Reader Mail!
15 July 2008 at 12:59 pm

Ok, not so much reader mail as much as ex-roommate bitch correspondence. She just moved across the country back to the proper coast. She asks:

"Yo. What's your secret recipe for finding a job? X + what = job?
Speed is a definite plus.

xo

slegg"

Ok, um...dude.

My first real job, working at the bank, I found a neighborhood I wanted to work in and handed in resumes to every business on the street.

My San Francisco retail job, same thing. The PR job, I signed up with a temp agency and was a temp-to-hire after waiting 4 months. Sign up with multiple temp agencies.

My jobs here? The initial serving job I got through craigslist. Then I met this guy at a bar and asked if his business was hiring, and he said they would be in a few months, so I emailed him my resume and heard back a few months later. The other bookkeeping job I got through the accountant here, who likes me and always sends odd-jobs my way. I've gotten a few referrals from customers at the bar. When people ask what I do, I say I'm a bookkeeper and a bartender, and everyone needs help with money and drinking so it's pretty easy to find work, especially since I work exclusively for local businesses. It's a pretty tight clique, the local business racket. Anytime I feel the need for more money, I just ask around for who needs help with bookkeeping and charge $20 an hour to tinker with their quickbooks and their filing system.

The bar job, the real moneymaker, I got because I like to drink. I hung out there all the time, got to know one of the bartenders well enough that he told me when they were hiring, and the rest ... blah blah blah.

Lessons learned? Drinking and nepotism are the best ways to get a job. Ask everyone you know if they're hiring. DO GOOD WORK. Don't be negative. Be relentless in your pursuit. If someone says they may be hiring in a few months, check back a month later. And don't be afraid to pursue something you know nothing about. My qualifications to work at the bank were that I wasn't crazy and I know how to count a register thanks to working at In-n-Out, for serious. I gained invaluable knowledge, and even though I was only making $12 an hour (at age 18 in 2002, this seemed like a lot more than it was, even for Seattle), I used the resume-building skills to get the jobs I work today. Also, I learned how to balance my checkbook way before my friends. Don't lie about what you are and aren't qualified for, but emphasize whatever your strength is ... for me, it's that I'm highly adaptable and a quick learner, so I can adjust to the different bookkeeping systems for the various businesses I work for without fucking everything up. Also, I'm hilarious and supercute. That helps with the bartending.

I also think you should try freelance writing. Get in touch with the local weekly and start off doing pieces for cheap or free just to get something published; build your portfolio from there.

Fast enough for you?

SMOOCHES!
m

0 comments

mod l post-mod

|

New
Old
Profile
Notes
Extras
Contact
Image
Host
Trackback

About me
Hi. Morgan, 27, of Santa Barbara, CA. I am a hypocritical admirer of rhetoric (when it is my own) and an observer of literary trends. A secret: I don't take anything very seriously, and that includes myself.