Well, it's time to celebrate having a job by taking the day off again here in America, so with that in mind, I skipped my Friday post in order to post today.
What will I be doing this Labor Day? Well, since I am still unemployed, I will be filling out applications and sending in my resume for a good chunk of the day. Then I will be working on my thesis and getting it ready to go through the IRB again, since I am taking out a portion of the methods section that deals with a data collection technique that has ultimately failed to come through. The good news is that by refocusing my thesis, I should be able to look at the data I do get more closely, which will help me overall when it comes time to defend my work.
So really, I'm going to be doing more work than most people (except for those who have to go to their jobs today, of course). To the people who do actually have to go in to work today: I salute you.
-AMW
Monday, September 5, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
When Prospects Don't Pan Out
Update on the multiple prospects I had last week. The receptionist job at the medical center: I have heard nothing after my initial interview from them. The editor position for the student centered paper turns out to be a super-part-time job, instead of the full-time position that I was led to believe it was when I applied. The fiction writing I was doing? Massive writer's block.
This has also been the first week of classes for the fall semester, so I have been staying busy meeting with professors and fellow grad students. It was good to be on campus again, though I'm going to miss teaching.
Of course I'm still applying to jobs; I want to work and earn my keep. Trying to stay positive is difficult when the vast majority of the answers (if they're not a silent dismissal) is "no", but it's important to keep my head up and my eyes out for an opportunity.
-AMW
This has also been the first week of classes for the fall semester, so I have been staying busy meeting with professors and fellow grad students. It was good to be on campus again, though I'm going to miss teaching.
Of course I'm still applying to jobs; I want to work and earn my keep. Trying to stay positive is difficult when the vast majority of the answers (if they're not a silent dismissal) is "no", but it's important to keep my head up and my eyes out for an opportunity.
-AMW
Friday, August 19, 2011
Delay Due to Multiple Prospects
So after months and months of hearing "no", or hearing nothing at all, I am suddenly faced with having people calling me for interviews or writing samples. This is why I neglected my weekly update last week (sorry to those of you who were looking forward to it).
I thought I had a good chance of working in a software company/IT firm as their office assistant, but even after the obligatory call to show interest a week after the initial interview, I have heard nothing. I still may have a shot as a receptionist at a medical center, or at a publication aimed at college students. I would love to work at either place, honestly.
As always, I am still sending out my resume with industry appropriate cover letters. I always have to remind myself that even though it may feel like I'm close to getting a job, I shouldn't count my money before I earn it. This thought keeps me humble and grounded, and motivated to find the right job for me.
In addition to all of this job hunting, I have hit a snag with my thesis, and so I have to do a major revision. I'll have less work to do in the long run when it comes to data gathering, but having to do a revision that takes out a component of the thesis is just as time consuming as adding a component.
Finally, I've been doing a bit of fiction writing. At first it was just to relieve stress from the Rambler Debacle, as I've been referring to it, but then it started to take on a life of its own. I have almost an entire book mapped out, which is good, and a few short stories as well.
That's it for the update; I will resume my once-a-week blog from here on out.
-AMW
I thought I had a good chance of working in a software company/IT firm as their office assistant, but even after the obligatory call to show interest a week after the initial interview, I have heard nothing. I still may have a shot as a receptionist at a medical center, or at a publication aimed at college students. I would love to work at either place, honestly.
As always, I am still sending out my resume with industry appropriate cover letters. I always have to remind myself that even though it may feel like I'm close to getting a job, I shouldn't count my money before I earn it. This thought keeps me humble and grounded, and motivated to find the right job for me.
In addition to all of this job hunting, I have hit a snag with my thesis, and so I have to do a major revision. I'll have less work to do in the long run when it comes to data gathering, but having to do a revision that takes out a component of the thesis is just as time consuming as adding a component.
Finally, I've been doing a bit of fiction writing. At first it was just to relieve stress from the Rambler Debacle, as I've been referring to it, but then it started to take on a life of its own. I have almost an entire book mapped out, which is good, and a few short stories as well.
That's it for the update; I will resume my once-a-week blog from here on out.
-AMW
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Rambler Internet Holdings Scam
Hi All,
I come to you a very sad person, who is completely unemployed. None of my money has been taken, but I would like to let you all know that Rambler Internet Holdings is a scam. I do not mean that the company as a whole is a scam, but I am saying that there are people who are masquerading as representatives of the company and are trying to phish for bank information/make you unwitting accomplices to fraud.
I will give you all this piece of advice:
If you get an email from anybody with an email address ending in @rambler.ru (peter-chukin_05@rambler.ru), or from a Yahoo! account (davidsnow11hipew@yahoo.com) that advertises a job available at Rambler, copy-paste the contents into the "recognize a scam/report a scam" section of ConsumerFraudReporting.org, along with the email address it was sent from.
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/index.php
Also, if the email says they found your resume on any particular job search website, report it to the website they mentioned as being part of a scam. It’s a little bit of genius, really, because Rambler is a search engine in Russia that is a lot like Google, and like Google, you can get a free email address that ends in @rambler.ru, which I didn’t know about until I looked deeper into it.
Now that I have smacked myself in the head for being stupid and falling for this in the first place, here is what basically happens, and I will go over it for hindsight Red Flags (RF#), like I did in the Insurance Agency post:
For those of you who’d like to know, the scammers like to say that while Rambler is an Internet company (true), it also happens to branch out into helping people make travel arrangements to Russia for business or for extended vacations (RF1 & 2). They say they want to open up offices in the US, so they have a lot of English correspondence that needs to be read and edited so that it sounds better. Apparently they can translate the Russian to English, but they don’t have a native English speaker on staff. Their emails are always very professional sounding, even the ones that I was proofreading/editing, and if you have any questions they will answer them in the same professional manner.
The scammers say that in order to help the customers, accepting travel plans and processing payments through Chase Quick-Pay and email is how they work best (RF3 & 4). They also promise to pay you through Chase Quick-Pay (RF5). It sounds safe enough, since they won’t need your actual bank information, just an email address to send a payment/paycheck. If you do payment processing, you’ll be able to get 5% commission for every payment (and considering that most of the payments will be in the $2K to $5K range each, that can be a lot of money and enticing to people down on their luck), plus a base salary.
That's the set-up; here’s the scam:
When it comes time to pay you (or if you try to do the payment processing), they will send a payment to your Chase Quick-Pay. The only thing is, they get this money through fraud/hacking accounts, so the money they’re sending you is bad. If you do payment processing, the simple act of accepting this payment and then sending the money elsewhere makes you an accessory to fraud. If they pay you, they will overpay you, and ask you to send back the difference. It’s the same scam, but on a smaller scale since they won’t be asking for the lion’s share of the payment.
However, if Chase realizes the money is fraudulent, it will ban you from going online and cancel the payment to you. When this happens, the scammers will tell you they can quick deposit your pay into your bank account, and not to worry about the Chase Quick-Pay thing, because “it happens occasionally”. Check/call in to Chase first and see what is going on. If they ask you to walk into a branch of Chase Bank, do so and stay until you have everything sorted. Do not be surprised if you are permanently banned from Chase Online, even if you are the victim of this scam. They will consider you an online fraud risk regardless.
So that's the scam in a nutshell.
I am not in danger of losing any of my money, and because I never actually received any money from the scammers, I am not in trouble with the law, which is a plus. However, if you have been taken in by these scammers and find out after you’ve given your bank info, go to your bank immediately and tell a banker about it. They will be more than willing to assist you. Also, if somebody tries to clean out your account, call/go to your bank and dispute the withdrawal, and file a report with the police. They may not be able to do anything about it if the scammers are out of the country, but if it turns out they are in the USA, your report will help.
-AMW
I come to you a very sad person, who is completely unemployed. None of my money has been taken, but I would like to let you all know that Rambler Internet Holdings is a scam. I do not mean that the company as a whole is a scam, but I am saying that there are people who are masquerading as representatives of the company and are trying to phish for bank information/make you unwitting accomplices to fraud.
I will give you all this piece of advice:
If you get an email from anybody with an email address ending in @rambler.ru (peter-chukin_05@rambler.ru), or from a Yahoo! account (davidsnow11hipew@yahoo.com) that advertises a job available at Rambler, copy-paste the contents into the "recognize a scam/report a scam" section of ConsumerFraudReporting.org, along with the email address it was sent from.
http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/index.php
Also, if the email says they found your resume on any particular job search website, report it to the website they mentioned as being part of a scam. It’s a little bit of genius, really, because Rambler is a search engine in Russia that is a lot like Google, and like Google, you can get a free email address that ends in @rambler.ru, which I didn’t know about until I looked deeper into it.
Now that I have smacked myself in the head for being stupid and falling for this in the first place, here is what basically happens, and I will go over it for hindsight Red Flags (RF#), like I did in the Insurance Agency post:
For those of you who’d like to know, the scammers like to say that while Rambler is an Internet company (true), it also happens to branch out into helping people make travel arrangements to Russia for business or for extended vacations (RF1 & 2). They say they want to open up offices in the US, so they have a lot of English correspondence that needs to be read and edited so that it sounds better. Apparently they can translate the Russian to English, but they don’t have a native English speaker on staff. Their emails are always very professional sounding, even the ones that I was proofreading/editing, and if you have any questions they will answer them in the same professional manner.
The scammers say that in order to help the customers, accepting travel plans and processing payments through Chase Quick-Pay and email is how they work best (RF3 & 4). They also promise to pay you through Chase Quick-Pay (RF5). It sounds safe enough, since they won’t need your actual bank information, just an email address to send a payment/paycheck. If you do payment processing, you’ll be able to get 5% commission for every payment (and considering that most of the payments will be in the $2K to $5K range each, that can be a lot of money and enticing to people down on their luck), plus a base salary.
That's the set-up; here’s the scam:
When it comes time to pay you (or if you try to do the payment processing), they will send a payment to your Chase Quick-Pay. The only thing is, they get this money through fraud/hacking accounts, so the money they’re sending you is bad. If you do payment processing, the simple act of accepting this payment and then sending the money elsewhere makes you an accessory to fraud. If they pay you, they will overpay you, and ask you to send back the difference. It’s the same scam, but on a smaller scale since they won’t be asking for the lion’s share of the payment.
However, if Chase realizes the money is fraudulent, it will ban you from going online and cancel the payment to you. When this happens, the scammers will tell you they can quick deposit your pay into your bank account, and not to worry about the Chase Quick-Pay thing, because “it happens occasionally”. Check/call in to Chase first and see what is going on. If they ask you to walk into a branch of Chase Bank, do so and stay until you have everything sorted. Do not be surprised if you are permanently banned from Chase Online, even if you are the victim of this scam. They will consider you an online fraud risk regardless.
So that's the scam in a nutshell.
I am not in danger of losing any of my money, and because I never actually received any money from the scammers, I am not in trouble with the law, which is a plus. However, if you have been taken in by these scammers and find out after you’ve given your bank info, go to your bank immediately and tell a banker about it. They will be more than willing to assist you. Also, if somebody tries to clean out your account, call/go to your bank and dispute the withdrawal, and file a report with the police. They may not be able to do anything about it if the scammers are out of the country, but if it turns out they are in the USA, your report will help.
-AMW
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
A Little Success Goes A Long Way
I have gotten a freelance type job with a Russian company by the name of Rambler Internet Holdings. They've started corresponding more with native English speakers, and even though they've been able to translate their messages from Russian to English, they hired me to proofread and edit their emails for grammar and spelling before they're sent to the appropriate parties. The pay is good for what work there is to do, so I'm happy that I'm going to be able to earn my living again.
I'm still going to be looking for a bigger job with more hours, and I would welcome any freelance job that involves proofreading/editing. For today, however, I think I'll be happy knowing that I have a job thanks to my academic achievements in English, and work on my thesis.
-AMW
I'm still going to be looking for a bigger job with more hours, and I would welcome any freelance job that involves proofreading/editing. For today, however, I think I'll be happy knowing that I have a job thanks to my academic achievements in English, and work on my thesis.
-AMW
Monday, July 18, 2011
Backwards Applications Online
I have found something of an interesting trend while applying online to jobs. I posted a little snippet of what I was seeing on my Facebook, but now I want to blog about it. Online applications seem to be a bit backwards to me.
Here is an example, given in two scenarios:
Scenario One:
I apply to a really nice, full-time job; great pay and benefits, I wouldn't need to do hardly any training because I have most (if not all) of the experience necessary for the job and I can start right away. I make a cover letter and send it along with my resume, and depending on the employer, my transcripts from my graduate school as well.
This takes all of 15 to 20 minutes, and then I can go looking for another really nice, full-time job.
Scenario Two:
I apply to a slightly-more-than-minimum-wage, full-time job; it will pay my bills until I finish my degree and/or I get that really nice, full-time job. I may need a bit of training because they have "proprietary software", but the rest of the job I could do blindfolded while simultaneously juggling flaming chainsaws with one hand [WARNING: Do NOT try this at home, even if you think you're a really, really good juggler].
I can't just send in a resume and cover letter; I must fill in an online application. So I click on the appropriate boxes and start filling things in...and filling things in...and filling things in. Usually after I've manually put in all of my work and academic experience, and listed all of my referral contacts, there is a place where I can upload my resume if I choose (this is one of the few places that it is optional to input data, rather than mandatory). My resume has all of my work and academic experience on it. Oh well, I'll upload it anyway, then click for the next page.
I have to take a competency and/or personality test next. It takes at least another 20 to 30 minutes, and if I have to do both, it will of course take twice as long. By the time I'm done, I've checked about five or six boxes confirming that I am not a felon and there are no warrants out for my arrest. I've also checked at least two or three boxes confirming that my name really is Alice Malia Weaver, and I do not have a nefarious alias under which I've worked to take over the world.
The entirety of the application takes a little over two hours, give or take 15 minutes.
[End of Scenarios]
So now that I have given these scenarios, here is my question: when did it become harder to apply for a minimum wage job than it would to apply for a really nice, higher paying job? One would think that it would be the other way around, since people should be willing to jump through more hoops of red tape to get a better paying job than a minimum wage job.
I would like to hear feedback and reader opinions on this subject. Don't be shy! I would love to talk to some people about this and their view on the subject of online applications.
Now if you all will excuse me, I have some more jobs to apply to today.
-AMW
Here is an example, given in two scenarios:
Scenario One:
I apply to a really nice, full-time job; great pay and benefits, I wouldn't need to do hardly any training because I have most (if not all) of the experience necessary for the job and I can start right away. I make a cover letter and send it along with my resume, and depending on the employer, my transcripts from my graduate school as well.
This takes all of 15 to 20 minutes, and then I can go looking for another really nice, full-time job.
Scenario Two:
I apply to a slightly-more-than-minimum-wage, full-time job; it will pay my bills until I finish my degree and/or I get that really nice, full-time job. I may need a bit of training because they have "proprietary software", but the rest of the job I could do blindfolded while simultaneously juggling flaming chainsaws with one hand [WARNING: Do NOT try this at home, even if you think you're a really, really good juggler].
I can't just send in a resume and cover letter; I must fill in an online application. So I click on the appropriate boxes and start filling things in...and filling things in...and filling things in. Usually after I've manually put in all of my work and academic experience, and listed all of my referral contacts, there is a place where I can upload my resume if I choose (this is one of the few places that it is optional to input data, rather than mandatory). My resume has all of my work and academic experience on it. Oh well, I'll upload it anyway, then click for the next page.
I have to take a competency and/or personality test next. It takes at least another 20 to 30 minutes, and if I have to do both, it will of course take twice as long. By the time I'm done, I've checked about five or six boxes confirming that I am not a felon and there are no warrants out for my arrest. I've also checked at least two or three boxes confirming that my name really is Alice Malia Weaver, and I do not have a nefarious alias under which I've worked to take over the world.
The entirety of the application takes a little over two hours, give or take 15 minutes.
[End of Scenarios]
So now that I have given these scenarios, here is my question: when did it become harder to apply for a minimum wage job than it would to apply for a really nice, higher paying job? One would think that it would be the other way around, since people should be willing to jump through more hoops of red tape to get a better paying job than a minimum wage job.
I would like to hear feedback and reader opinions on this subject. Don't be shy! I would love to talk to some people about this and their view on the subject of online applications.
Now if you all will excuse me, I have some more jobs to apply to today.
-AMW
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Career Advising
I went to the Career Center at my university today. I had already had a Liberal Arts Career Counselor look over my resume, but I wanted to get a second opinion from a Business Career Counselor. The counselor was very nice and looked over my resume, noting where I could improve my resume and giving me a lot of helpful hints and advise. He even got me to laugh a couple times, which was great and improved the overall experience. He also liked my business card and said it was a good tactic to use to help my employment chances.
I had been doubting my resume's ability to grab attention because I had been getting so few calls about my applications to work in different fields, and I was right to worry. My professional profile at the top is lacking in several aspects, so I will be rewriting it, as well as replacing my "Relevant Coursework" section with something else.
I also cleaned out my box at the Graduate Teaching Assistant Office today, since I was on campus. That was a little sad, but I am looking to the future, where I will finish my thesis and finally acquire my MS in Public Communications and Technology.
I guess today has been all about looking over what I have done in order to look towards what I can accomplish, and that always puts a smile on my face.
-AMW
I had been doubting my resume's ability to grab attention because I had been getting so few calls about my applications to work in different fields, and I was right to worry. My professional profile at the top is lacking in several aspects, so I will be rewriting it, as well as replacing my "Relevant Coursework" section with something else.
I also cleaned out my box at the Graduate Teaching Assistant Office today, since I was on campus. That was a little sad, but I am looking to the future, where I will finish my thesis and finally acquire my MS in Public Communications and Technology.
I guess today has been all about looking over what I have done in order to look towards what I can accomplish, and that always puts a smile on my face.
-AMW
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