This is a list of some really great job search advice if you’re having trouble getting hired. Even though it seems that everywhere is hiring right now, it’s not that easy to actually get a good job. So hopefully this advice can help someone:
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FWIW the approach and expectations of a job search have changed completely, and multiple times, in the 44 years I was working. By the time I got my last (14-year) position, the technique was very different from my first search out of school. It’s very likely that your parents’ generation didn’t have online anything, didn’t have instant and cheap communication, didn’t have the same placement options (because an “agency” was nothing like Indeed or Monster or LinkedIn), weren’t looking for the same “information economy” sort of positions that you are, and DID get hammered by their own parents that personal contact/check-in/persistence was the ONLY way to operate (and maybe it was Grandpa’s day). So don’t just blow them off, try teaching them instead (have them read this post for starters). And BTW that goes for a lot of life nowadays; your elders aren’t clueless because they’re stupid, they’re clueless because they’re lost in a world that has changed constantly during their lifetime. (I did embedded systems firmware, so I *lived* in high tech. Normal people don’t.)
How did you get the job in embedded system/high tech? The above “get a job” via spamming might work for McDonalds, Retail, or Receptionist if you can bring “big titty energy”. But with a BInfoSci and years of coding practice I could never get an electrical apprenticeship, programming, or automation job.
I agree, the post looks like a general student looking for a general hourly job rather than a tech degree looking for a tech job. Back when I graduated with bachelor (from engineering school) and master (from more general university) in computer science, having learned all on mainframe systems because that’s pretty much all there was, I got my first job working with then-new microprocessors with a little help from the uni placement office; and from there each experience went deeper in sequence of working on embedded systems. I must admit that from my second job on, every transition was forced on me by layoff or company closure, though all but one wound up for the better in the long run. A multinational bought the company I was working for and mismanaged it; then another multinational bought the company and discontinued the oldest product along with the 40% of total staff working on it; or another multinational bought the company and sold the product line that I was the lead developer for.
I am currently on the hunt for a literary agent.
There are lots of conventions and rules and junk, but they are set up in such a way as to make it nearly impossible just to carpet bomb agents (at least not if you want a chance). Agents specialize in a handful of genres, so you need to make certain your work matches what they represent.
The problem I’m seeing is that agents are getting inundated with thousands of applicants per day. I’d say a good 90% of these are “novels” that should probably be tossed and took the writer a month or two to write (I’m looking at you, NaNoWriMo). But it’s not like they really know. They read the bio, the cover letter, and the first 5 – 20 pages of your ms. Since they are looking at thousands, they hire “readers” to sift through the “slush pile.” Readers (and agents) can be as picky as they want.
I went to a convention where 3 literary agents would start reading submitted manuscripts aloud and raise their hand when they normally would have stopped. Only one made it to the end of the 1 submitted page. Some of the reasons why they stopped include:
They mistook an idiom for a cliché.
The ms used more than one font.
They did not *IMMEDIATELY* know everything about the main character.
They did not like being “surprised” (on the first page, mind you) when something was revealed.
The ms started with the word “it” or “the”.
They did not like the font.
Someone dared to use the passive voice.
Someone else displayed their hubris at being able to properly use a semi-colon (and one of the AGENTS confessed she did not know how to use them properly herself).
It was not realistic.
It was too realistic.
SERIOUSLY. It is infuriating. Now I did learn a lot, and many of the reasons they stopped were eye-opening (POV errors or incorrect genre, for instance). They are also allowed to just not like the piece, a totally legitimate and probably the best reason to deny it. But when you’ve worked 6 months, a year, several years on a manuscript for it to be tossed aside because of a perceived error that would take all of 10 seconds to fix (such as: select all -> Arial font), it is *VERY HARD* not to get dismayed, not to despair.
To top it off, when you apply to an agent you have somewhere between 2 and 180 days until they reply; there’s no saying when it will be. You can’t inquire, can’t call, can’t email… Many agents do not allow you to submit a ms if you are waiting for another agent’s response. Some only take emails, others use online forms, and still others only accept snail mail. And woe be to an author who uses social media! They deem it necessary, but at the same time you can’t post something that could in any way paint you in an unflattering light. You will have to monitor all your online correspondence carefully until you find an agent (or give up), and may even have to go through your history to delete anything questionable.
Sending it on the wrong medium, getting into a political debate online, sending too many pages, badgering them about your ms—these are all things that can lose you an agent.
Then you have the list of “comparable titles.” This is where you mention 2 or 3 other works that your work is similar to. They have to be somewhat successful, but cannot be best-sellers. They have to be exactly in your genre, but cannot just be someone your agent already represents. They need to be both well-known and obscure.
What I’m going to try is having a template cover letter than I can tweak so each agent will receive a personalized application. I will follow their directions to the letter. But I can’t carpet-bomb them. I need to research each individual agent and see the clients they represent, the genre, the market, etc. etc. etc. My goal will be to apply to one agent per day. Wish me luck.