Thursday, February 19, 2009

Job Hunt: The Craigslist Test

Recapping my situation:

I got laid-off from my job late last month.

Right now, I am still at least five weeks away from my first potential EI check (of unknown quantity) and have gone unpaid from my former job since mid-January, including my severance pay owed. I have every faith in them paying me once they have the cash on hand to do so, but I am not sure when I can count on seeing it.

I know I must resume bringing home the bacon pretty soon or there will be payments defaulted upon, and the dread fear of foreclosure.

Last week, I started aggressively seeking work in my field by creating profiles on job-hunting and job-recruiting sites over the past two weeks.

Quantum.ca
Workopolis.com
Monster.ca
Sapphireca.com

Earlier today, I noticed a randstad.ca office in my neighbourhood, so I dropped by and explained that I am an out-of-work copywriter/tech writer/journalist and what might they have for someone with my skills? Unfortunately, they are more like office clerk/secretary/administrator recruiters. I was told they couldn't help me.

I came back home to review the jobs posted on the four sites above, only to find nothing new in the past 24 hours. I did apply at one place on Monday, but have not heard back yet. I would have responded to other job postings but they either sought skills I lack, or were out of my sphere. The one job that matched me well enough to apply for looks like a lot of sweat, and comes at a 25% (or more) pay cut from my previous job. But I can see myself taking that job enthusiastically.

With no other good news, today I went on Craigslist.com and did four things:

1. Searched for posts of people wanting anything I can viably offer.
2. Posted my resume.
3. Posted a notice for my mandolin/guitar services.
4. Posted an ad to finally sell all those comic books taking up space in my apartment.

This is serious stuff. I am not yet at the end of my rope, but I sure can see it clearly from here.

- 30 -

UPDATE: Portions of the original post have been removed to respect the wishes of the person they made mention of.

3 comments:

Raymond said...

Here's 3 job sites from about.com's top ten job sites-

www.linkedin.com (professional networking)
www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
www.realmatch.com (matches jobs based on your skills)

good luck to those looking.

Scott in Montreal said...

Hi Ray, I'm already on LinkedIn, but i'll check out those other two. Thanks!

Scott in Montreal said...

Well, turns out realmatch.com is only set up for jobs in the USA presently. But it did lead me to careerjet.ca, where I found an interesting (and full-time) technical writing job that I applied for yesterday morning. Thanks Ray!

And to the other person who left a double comment, I apologize for my clumsiness in the comment moderating process on blogger. I inadvertently deleted both when meaning only to delete the anonymously posted one. Now I can't seem to retrieve it to correct the error. Please repost and I will try to get it right this time. thanks,
Scott