Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Let there be snark.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Second rate reporter says what?

People are complicated. Love is not.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Balloon Jobs / Time For Another Jobs Thread

Time For Another Jobs Thread

by | 111 Comments

This post is in: 

John_Singer_Sargent_-_Venetian_Glass_Workers

This has to be something of a drive-by post, but we haven’t had a jobs thread for too long.

Here’s my contribution: MIT’s Hyperstudio is a research group (in my program) working on applications for use in digital humanities. The group is looking for a part time communications person, described as follows:

COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, Comparative Media Studies/Writing (part-time, 45-50%), to provide outreach and project support to the HyperStudio – Laboratory for Digital Humanities. Will plan and coordinate interactions with educators and developers within and outside of MIT to help them adopt and use HyperStudio’s Annotation Studio web application; work closely with the studio’s team members to develop and implement outreach and adoption strategies for other HyperStudio projects; coordinate the development and assessment of curricular modules for Annotation Studio and organize workshops and additional outreach activities for educators and developers; and maintain public project websites and develop social media strategies for Annotation Studio and other HyperStudio projects.

For full details, go to the MIT jobs site and search for job number 10653.

Note — the difference between 45% and 50% is crucial, as 50% makes one benefits eligible.

And with that: over to the hive mind.  What do you have; what do you need?

Image: John Singer Sargent, Venetian Glass Workers, 1880/82

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    boatboy_srq

    I’m good. The housemate, though, is looking. Customer Service / HR / health insurance fields, metro DC / northern VA. Any suggestions would be welcome.

  4. 4.

    gene108

    Living in Southern NJ in greater Philly area.

    Looking to make a career change.

    Working for 17 years for the same IT Consulting/staffing firm. Worn a lot of hats. Passed the CPA exam in 2006, though I was a few credits short to apply for a license. Finished an MBA last year.

    Thinking of moving into SAP FICO*

    I’m just having a hard time finding a training center that I feel confident can support me.

    Any suggestions?

    *Besides the money, any lateral move to another company as a controller or some such is still going to involve chasing down receivables, filing taxes for various locations, etc. and I want to take a break from that sort of thing.

  10. 10.

    The Other Bob

    Look at State Government!

    I have said it before, there are solid jobs to be had in the government sector, especially in State Government. You don’t have to be near a capitol city either.

    Many people don’t take the time to get to know the State jobs listings, which are typically done on the web. This means the applicant pool often sucks.

    I work in Real Estate for a State. I have hired a few people who needed a bit of Real Estate experience, plus a degree. I usually get 70 applicants. Half claim experience not reflected on their resume, so are thrown out. Another chunk claim owning a home as Real Estate experience, so are tossed. Another group are lawyers who have written a lease or two. In the end I get down to 3 solid people to interview and 3 that are borderline.

    Seriously, look at the variety of jobs States offer. It is worth it.

  16. 16.

    Shinobi (@shinobi42)

    My partner is still looking for IT/Support, or similar job in Chicago.

    Unfortunately my company just filled our last open position.

  18. 18.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I’m still looking for anything accounting related in the Twin Cities. I really do mean ANYTHING. After eight years of unemployment, I’m not interested in having anyone tell me, “Oh, you’ll feel wasted in this position,” or “This isn’t such a great place to work.”

    I just want a fucking job.

  23. 23.

    Violet

    @Raven: Oh, that’s excellent news! I’m sure you’ve been worried. A nice bit of news before the weekend. Kick back with a strong piece of chocolate, since I know you’re a teetotaler.

  24. 24.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Yatsuno: There’s nothing there in any of my fields in Minnesota. There’s one job I’d be perfect for, but the minimum requirements include having gotten a bachelor’s or master’s degree since December, 2010. I got my master’s in May, 2010 so I’ve been unemployed too long for even the federal government to want me.

  28. 28.

    CaseyL

    If anyone’s looking for someone with experience as an intellectual property paralegal, program coordinator, or (limited) contract and compliance work, let me know.

    I got canned from an increasingly thankless job last week.

    Yatsuno – Nice to know the Feds are hiring again! I’ll definitely check that out.

  29. 29.

    Sanjuro

    The company I work for (contract IT firm) sends out monthly listing of IT positions in state government (KY) that they are trying to fill. Currently have 76 positions available. Contact me at [email protected] and I will forward the list to you. All positions are most likely located in Frankfort KY. Cost of living in area is relatively cheap but cultural environment is weak. Positions often turn into long term engagements.

  31. 31.

    demz taters

    @Yatsuno: And, the Dept of Ed offers veterans free federal resume help and job interview counseling. I owe my current job to this service and can’t praise them (or working for the government) enough. Send an email to [email protected] and someone will get back to you.

  32. 32.

    mai naem

    Mine is just a suggestion. I saw the comment about state jobs. Look at city and county jobs too. They are usually okay paying jobs with excellent benefits. I was on a Phoenix suburb’s site for another purpose and happened to click on the jobs site and they had three website development/IT kind of positions available. Also too, Planning and Zoning, Traffic stuff. Water management, admin staff. Also, Indian Health Services. If you live in a big metro area, you may be surprised at whats available in town at IHS related sites.

  34. 34.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Cassidy: This is one of those things I just don’t get about the world, isn’t it? Why the fuck does someone list something under “Minimum Requirements” if it is not, in fact, the minimum requirements?

  36. 36.

    Violet

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): It might be that it is the minimum requirement. It might not. You can’t tell from a job posting. Maybe the low level person tasked with posting it made a typo. Maybe it’s an attempt to deter people who got their degree twenty years ago from applying (veiled ageism). Maybe it’s a hard and fast rule.

    If you think you are a good fit for the job, apply anyway. Let them decide if the minimum requirements are a definite or have some flexibility. What do you have to lose by applying?

  38. 38.

    Violet

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    so I’ve been unemployed too long for even the federal government to want me.

    Also, didn’t you teach in China this summer? That means you weren’t unemployed and overseas experience, especially in China, is valuable and means you are flexible and open to new situations and experiences.

  39. 39.

    Yatsuno

    @CaseyL: Oh honey that bites. There is an admin position at the FAA open that is also open to civilians. It’s in Renton (express lanes, hello!) and the FAA is not under sequester thank you worthless Repubs. But one point: you’d be competing with me for it.

    I also haven’t looked for a few days. There might be other stuff opening around here.

  40. 40.

    something fabulous

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I think the key is to address that part up front, so you are not just skimmed as someone who doesn’t read/follow instructions carefully enough. Rather within the cover letter address that issue directly, such that in the hopes that if they are having a search process like Other Bob describes above with actually unqualified people, they will then broaden their search to include otherwise-qualified-you. They may not, of course: they might be sticklers for this arbitrary date for reasons you’ll never know, but what harm to write a note saying, “While you will see from my CV that I received my master’s about 6 months early, I feel my skills match what you are looking for so exactly, I am taking the time to apply…” or the like? I do feel for you; I always find moving the teeniest bit outside my usual freelance work is a huge extra process. Best of luck forging on.

  41. 41.

    Soonergrunt

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Not the case. You’d be surprised. Apply for any and all federal jobs for which you think you might be possibly qualified. And when you do, make sure that when you fill out the portion that refers to “Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities” that you basically lift the descriptions from the KSA section and the Duties and Responsibilities section of the job listing.
    You have to assume that the HR people have no idea what kind of position they are vetting for, and will go very rigidly by the KSA and D&R sections of the job announcement.

  43. 43.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soonergrunt: I have been told of a trick to get past computerized scans that are looking for specific terms. Put every term you can think of in a footer using a white on white format. When you upload the resume, the terms are there for the computer to find but they can’t be seen by the naked eye. I’ve never tried it, but it sounds plausible.

  44. 44.

    Soonergrunt

    @Omnes Omnibus: I could see how that would work in some cases. But while some federal positions have the user upload a copy of their resume in Word or PDF format, many of the systems strip out the meta-data and other non-printable data for storage size considerations. I know for a fact that USAJOBS.GOV does this, and so does VA’s internal hiring system–the site you’d be directed to from USAJOBS.GOV when applying for a VA position. What I was getting at was that HR frequently has to sift through application packets for jobs they do not understand (like IT positions and other professional positions) and so they go rigidly by the job announcement itself. This leaves out a LOT of qualified applicants when they do that.

  46. 46.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Soonergrunt: Neither of the things I applied for today had a “Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities” section. The application basically consisted of uploading my resume and my college transcript and then answering a bunch of multiple choice questions. I can only select the things that they specifically list.

    And, frankly, my college transcript probably doesn’t help much since it means I can’t hide the periods from 1989-91 when I failed every course I registered for because I would end up in a depressive funk where I basically wouldn’t leave my apartment for six weeks at a time except to get food. I managed a 3.2 undergraduate GPA (and a 3.7 in the master’s program) anyway, but that long string of Fs can’t possibly look good.

  47. 47.

    scav

    @Violet: Don’t some people often add a requirement that they can use an excuse to toss otherwise qualified people they just really don’t like?

  49. 49.

    Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)

    What are these “jobs” you speak of? Once I turned 55 it became damn near impossible to get hired at any wage. When I sailed past 60 it became completely impossible. Protip: Do not grow old.

  50. 50.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Of all of the things I dislike about the job search process, near the top is that so much of it revolves around gaming the system. No wonder our country is falling apart.

  51. 51.

    mai naem

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): If that comes up, it is such a long time ago, just say that somebody you were close up to -aunt/grandma/grandad/bf/gf died/got sick/you broke up with them, whatever. It’s not like they can look that stuff up.

  53. 53.

    PurpleGirl

    @Raven: Please tell the Bride Congratulations from me on getting good results from the tests and their interpretation. Happy for you too not to have to worry a lot right now. Have a good trip (you have a trip coming up, right?).

  55. 55.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Violet: You might think that having a recent job teaching my profession overseas would be valuable to have on your resume but it turns out that that’s not the case. I’ve probably applied for a hundred jobs since I got back and I got nothing. No call backs. No interviews. Nothing. The temp agencies don’t even get back to me anymore, not that their calls ever led to an actual job.

  56. 56.

    Keith G

    Love Thanksgiving time. Copious amounts of fresh oysters at the markets.

    Fried oysters and ale tonight.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Soonergrunt:

    What I was getting at was that HR frequently has to sift through application packets for jobs they do not understand (like IT positions and other professional positions) and so they go rigidly by the job announcement itself. This leaves out a LOT of qualified applicants when they do that.

    I agree. HR looks for a set of criteria, whereas the actual future supervisor is looking for a person who can do the job.

  60. 60.

    Cassidy

    Another possible avenue, look up your city/ county dispatch jobs for police and fire/ ems. It tends to have a high turnover.

  61. 61.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Soonergrunt: After eight years and a several thousand unsuccessful applications, I’m out of fucking hope. I keep applying but it’s a simple fact: I am never going to have a significant job again. Picking up a six week teaching gig that leads nowhere is as far as it’s going to go. The working world has been very clear about not having any use for me.

  62. 62.

    kc

    @Soonergrunt:

    A lot of the USA jobs around here require a security clearance. How hard is it to get one, I wonder? I would think a lot of unemployed people would have some credit issues that would create some difficulty in that regard.

  64. 64.

    chauncey1186

    We’re in need of a part-time Clinic Manager for our free clinic in West Michigan. We are just south of Grand Rapids, and west of Kalamazoo. It is a grant-funded contract position through 2014. Just received confirmation of the award this week so I don’t have a job description or other details yet, but email me at work if you know anyone in the medical field who may be interested.

    [email protected]

  66. 66.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Cassidy: I can’t do fire/ems. I need something without that stress level, seeing as how being an options trader produced a complete nervous breakdown.

  68. 68.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    On the upside, Fox Sports Wisconsin is actually showing the Badgers/Fighting Whioux women’s hockey game tonight and my usual haunt gets the channel. So I’ll be trying to unwind from an afternoon of doing jobs applications (and, yeah, my mood on the subject is extra surly tonight since I’d been working on it for several hours before the thread popped up) by watching and drinking Summit EPA.

    Go Bucky.

  69. 69.

    West of the Rockies

    What do you do if you have, indeed, quel horror, been dismissed from a job? The reason I was sacked was, indeed, my own fault, but it wasn’t something horrible, like embezzlement or incompetency — more along the lines of not checking email during a semester of not teaching and opening an online class a little late. I’m not trying to downplay my error — opening the course late was stupid. I typically taught late-starting courses, and one semester one of my courses did, indeed, start late, but the other did not and so I fucked up and opened it late.

    So how does one address such a transgression when filling out new applications?

  70. 70.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @RaflW: Oh, hey. St. Cloud State needs an Associate Athletic Director. Maybe I could go up there and fuck up their programs.

  71. 71.

    Soonergrunt

    @kc: Believe it or not, a SECRET clearance isn’t that hard to get. Or at least it hasn’t been, but supposedly the reins are being tightened.
    Basically, as long as you don’t have any arrests in 7 years, and haven’t used illegal drugs in 7 years, and do not belong to an organization that advocates the violent overthrow of the US Government, you probably aren’t engaging in any of the other behaviors that would flag a background investigation. As far as credit goes, if you can show that you are engaged in a credit management program, or are currently repaying your bills on time, you’d probably be OK. The investigators understand that people who are or have been unemployed are going to have less than perfect credit. The real flag there would be if you had a continuing history of dishonest behavior, such as a long string of repeated failures to pay your bills or maintain enough money in your account to avoid bouncing checks.

  73. 73.

    Linnaeus

    I’m looking to move out of my part-time consulting job, and though I’m stating the obvious, it hasn’t been easy. It seems that I’m either overqualified or underqualified for everything I’m applying for. I’m still working on finishing my history Ph.D., but not looking for an academic job, since the market for that is terrible. I’m focusing mostly on public-sector jobs for a lot of reasons: good pay, decent security, I like the idea of public service, etc., but those are not easy to get in this area (Seattle), or at least it doesn’t seem that way.

    Ideally (and I know this is asking a lot), I’d like to get into something in which I can use my research and writing skills (something that graduate school has done a good job of teaching me). I think that’s what I do best, but it seems there’s few employers out there that want to pay for that.

  74. 74.

    kc

    @Soonergrunt:

    Thanks; it’s good to know that they don’t just reject people out of hand for having had financial difficulties that were beyond their control. The way many private employers are doing nowadays . . .

    It increasingly seems to me that the whole system is rigged to keep pushing people down.

  75. 75.

    Yatsuno

    @Linnaeus: Seems odd, but have you checked Microsoft or Amazon? Both have been on hiring binges lately. A friend just got hired by virtue of speaking native Chinese and not much else at Amazon, so it is a pretty open field over there it seems.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @kc: My experience with the clearance system indicates that there are not a lot of automatic disqualifying items. If you tell the the investigators about it, you are probably fine. You can’t be blackmail over something the employer already knows about, right? Back in the late 80s, I had no problems getting a Top Secret clearance despite admitting having used some illegal drugs in college. If you cover something up or lie about it, you will not get a clearance.

  78. 78.

    Yatsuno

    @West of the Rockies: One way is to discuss it with the interviewer. Oftentimes these situations don’t fit nicely into sound bite bits. I had to resign a job due to illness and didn’t work for over two years afterwards save a volunteer position with a city. They wanted to keep me but they didn’t think they could get the budget from the city. It was a nice buffer that got me into the job I had before here. But I never said I resigned due to illness, choosing to discuss that with the interviewer. Sometimes you just can’t break it down into a few words.

  79. 79.

    Linnaeus

    @Yatsuno:

    I haven’t recently, because it seemed they were only hiring for a lot of tech-heavy jobs (of course) and I’m not an IT person. I’ll give them another look, though.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:
    Good news! Yea!

    It seems that manufacturing is ticking up a bit, small machine shop I work in is pretty much swamped with work at the moment. If anyone has that type of experience I’d check out the local small businesses. Machine shops, welders, etc. Probably have to walk in the door and ask though.

  81. 81.

    J.Ty

    Pro tip for any librarians out there by the way, the smart startups are always on the prowl for people with LIS training and a knack for computing.

  82. 82.

    kc

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That makes sense to me, though with the credit thing my impression is they’d think a person who’s struggling financially would be more inclined to steal of embezzle.

  83. 83.

    Yatsuno

    @kc: The concern with a federal job is that anyone who is severely financially distressed is more susceptible to corruption like bribes. Of course as we’ve seen it doesn’t necessarily relate to income level as a Navy admiral was recently indicted for corruption. With embezzlement so many agencies have internal watchdogs now that it is almost impossible to get away with that.

  84. 84.

    Ruckus

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):
    Higgs, I’m 64 and got a decent job this year. Of course it was from being related to someone who suggested that I would fit in when he didn’t want the job. I do fit in for the work but I’m by far the oldest employee and don’t really fit into the atmosphere. But who cares, the paycheck cashes and the work is well within my capabilities and sometimes is thought provoking. Other employee’s loss and all that.

  86. 86.

    Violet

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Sorry it’s such a downer. Just out of curiosity, how did you get your teaching job in China? Is there a way to talk with whoever got you that job about another job maybe here in the US? If someone referred you, can you talk with that person about helping you with another referral?

    Since you are a relatively recent grad of a Masters program, can you go to your school’s placement center and get some help that way? Maybe a fresh set of eyes on your resume would help? Maybe some interview coaching or a list of contacts? Something to spark a new direction might help. What you’re doing now obviously isn’t working for you, so thinking outside of that might be a good direction.

    Judging Iyour posts, you seem to love women’s hockey. Is there some way to get some kind of a job involved with a team? Might be kind of fun and would be something different.

  87. 87.

    West of the Rockies

    @Yatsuno: Thanks, Yatsuno (and other commenters)… yes, it is difficult trying to explain in a box a complex situation.

  89. 89.

    kc

    I brought up the security clearance question after I browsed a few pages of federal jobs out of curiosity. I was surprised to see that some of the (seemingly, to me) lower-level ones required a security clearance. ALL of the higher-level ones I looked at required a secret or TOP secret clearance.

  90. 90.

    Ruckus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
    I know this is hard to hear(and for probably the thousandth time as well) but sometimes you have little choice but to keep trying. It’s like being in a relationship, it’s all in being in the right place at the right time and being able to compromise. Now of course most employers don’t have to compromise because they have scads of applicants for each job, but it can happen. I owned a small business(that failed!) and the number of employers who think that looks good on a resume is minutely small. So my last actual job? Over 8 yrs ago. My age? 64. Got a job this year. It can happen.

  93. 93.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Violet: I got the job in China through one of my former professors. He was contracted to do it and then, about six weeks before he was scheduled to leave, he had a family emergency and couldn’t make the trip. He recommended me to them and they took me. I suspect that they would have preferred someone who was really a professor rather than some guy who had a master’s degree and no experience teaching but given that the timing meant that they had to find someone on about ten days notice they took me.

    That professor has been looking for things for me. At one point we were going to go into business together but other commitments meant that he was too busy to do his share of the work and so four months of my own effort went to waste. So I’m already pulling on that string as hard as I can.

    The placement center at the Carlson School of Management is worthless. I have a low opinion of the academic content over there so I signed up for the Master’s of Accountancy program thinking that the coursework would be poor but at least I’d get to use the career center. It turned out to be the other way around. The guy who runs that program is fabulous and has fantastic courses. The placement office was worthless.

    Two stories. The first is that I went in because I wanted help with cover letters. So I make an appointment and sit down with a counselor. Among the various things she told me was that it’s critically important to use proper spelling and grammar on a cover letter because it’s how you present yourself to a potential employer. And then I watched her take the sample cover letter I had written and change perfectly correct sentences into ones that were grammatically incorrect.

    The second story is that I tried to get help from them on learning how to network. They pointed me to meet-and-greets that they hold with employers from around the Twin Cities and said that I should go to them and meet people. I told them that this wasn’t a workable solution because I would just stand in a corner and watch everyone else interact. They said that it was a skill I needed to learn and I should just go.

    The summer after my graduation I got my diagnosis. So I went back in and asked them for help learning how to network. The woman mentioned the meet-and-greets and I responded that I have Asperger’s and so I have a disability that means that I would just stand in a corner and watch other people interact. She nodded and said that she was sympathetic but that they had no way to help me.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
    I know you have discussed your situation before and I think it’s pretty good that you are able to share about it. Ad on main page, Postal Service looking for workers, no experience, avg pay 72k/yr. Of course it changed before I could click and get a link.

  98. 98.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Omnes Omnibus: I apply for that every year. Yet to get a positive response. As I said, once you’ve been unemployed for a few years, NO ONE wants you, even for a temp position.

  99. 99.

    ruemara

    @RaflW: I applied for a video job at a municipal fire service there. I didn’t get it, but for a while, it looked like I’d need mukluks.

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): As a fellow long term underemployed/future unemployed-I’m pulling for you. I can only keep an eye out for things in my neck of the woods, but would you be open to relocating if there was a job in CA?

  101. 101.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @ruemara: I would consider it but it would be problematic. All of my support systems are here in Minnesota. Among other things, I’m extremely involved with the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team (treasurer of the booster club, for instance) and that’s a huge part of my social life, which I’d have a hard time replacing.

    So it would be a tough decision.

  102. 102.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): Describing myself as a freelance writer is as close as I’m willing to come to that. It’s not just an ethical thing. I’m also a really bad dissembler and trying to spin that kind of yarn is likely to trip me up.

  104. 104.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Omnes Omnibus: Nope. No publications. And at this point I’m working strictly on fiction. I have a feeling that telling a prospective employer that you’re writing a novel isn’t helpful.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    I have a feeling that telling a prospective employer that you’re writing a novel isn’t helpful.

    You are probably right. At that point, you may as well say you have a drinking problem and don’t bathe often.

  106. 106.

    Yatsuno

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): What about taking the enrolled tax preparer exam and starting your own tax preparation and representation business? For what those folks charge, you could make a sweet living. Plus you could get in with an attorney and get to deal with people like me all day!

  107. 107.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Yatsuno: I’m not a CPA and without that designation you get nowhere in that field. It’s a nice little racket they have going for them. I passed all four of the CPA exams and thought they were stupidly easy but you have to work as a public accountant for a year before you can call yourself a CPA. Until I can get through that hoop starting my own business is a no go.

  108. 108.

    piratedan

    @kc: if edward fucking snowden can get a security clearance, you can too…. don’t defeat yourself before you even try. So they ask some questions, have you robbed a bank, fucked a neighbor in her front yard? been involved in the black market goat trade? been a drug mule? If Rand aqua buddha Paul can be a Congressman, do NOT rule yourself out of a federal job.

  109. 109.

    piratedan

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): the other possibility (and this sucks to even mention it) is to volunteer someplace, find a local charity that you believe in and make some contacts that way. If nothing else, it fills a gap in the resume and as a possible bonus it gives you another skill to put on it.

  110. 110.

    Lurking Buffoon

    Aw fuck it. I’ve been out of work for 2 months now. I have experience working with the disabled and low level management, though I’m really not picky here. Really, I’ll take whatever I can get right now; pit fighting included. Trying to get into grad school for Health Administration (I’ve done everything on my end, the processing has just been glacially slow) so low level/day job type work is fine. Any place in or around NYC works for me since moving really isn’t an option right now (I’m in North Jersey).

  111. 111.

    Hillary Rettig

    As usual, this is a good time of year to check the local nonprofits, some of which got federal grants starting 10/1/13 and may be hiring.

    Some of them probably hired right after that date, others have been gearing up (or the first candidate didn’t work out) so they may now have vacancies. (Also possible that the shutdown delayed deployment of some programs.) I would proactively call any nonprofits in your area.

    Also, the Clements for Congress campaign has UNpaid social media, writing, multimedia, and graphic design internships. I’m sorry about the unpaid part, but this is a fantastic opportunity to play an important role in a small team, and get a lot of great resume-building experience – plus I’ll provide free, intensive career coaching that will hopefully accelerate your job search. You don’t have to be in Michigan for some of the internships. Email me for job descriptions. [email protected]

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