Quote from INeedAJob:
I have an economics degree from Stony Brook University with a 3.72 GPA. I have good experience, including a Series 7 and 63. I have been out of school for a year and a half now searching for a full time salaried position and have had zero interviews. I have sent out thousands upon thousands of resumes, not one call back.
My resume is good. I have had it reviewed by dozens of people, including some in charge of hiring at financial companies, although none that were in a position to help me in more then advice.
I know I am a great candidate. I am a fast learner and was at the top of all my classes, but can not get my foot in the door anywhere. I have used every contact I have to no avail (including some big names).
Will someone tell me where they are hiding the job listings that actually call you in for interviews so I can show how good I really am?
Just a few thoughts Iâll chip in to what has already been said.
1)Of course the obvious one is the economy is in the crapper right now, so itâs understandable. Of course 90% of people are still employed (some of which are underemployed but whatever, they still have a job), so somebody is getting jobs. But donât let all these baby boomers around here rattle you too much. They talk about how hard they worked and you just donât want to put the work into it and think the world owes you a favor, but really the playing field was a lot easier 30 years ago.
Originally I had always thought Iâd wind up in business or finance like you, but after the past year and realizing how much that industry has screwed this country, Iâm kinda glad itâs downsizing. Call it jealousy that I didnât make it if you want, but how much actual value do all these finance people actually add to our world?
2)Like its been mentioned, sending resumes is almost worthless. I have sent probably 100 resumes over the past year and got one phone call. Now granted my resume is nowhere near yours is, but I am also not demanding the jobs and salary that you are either. As mentioned before you could customize a cover letter to the specific job, but that hasnât done me any good. Like for instance, I applied for a lot of inventory/shipping/receiving etc jobs. I would put on their that I have sold over 2000 items on ebay and amazon with 100% positive feedback. I thought that was pretty relevant, but I never got one response.
3)I think I read that you are delivering refrigerators just for a job now and itâs not on your resume. I donât know if that has affected any interviews youâve gotten, but try to hide it as much as possible. Itâs gotten to the point where unemployment is kind of an honorable thing. You say you canât find a job and are unemployed and everybody else says thatâs too bad and they know the economy sucks and itâs not your fault. If you instead just take a crappy job doing anything just to have a job and make a little money in the meantime, employers will now think that there is something wrong with you because you are working a crappy job. Just my opinion though. But I think itâs sad that we live in a world where we look down at people who work at McDonaldâs but being unemployed is perfectly justifiable. I mean, at least they have a job, they are contributing to this world. Maybe Iâm not wording this right, but hopefully you get the point.
4)Iâve said it before and Iâll say it again. Luck has a lot to do with it. As mentioned before, I have been sending out resumes and calling for about a year now (not actively as you though) without much success. I managed to get a temp job in March. Knowing that the job would slow down and end in September/October and how tough the job market is, I called just 2 or 3 places in late July. Surprisingly one called back (I left a message, not a resume). Iâve done the same thing dozens of times before and never got called back. Why they called me back, I have no idea. I went for 2 interviews and got hired pretty easily. The whole time I was thinking that this is way too easy and thereâs got to be a catch. But I started a month ago and things are going ok. Itâs selling cars, so itâs sort of a make or break thing, but at least Iâve got the opportunity. Actually it worked out perfectly because their top salesman was out for 2 months with a knee replacement and he was coming back just as I started. So he was getting back into the swing of things and I was helping him with everything and learning from the best at the same time. It was just good timing, nothing else. But now I guess itâs up to me to take advantage of it.
