions. 

We can post comments and links on this blog or send to them to me and I will post them.

This may be an time-saving way to get to the information without everyone spending hours digging for it. Are you interested in contributing (if I make it take almost no time and easy)?

Bookmark this site. I can make you all contributors. This means you just sign in and go to "New Blog", write or paste whatever into the box, hit "Publish Post". 3 steps.

What you think? I'll start doing some posting. If you want to join, let me know.

The Frozen North

Well winter is definitely upon Vermont. As I sit here I look out my window our yard. It is covered with 17" of snow which fell within the past 2 days. Since you can still scroll down and see last year's pics, I won't bore you with additional images—yet.

Before the snow, only a little over a week ago, we received one of those historic New England ice storms. For 3 days, trees covered with 1/4 inch of ice created a crystal forest. It was beautiful. It was dangerous. Limbs fell. Trees fell. One area in Westminster, looked as if a tornado blew through. Unrooted birch trees strewn across and on the roadside, taking out the power lines along the way. 

Fortunately we lost our power for only a day. It's been 10 days on and there are still electricity displaced people in NH.

Here's a couple of pics. I couldn't capture the sparkle as well as I liked. Note our tiny stream doubled in size. 

Finally Finished

Hi. 

I am so proud of myself. I finished a project I began around 2 years ago. I took a penny rug class at Brookfield Craft in CT. My teacher, Liz Albert Fay is amazing. Unfortunately after the weekend class, I put the project aside. It went into hiding until somewhat recently. I still need practice, but for a first-time effort, I think it worked out well. 

If you ever get the chance (and the funds) check out Brookfield Craft Center. If you are a New England crafter, it's worth the trip.

The Frost is on the Pumpkin

Wishing you a happy and warm Thanksgiving.

Looking closely in Vermont

I like to take photographs with my computer desktop in mind. Since I like a pretty clean desktop, it leads to some interesting shots.

I have a lot more fall images that I'll post at a later date.

Outside the Brattleboro Museum.

I couldn't believe how packed with apples the trees were.

This just looked cool.

A bit of spring.

The very bad blogger

Ok. So I guess blogging was not my forte this year. Sorry. Check in from time to time though. Who knows? Vermont's winter is around the corner... Staying in and writing maybe just the warm up.