Where's My Job?: Employment During Hard Times (For New Graduates and Others Seeking Work)

By Paul Levine

With diplomas in hand, the lament of all too many graduates is, "So now what do I do?" Where's My Job? provides answers to that question by helping job seekers

Understand the importance of having a positive attitude
Formulate winning answers to interview questions
Maintain control during interviews
Combat the negativity of friends, relatives, and co-workers
Develop backup plans
Become a risk taker in seeking a job
Get beyond the label of a major or job title
Understand that the best career counselor is inside a person
Avoid the influence of the negative headlines about employment
Deal with the change and insecurity of the job market
Stay away from prognosticators about today's work world
Turn job interview rejections into positives
Cope with difficult supervisors
Write convincing cover letters and resumes

The bad news about the economy and the high degree of competition for jobs is daunting. By providing tactics that turn the odds in the favor of recent graduates (and others seeking employment), Where's My Job? is a reassuring companion and an essential guide.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462069255

Paul Levine

The author of twenty-two novels, Paul Levine won the John D. MacDonald Fiction Award and has been nominated for the Edgar, Macavity, International Thriller, Shamus, and James Thurber prizes. A former trial lawyer, he also wrote twenty episodes of the CBS military drama JAG and co-created the Supreme Court drama First Monday starring James Garner and Joe Mantegna. The international bestseller, To Speak for the Dead, was his first novel and introduced readers to linebacker-turned-lawyer Jake Lassiter. Bum Rap was an Amazon Number One Bestseller. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed Solomon vs. Lord series of legal capers. His latest book is Cheater's Game, which digs deep into the college admissions scandal. He divides his time between Santa Barbara and Miami. For more information, visit his website at paul-levine.com or his Amazon Author Page at amazon.com/Paul-Levine/e/B000APPYKG/ or follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/PaulLevineAuthorPage/ or on Twitter @Jake_Lassiter

Book preview

Where’s My Job?

Employment During Hard Times

(For New Graduates and Others Seeking Work)

Paul Levine

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Where’s My Job?

Employment During Hard Times

(For New Graduates and Others Seeking Work)

Copyright © 2011 by Paul Levine.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-6924-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-6925-5 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 11/29/2011

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Sell Your Box of Cereal

(The Interview)

Chapter 2

Don’t Be Labeled By Your Major

(Or Your Job Title)

Chapter 3

It’s Your Life—Take Hold of It

Chapter 4

The Importance of Being Positive

Chapter 5

Don’t Let The Lawn Dry Up

(Transitions and Backup Plans)

Chapter 6

Forget The Gold Watch

Chapter 7

Change and Risk Taking

(It’s Never Too Late to Change)

Chapter 8

Surviving Work

Chapter 9

So Now What Do I Do?

(It’s Time To Get To Some Basics)

Chapter 10

The Nitti Gritty—How to Start Now

For Andrew

Introduction

I recently read two interesting facts—

More than 4 unemployed people are vying for every job opening.

And

16% of the entire work force is unemployed or underemployed.

With figures like these, many graduates might feel that the odds of getting a job are too difficult to overcome.

So how does a graduate deal with that? Because those statistics are enough to get you to put your diploma in a drawer and get into bed and feel sorry for yourself.

And that’s why I wrote this book. To let you know that there is hope. That your attitude and approach will help you get a job.

Where’s My Job is about learning how to sell yourself to an employer and is about all the steps that lead up to being hired, and the things that go on after. It’s about taking control of your interview and being positive on your job once you get it. But most of all, the book is about coming out on top in a difficult job market and enabling yourself to handle job seeking and employment with confidence.

But let me tell you something that happened to me a long time ago when I first started out. Young, inexperienced—quite intimidated by it all. But eager. A college graduate who had majored in sociology.

I saw an ad in the Sunday Times for a recent graduate. Social Work Assistant in a nursing home. Good with people. Growth opportunity. Within a week, I was at the interview.

It was shortly after my graduation from New York University, and I needed a career. But more than a career, I needed a job. The nursing home was in Riverdale in the west part of the Bronx. The grounds, overlooking the Hudson River, were resplendent with flowers, neatly trimmed shrubbery, stone benches, brick paths, and the ever-present view of the Hudson River. Inside, the halls smelled of disinfectant, dining room food, medication, old age, and fear.

It was a warm morning, and as I sat in the waiting area in the hallway just outside the administrative offices, people shuffled by. Some looked at me and smiled, winced, and stared. Some even frowned.

Are you here for a job interview? an old woman moving slowly by holding on to her walker, asked. I can tell you are not a visitor, she said stopping. A visitor doesn’t wear a dark suit like that and doesn’t wait in the sitting area. I hope you’ll get it. We need fine, young men. Will you come and talk to me when you get the job? The day is so long here. It’s only after breakfast, and I don’t know what I am going to do for the rest of the day. Do you know how long the day is when you’re old? No, of course you don’t. Solly only comes once a month now. I don’t say he’s a bad son because he has a lot on his mind and has a big job. I’m just happy he comes. I hope you get the job. You seem like a nice young man.

I can work with them, I thought. That woman seemed like an easy person to talk with. They’re lonely. All they need is someone to talk to. Someone to make them feel better. I can do that. I’m sure I can work here if that’s all it takes. Helping old people might be a good thing to do.

Mrs. Rothstein, the administrator, was a large woman in a business suit. She glanced up at me from behind her desk. I held out my hand as I had been told to do, but she abruptly looked down at my resume and gestured for me to sit. As she looked at my resume, I waited for a smile, a nod, an indication that she had spotted something positive. That she had seen that I was a sociology major from a fine school. That she had seen that I had done group work at the YMHA. That she could see by looking at me that I was honest, eager, and would work hard. That she would see something, anything, that would tell her I could do a good job in working at the nursing home, and the residents would quickly grow to like me. That they would want me around so I could talk to them and keep them from being lonely.

But Mrs. Rothstein’s face was blank, almost stern. As if I had done something wrong, and I was there to hear her punishment or her request for me to bring a note from my mother. She was now making notations on my resume and was underlining selected words. It was as if she were grading my resume. As if she would hand it back with an F and a comment for me to do it over.

Automatically, my hands went up to my tie because they needed to move when I was nervous. I made the knot tighter, and made sure that the knot was not pulling away from the top part of my shirt. I felt closed in, and whenever that happened, my face reddened, and I realized it was possible I would begin to sweat. Mrs. Rothstein’s silence was now making me even more nervous.

Finally looking up, she said, Not much experience here. My throat was dry, as it always was on interviews in those days. I see you were a sociology major. She quickly looked down to where my hands were now resting on the edge of her desk. She had a slight frown or smile. I couldn’t tell which, but I knew something had occurred to her. Something she didn’t like. I felt she was about to tell me to remove my hands from her desk when she said, You bite your fingernails.

I wished I had been able to tell Mrs. Rothstein that biting my fingernails had nothing to do with the job. That no one would be looking at my nails. That she was the first person to have ever mentioned it. That it was just a nervous habit, but that it did not detract in any way from my being a hard worker. That my previous supervisor had found me very willing and motivated, and that my communication skills and interaction with the residents of the nursing home would be excellent.

But in fact, when she pointed it out, I stared at her as if it was a mistake, I quickly removed my hands from her desk, and got out my handkerchief to wipe my brow. I was not used to confronting authority figures. And so all I was able to say was, I guess. Sometimes.

She had won. I was defeated. Taking control was not my usual reaction. She had me.

That’s a nervous habit, she went on. The people here are old and need a sense of calm. They have enough on their minds already. They can’t be worrying about you. This is a helping profession.

I know I can do the job, I said. I’m a hard worker, I finally blurted out.

This ultimately did not prove enough.

Mr. Levine, she said, coming around to where I was sitting. You look like a nice young man, and I am sure you will find a job somewhere. But I’ve been in this position for a long time. So please respect that. I think I am a good judge of people. I’m just trying to be honest with you. I could say what other interviewers sometimes say and lead people on—that I have more applicants to see. That your experience is lacking. I could say I have already seen at least two people who have worked in a nursing home. It’s just your nail biting might be the sign that you would have a hard time in this job. This is social work. This is working with people who need help. And being nervous is not a good thing to show. Don’t you think there is a possibility, just a chance I am right?

Not only did I not try to sell myself, I made no attempt to tell Mrs. Rothstein why I was the one she should hire, and I left the job interview shaken. And I don’t want that to happen to you. Especially as you move through your first interviews after college.

But whether it’s your first job or tenth. Whether you are starting out, in the middle of your career or returning to work, you need to be in charge. It all becomes a mindset. A feeling that leads to approaching an interview with confidence. You need to know what to do no matter what is thrown at you. And that’s another reason why I wrote this book.

Most of the content of the book comes from my interviews and job experiences—both my failures and successes. It also comes from my interviewing job candidates when, later in my career, I became an administrator and a director of vocational programs. My goal for any reader is to avoid the type of pitfalls I made. The objective for any job candidate is to come out on top and be able to convince the interviewer to hire you—what I call selling your box of cereal.

But the main reason I wrote Where’s My Job is because of my son. When I started writing it, he was returning to college at Indiana University as a junior. He had already decided to double major in psychology and telecommunications and a minor in business, but had no idea what he would actually do. He was concentrating, instead, on