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Archive for the ‘job hunting’ Category

Money: Extra Income

09 Jun

I like money. I am unabashed about my appreciation for it. However, I lack the stereotypical cutthroat ruthless drive for it. Some people feel it’s necessary to step on others and damage people to make a living. I don’t feel that’s required.

Business-like should mean honest, respectful, reliable, and professional, not a grudge match that belongs in kindergarten or grade school. I also don’t mean one should work for free (unless you are volunteering out of a spirit of giving), or be exploited, but people should be fairly compensated for their time and effort.

Money brings up the ugly, dangerous, and scary in people. I often wonder if they understand what it is and the actual purpose of it. It’s a tool. It’s legal tender. It’s the satisfaction for the cost of goods and services. Not the root of happiness or evil.

My motto is to work hard, be masterful about it, and be as highly compensated as possible.

Nothing is free. The moment anyone spends time doing something somewhere, energy is being consumed / expended, which is cost. Time is passing and someone is using their brains to make, create, or contemplate, which is also cost.

On occasion, even as I work full time, I have always sought out extra income: be it part-time, or something I’m selling on the web, or in classified ads. What I’m mystified by are the reactions of some people once they see or guess the nature of my background – be it employment or education.

Their reactions have the air of: Don’t you make enough? What are you doing here?

I wonder why they feel entitled to have that kind of arrogance towards anyone WILLING and able to WORK. Years ago, I had one chick tell me she hopes my social experiment was successful. I just smiled at her. Money is money. I didn’t consider the job beneath me. That strange disappointment was on her.

I’ve worked since I was 10 years old. Even while I was in college working part time, I earned extra money typing up documents for people. Whenever there was an opportunity to make more, I grabbed it.

What’s different today is the opportunity for residual income has increased exponentially. There are so many opportunities via the web that time is the only handicap. These opportunities must be researched, tried, and constantly tinkered with, but once one is successful or satisfied with the outcome, there are only more opportunities to try.

I’m slow about it, but I think I’m finally catching up with my expectations.

 
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Posted in increase income, job hunting, jobs, residual income

 

Why Job References Are Stupid

01 May

Testimonials are important. It has the same value as an actor or athelete endorsing a product s/he never used or ever will use. But we buy the soap, the crapsh*t product, anyway, right?

Considering how much gets outsourced: What’s to stop this trend from becoming a provider of  job references? They do everything else – from scheduling our personal affairs to an assistant calling people on our behalf. Why would it be impossible to claim being an independent arm of a foreign entity? Corporations love foreign enterprises and who knows who anybody is anywhere? No matter what people think LinkedIn and Facebook wont help.

I love these articles by HR “Experts” who caution people – in this desperate economy – not to phony baloney up the resume. Sort of like how the ex-CEO of Tyco, Dennis Kozlowski, never actually graduated from the college(s) he claimed to have attended? I’m not talking about his purported crimes. I’m talking about the fact that a number of CEOs, like him, are running companies with phony baloney resumes.

They got where they were based on fabulous job references. They had the right connections, which were so solid no one ever gave their bogus backgrounds a serious look-see. Now, when guys like this commit these offenses the twits in the media go chirping about how honesty will set you free.

No, it doesn’t. Not in this society. Certainly not in this world. The best liars get elected,  hired, and promoted. They win the day.

This crappola about honesty is that it keeps people in low wage jobs with little prospect of moving up. Corporate America is not about a job well done. I will rephrase that: one cannot be a workhouse, and expect any good to come of it, unless you have dedicated suck-up sycophantic cheerleaders telling everyone how fantastic you are at the job, whether it is the truth or not.

That’s why I say, if that is all a reference is good for: Why not hire a bunch of good actors, get the kind of background created like in that entertaining show, Leverage, go forth, and move up the Corporate America ladder? One of the things I’ve always noticed about head honchos, in most organizations starting from mid-level directors on up, is how good they are at stealing the ideas of others, taking credit for their work, claiming how hard they work and always, always networking (chatting up their cheerleaders) as to how they are the greatest thing since slice bread.

And it bloody well works. All the damn time.

I don’t hate them. I am envious. I wish I was a successful psychopath* on the job too.

The sociopath is that truly self-absorbed individual with no conscience or feeling for others and for whom social rules have no meaning.

CHARISMATIC PSYCHOPATHS are charming, attractive liars. They are usually gifted at some talent or another, and they use it to their advantage in manipulating others. They are usually fast-talkers, and possess an almost demonic ability to persuade others out of everything they own, even their lives. Leaders of religious sects or cults, for example, might be psychopaths if they lead their followers to their deaths. This subtype often comes to believe in their own fictions. They are irresistible.

Definition lifted from: cassiopaea.com

 
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Posted in corporate America, featured, job hunting, jobs, politics, references, work

 

Third Party Vendor Needed: Job References

15 Jan

I do not trust business people, especially supervisors or managers.

They speak. Their lips move: I see a liar.

Why do I feel this way? Personal experience.

It doesn’t matter how many good reviews received while on-the-job, once you are gone from the organization, do not expect these individuals to keep their word. Yes, of course, they’ll be a reference, but they are saying anything to get rid of you.

It’s gotten so bad these days, a man won a lawsuit to keep his ex-employer from bad mouthing him.

Has anyone ever bad-mouthed me? Once, many many years ago.

Today, a third party has to be utilized to make sure all these references aren’t calling one an embezzler or incompetent boob. Because you know how corporate America is today – it’s nothing personal, it’s just the business rules of the vindictive, bigoted, stupid and spiteful.

Yeah, I’m bitter.

I haven’t started the search yet, but is there a business that provides vetted references? What do I mean? There’s a company that provides, excuses – ah, alibis – as a cover for people who are supposed to be at a specific location, yet are not.

I want to find a company – legit - that works like an official reference trust or a credit scoring service. This company carries out the task of making sure references are vetted, checked, and asked a series of questions.

After 12 months, the reference information expires. This leaves the managerial liars at the former company free of legal entanglements. They are released from being asked the same questions multiple times and providing multiple fraudulent and inflammatory answers.

In addition, people forget. Why have them answer the same questions over and over again over a period of (gawd forbid) years?

Through this plan, all sides win.

If a company can use testimonies of their “customers” – whom I suspect are really actors – as proof of their level of quality. Why not have a company that keeps references for working people?

 
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Posted in corporate America, job hunting, references

 

What Color is Your Parachute?

08 Jan

The book, What Color is Your Parachute? is a perennial, massive, bestseller by Richard Nelson Bolles. There is a new version every year along amongst others with similiar titles. It is a practical guide to helping a person through the difficult steps of finding a new job or changing a career.

It is not about a search for any job, it is about the search for The Dream Job.

The path to The Dream Job is achieved by: completing exercises, reviewing online sources, and an interesting self-examination of what it is a person truly desires.

The chapter on self-employment is thin gruel and not very encouraging.

Surprisingly, he’s also not keen on online job searches. I’m conflicted by the stats he quotes. Aside from the big league, golden parachute positions almost all viable jobs seem to be on the Internet.

Hunting down employers like telemarketers is apparently the approach he prefers.

Networking is key, which takes up the second half of this book.

I am someone who doesn’t have a grand passion for anything in particular. I found the book tough to work through. I’m an adult who doesn’t quite know what I want to be (if and when I grow up), so I couldn’t answer most of the quizzes to adequately describe myself.

However, this book is excellent for those with a clue, have a passion for something(s), and are keen on a career or job change. Overall, the message is: It takes work to find work.

 
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Posted in career change, career counseling, dream job, job hunting, online job search, what color is your parachute