Finding employment in 2016

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The last time I looked for a job was in 1999. It sure has changed.

In 1999, I looked at help-wanted ads in the newspaper, and wandered around my neighborhood to find a Help Wanted sign in a window.

In 2016, I get the newspaper online, and I wandered around my city without seeing any signs other than the ones which offer a career in fast food. Regrettably, I can't tolerate so much hand-washing. The wandering around was actually an excuse to take a bike ride and a walk. I started my job search online, of course.

LinkedIn thinks very highly of me, but I applied for some of those jobs anyway. I also signed up with the big temp agencies, and with Ziprecruiter. It seemed like the top job search app, and it does seem pretty effective. It offers me a lot of variety, but there is one problem.

Frequently, the postings are from other job search sites. Clicking on the Ziprecruiter link sends me to a different site, and then from there to another different site, in one case. That's kind of a problem for the job search ecosystem, since it suggests that bad actors could easily invade. I submitted my email to one such site, and immediately got flooded with offers from several different domains that I had never visited. It's a good thing that I've been considering changing my email for other reasons, since none of it got picked up by the spam filter. It's hard to keep track of everything I've done, so I'll just stop clicking on any links in that category of messages unless I specifically remember giving the site my info.

Only having to submit one application and resume to Ziprecruiter and LinkedIn, and then having them fill out most of the fields in company's online applications makes my life much easier. It also makes life easier for other job seekers. So, in the end, it doesn't actually make my life all that much easier. At least it's a fascinating cultural change.

I'm also seeking a position in the abolition of work industry.

You're right, it has changed a lot! The big aggregator for all the job posting sites these days is Indeed.com. I have found my last three jobs there. Right now I'm doing the perfect introvert work--editing closed captioning text from home.

I wish we could go back to the days when one could walk into a Temp agency, take a typing test, then be sent out to a job the next day.

Nowadays, you just send your resume. And they'll look at it two weeks later, and might send you on a job months later.

I like the old system better.

I spent almost five years trynna get employed before I accepted I had more important things to fix, I would have been a valuable cog to any machine that grabbed hold of me and attached me but nothing did alas now I am focusing on mapping my own internal clockwork before I attempt to become a useful node to another organism.