Blunder Soup

It surprised me. I thought I knew every angle of applying for jobs. It never occurred to me that I would miss something so basic.

I was reading an article about what hiring managers are looking for. I knew the majority of the article by heart already. One item stood out like a sore thumb. I had been missing something extremely important. It is a technical issue. I didn’t realize that when sending a resume, I need to copy it into the e-mail, rather than sending it as an attachment. Many employers will not open up an attachment: the chance of a virus within the attachment is too great a risk. I can’t blame them. Furthermore, as I’ve begun to realize, they won’t ask you to resend your resume as a “copy and paste” into an e-mail. Once again, the onus of an employer is very weak in this market.

I’m attaching the entire article for your perusal.

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-1875-Job-Search-Hiring-Manager-Secrets/?sc_extcmp=JS_1875_advice&SiteId=cbmsn41875

I cannot tell you how many opportunities were missed as a result. I have no clue.

I feel like I’ve been running blind for several weeks. It may, or may not, have been a futile job hunting search, and I’ll never know for certain. Someone sent me a funny e-mail the other day: an Amish Virus. It said to delete all my files, plus I was on the honor system concerning this deletion. I may as well have had the Amish Virus, as no one has responded to my e-mails.

All along, I thought I had been bumping up against “Courtesy Want Ads.” These are want ads posted in order to justify EEO standards in New Jersey. Now, I believe the combination of my ignorance (mea culpa), employers who need to post ads for bureaucratic reasons, and employers who have never asked me for a “copy and paste” of my resume make this blunder soup.

I was offered a second interview for a sales position. I’ve never worked in sales before. However, I am willing to give it a try. The products are excellent. I just hope I can earn enough to survive.

I know of a salesman who is doing quite well on leads at the moment. He works in the construction field, selling waterproofing for basements. He’s doing quite well; sometimes, necessity is the mother of income producers.
I heard of a business that is doing very well. I went to dinner with friends last week, and one friend works for a facility that holds parties / events in NYC. They seem to be prospering. Their main source of income: rap artists. The money spent on liquor and food is preposterous, yet these people are willingly spending the money. The question: do they really have the money, or are they tapping credit cards to the max? The lifestyle of these rap artists tends towards the uber opulent. Could it be they need to live up to expectations? Will this be yet another industry that falls in on its own weight? Record sales are down by 7%, and illegal music uploads are up by 80%. I think this industry is in for a mean time. In the meantime, this facility sponsoring parties is not feeling the pinch.

Wish I could say the same.