We had a job fair at First Saint Johns Thursday, we had 650 people turn out in four hours. It was an overwhelming response, and a great job was done to organize this by Gordon Moul, one of our church elders, our local state rep, Bell Socialization, and the city of York.
We have been facilitating an employment support group here at the church for three years. The combination of that experience and yesterday’s experience has really driven home some lessons that you would think are basic to the job search.
You should have a resume, the more upscale the job, the better it better be. This is one of the things we do with the support group, generally speaking most people’s resumes are not good for a variety of reasons.
I don’t care how entry level the job is, put on a tie and jacket for men, a dress or suit for women. The cut to the chase is this, the more distinctive you are from the rest of the applicants the better chance you have.
Have a good attitude. You cannot show up with an attitude of “I need a job, give me a job.” Yeah, well you and few hundred, at least, other people. Again no matter how basic the job, well dressed, well groomed, and with a real positive attitude. Stretch yourself a little and make it an attitude of “what I can do for you” and quit having this attitude something to the effect “you’re lucky to have me, when do I start”. I saw at least one guy in a tank top! Really? This is a job interview, gotta think it’s only down hill from here.
Really define what job you want. The Human Resources person you will probably be dealing with has about 500 things they have to do, they have a hundred applications/resumes for one job. Do you think that they are going to spend a lot of time pouring over your application? The answer of course is … No! The easier you make it for that person, the better chance you have at being considered. Make it tough with no real job goals/specifications and no easy to read resume, well you just gave that person a reason to put your resume in the “No” pile.
We have a group that meets at the church Thursdays 11am. From doing this, mostly onesys & twosys, I think I’ve gotten to the point that if you give me five minutes I can tell you why you’re not getting hired.
It was great working with the different governmental people, social service people etc. the Job Fair was a big hit, but of the 650 that attended, I would be surprised if even ten percent were hired. It’s the instant gratification thing going on here. “Hey I showed up, give me a job”. It just doesn’t work that way, at least not for the vast majority. There’s a lot to a job search, if you’re willing to invest some time with a group, learn some different aspects, you will put yourself ahead of the rest of the crowd. You still may not get hired as fast as you want, but I’d put money that you will get hired.
There is a whole lot else going on during a job search, frankly I’ve seen way too many people, just way to spun up and the longer it’s been, the more spun up. It is a vicious cycle. Do yourself a favor, sit down with a group of people, get organized, get networked, get an unbiased opinion and then get out there in a way that will make someone want to employ you.
Or you can keep chasing your tail, getting all spun up and then wondering why things have gotten so bad.
One more perhaps self-serving suggestion: The more you are engaged with people, the better chance you have to network. The more isolated you make yourself, the more you separate yourself from human contact, the worse it’s going to go. You need encouragement, you need faith, trust, you need other people, you need networking, hmmmm where oh where can you get all those things on Sunday mornings? Suffice to say, worship at First St Johns, Sunday morning 10:30am 140 W King St, dowtown York, Pa. and may God bless you.
Our group meets on Thursday mornings at 11am. Oh yeah, like an interview, you need to show up on time.