Poll of the Day > I'm a week into my stay in Tampa. Still don't have a job

(+) Yeah! (+)

All I've gotten so far were two interviews for really shoddy "b2b" companies that "recruit heavily" and have its employees literally walk store to store and sell stupid shit to customers.

Are job searches supposed to take this long? I've applied to a ton of places so far to no avail. I'm starting to get disheartened.
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I thought you had a job before moving...
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Is there a local temp agency you could call??

Idk, the only thing i know about tampa is clearwater beach and all the meth addicts.
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......on second thought, where theres a demand...
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RCtheWSBC posted...

I thought you had a job before moving...

I had the job in February, and was told they'd hold it for me after the first year of my masters was over (in May)

They chose someone else in March and didn't bother telling me until about 2 weeks before I left.
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If you don't already have connections, job searches are always about patience and establishing connections. Typically someone you know will lead you to a job, either directly or indirectly. Some luck is involved but patience is what I preach to people. I was only unemployed for a month after college, but damn if that wasn't the longest month of my life. Just gotta persevere through it.

Check out www.careersourcetampabay.com
It's the unemployment agency for the Hillsborough region.

You can also check out the state job board, employflorida.com
Lists all the jobs in the state of Florida.
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mcdonalds is probably hiring
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CharpandaV1 posted...

If you don't already have connections, job searches are always about patience and establishing connections. Typically someone you know will lead you to a job, either directly or indirectly. Some luck is involved but patience is what I preach to people. I was only unemployed for a month after college, but damn if that wasn't the longest month of my life. Just gotta persevere through it.

Check out www.careersourcetampabay.com
It's the unemployment agency for the Hillsborough region.

You can also check out the state job board, employflorida.com
Lists all the jobs in the state of Florida.

Thanks!

I'll be sure to use that after my sister finally gets off my fucking laptop.
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Jen0125 posted...

mcdonalds is probably hiring

Honestly, if I don't have a steady gig by the end of the month, I'll take ANYTHING.
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Welcome to unemployment baby. Be a derelict like me and just get drunk
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How long have you been looking? I know you've been looking for longer than a week, but the way you worded the topic made you sound incredibly impatient.


Sometimes it just sucks and takes forever. I've had places that didn't contact me for an interview until like two months after I applied. Usually it's not that bad, but I tend to expect a week minimum. And shit, I've had interviews where they don't get back to me (with a rejection) until a month or two later. Just don't do what I've been guilty of doing sometimes in those cases and getting complacent because you thought you got the job. Keep searching and applying until you've accepted an offer - or hell, maybe even until your first day if it's a company that doesn't give you a good feeling it's a solid offer.

Didn't you do an internship in college? I had signed an employment offer 8 months before graduating.
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ShadowDragon548 posted...

Welcome to unemployment baby. Be a derelict like me and just get drunk

I did this for six months after I graduated until I found work. I had a lot of fun from what I remember.

Try Craiglist.
No bullshitting-what skills/ work experience do you actually have?
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You could try camming. I know of some good sites~~<3
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PK_Spam posted...

a week

Are job searches supposed to take this long?

Aha. Aha. Aha. I can't breath.
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PK_Spam posted...

All I've gotten so far were two interviews for really shoddy "b2b" companies that "recruit heavily" and have its employees literally walk store to store and sell stupid shit to customers.

Are job searches supposed to take this long? I've applied to a ton of places so far to no avail. I'm starting to get disheartened.

do you know anybody in tampa? you just moved there? Coincidentally i have a cousin in tampa
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Seriously, you should try camming. You can make solid money.
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In my experience, even in high demand areas it takes a good month or so before you get a job offer.

Just make it your full time job to submit your resume and write cover letters. Anytime I search for a job I make sure I apply to at least 30 places a day (less if I have an interview).
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PK_Spam posted...

I had the job in February, and was told they'd hold it for me after the first year of my masters was over (in May)

They chose someone else in March and didn't bother telling me until about 2 weeks before I left.

I'm just quoting this because seems like most people missed it. No point in searching for a job when you were already supposed to have one.

Though why the move to Tampa if you didn't get the job? Just like Tampa, or hate the city you lived in prior?
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I don't know what industries you've looked into thus far but I'd look into nonprofit organizations in need of communications staff. idealist.org would be good to search for those.

I have some friends in/from Tampa but I dunno if they'd be of help to ya.
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https://www.aarrowsignspinners.com/join-the-team/

you can be working by next week
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Also, assuming you are going into a skilled profession (which I assume you are since you have a masters and you moved for work), finding a job can take a while just because the process for hiring a skilled worker takes a while.

For example, at my work it goes something like this

HR will send out the request for applications and will leave it open for ~2 weeks. They won't look at any resumes until the listing is closed.

Once it's closed, they'll spend 2-3 days reviewing the resumes. Sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how many applicants there were.

They'll spend the next day scheduling interviews (for next week) with the applicants they are interested in.

They'll spend the next week doing interviews and come to a decision, and will usually inform the person on either Friday or Monday. They will start ~1 week after they accept the offer unless they need more time.

So that means that from the time of posting to the time the person begins work is a minimum of 1 month. Likely 5-6 weeks. If you applied on the last possible day, it's still 2-3 weeks before you'd start work if you did get the job.
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Dikitain posted...

Anytime I search for a job I make sure I apply to at least 30 places a day (less if I have an interview).

Thirty a day? That seems excessive. How do you even manage to find that many different places and have time to apply for them all in the same day?

I find it hard to even get 30 in a week. I'm not sure if high-volume applying is really even the best strategy.

For real though, a week ain't that long if that's all you've been looking.

I'm in a high employment field and I'd still expect it to take about a month before I had a job.
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Been looking for a decent job for 2 years now. Hard to find anything above 16K that does not require 5+ years of experience in field around here. I am at the point where I am about to try moving somewhere else and living out of my truck for awhile.

AverageBoss posted...

Been looking for a decent job for 2 years now. Hard to find anything above 16K that does not require 5+ years of experience in field around here. I am at the point where I am about to try moving somewhere else and living out of my truck for awhile.

So you're making 16k or less now after at least two years? That's barely above minimum wage. What "field" is that in? You made it sound like you're working in some kind of skilled trade, but if you're making that little after 2+ years I really wonder what kind of job it is you have now.


Or are those 5+ years of experience jobs completely unrelated to what you're doing now? If they are related, you could just apply anyway, most job descriptions are bullshit.

Living in the Tampa area I'd suggest that you keep putting in applications and follow up on them while you put out more applications. Big areas around here are anything in the medical field (even IT jobs especially if they relate to hospitals and/or medical centers), hospitality/tourism (car rental places, walt disney world, stuff like that) or anything defense related (I won't go into detail). If you have a student loan to pay off, I'd suggest staying away from working for not-for-profits since they don't pay well.

Do you have a car? Try doing the uBer thing for awhile until you get something steady.

And I've heard the job market in Tampa/Florida is tough (unless you speak Espanol)

DorkLink posted...

AverageBoss posted...

Been looking for a decent job for 2 years now. Hard to find anything above 16K that does not require 5+ years of experience in field around here. I am at the point where I am about to try moving somewhere else and living out of my truck for awhile.

So you're making 16k or less now after at least two years? That's barely above minimum wage. What "field" is that in? You made it sound like you're working in some kind of skilled trade, but if you're making that little after 2+ years I really wonder what kind of job it is you have now.


Or are those 5+ years of experience jobs completely unrelated to what you're doing now? If they are related, you could just apply anyway, most job descriptions are bullshit.

I never said I was in a skilled trade. I said previously I have BS degree in Pre law and studied economics on the side. I also said I almost took a job as a paralegal, until they only offered me $9/hour. I mentioned applying for my local school district to get into the tech department. They accepted my initial application, but they only have janitorial and bus driving positions open atm.

The situation around here is just all around poor. 30 and 40 year olds line up at the local pizza hut when they open a drivers position.

Wouldn't $9/hour be more than you're making now though

DorkLink posted...

Wouldn't $9/hour be more than you're making now though

Nope, I make $11-12 an hour depending on the day of the week.

AverageBoss posted...

The situation around here is just all around poor. 30 and 40 year olds line up at the local pizza hut when they open a drivers position.

Where do you live?

I realize it's much easier said than done, but yeah, moving to another area with more economic opportunities and industry variation may be your best recourse. You could try to apply to jobs before in a new area before relocating
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RCtheWSBC posted...

AverageBoss posted...

The situation around here is just all around poor. 30 and 40 year olds line up at the local pizza hut when they open a drivers position.

Where do you live?

I realize it's much easier said than done, but yeah, moving to another area with more economic opportunities and industry variation may be your best recourse. You could try to apply to jobs before in a new area before relocating

Saint Cloud Florida. There is alot here, but its all geared around catching tourists on their way to Disney. They advertise the city as being a good place to retire, and as somewhere to visit since its near all the theme parks. Seems the good jobs (40-50K) are all about 2+hours away minimum.

Oh, then how are you making less than $16k? Is it only part-time? Or did I just read your post wrong? I guess you never actually said that you were, but the way you worded it I interpreted that as your target

DorkLink posted...

Oh, then how are you making less than $16k? Is it only part-time? Or did I just read your post wrong? I guess you never actually said that you were, but the way you worded it I interpreted that as your target

It is part time, they hang me around the 30-34 hour mark. But its a random schedule each week which makes it difficult to hold another job at the same time, so I just pick up odd jobs and commission painting work here and there.

Two hours wouldn't be too awful of a move, relatively speaking. I'm trying to think if I've ever stopped in St. Cloud...I think I've only driven through it.
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RCtheWSBC posted...

Two hours wouldn't be too awful of a move, relatively speaking. I'm trying to think if I've ever stopped in St. Cloud...I think I've only driven through it.

Ya, lots of retirees here, so nothing really exciting to see. Its pretty much all restaurants, churches, and small shopping centers. Biggest thing here is the local Walmart.

DorkLink posted...

Dikitain posted...

Anytime I search for a job I make sure I apply to at least 30 places a day (less if I have an interview).

Thirty a day? That seems excessive. How do you even manage to find that many different places and have time to apply for them all in the same day?

I find it hard to even get 30 in a week. I'm not sure if high-volume applying is really even the best strategy.

Basically apply to any job within a 50 mile radius of my location for which I fit the employment qualifications. Do so on multiple employment sites. Sometimes you are applying to the same job multiple times, but that is good. The more you whore out your resume, the better. Everyone employer your city should be able to recite every word of resume by memory if you are doing your job properly.
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Blasting your resume out as much as you can just tells employers that you don't really care that much about their needs and will just apply to any job. Or at least, so I've read on many job advice sites. I guess you can do that with multiple companies if you insist, but I don't think purposely applying to the same position through multiple channels is a good idea.

DorkLink posted...

Blasting your resume out as much as you can just tells employers that you don't really care that much about their needs and will just apply to any job. Or at least, so I've read on many job advice sites. I guess you can do that with multiple companies if you insist, but I don't think purposely applying to the same position through multiple channels is a good idea.

It wouldn't be a good idea if companies didn't have a recruiting division, but a lot do. They will weed out duplicates and basically just hand off your resume to whoever needs someone with your qualifications.

As I said, getting your resume out there is the best way to get a job. Ideally, you wouldn't even have to apply anymore, companies would just be sending your interview requests for jobs you never even applied to just because they know your skills.
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You could probably shoot a scene for BSB.
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