My husband and I were talking about how it can be difficult looking and applying for jobs. Currently our DIL is on the job hunt after her recovery from cancer surgery and chemo.
That reminded me of when I moved to Palm Springs to get married. I was perfectly content to spend my days soaking up the sun, floating on an air mattress in the apartment complex’s pool, when my hubby said I needed to help out and get a job.
My husband said, “I’ve been there and it sure can be tough finding a job.”
He had been literally pounding the pavement for a job and finally got hired.
As a journalism major, I applied to the local newspaper, The Desert Sun, to be a reporter.
I went through an interview process that took a few weeks, including literacy and writing tests.
My husband suggested that while I was waiting, I interview at a few more places like local radio stations where he had connections.
Then sitting one day sitting by the pool, the phone rang. My husband said it was for me.
It was a man named Cliff Brown from Cliff Brown and Associates, a PR firm located in the Bob Hope building at the local medical center. Cliff asked me to come in for an interview. I had never applied there. It turns out he was too cheap for classified ads, so on his daily trip to The Desert Sun to drop off press releases and photos, he rifled through their employment files. He pulled out my application and resume and called me. I was hired the next day.
My husband shook his head and said, “That’s now how it works!”
I told my husband that yes, that was how my first PR job in Seattle worked. I was working in a hotel restaurant as a waitress through college and one of my regular customers asked me what my degree was in. He asked me on the spot to come work for his company, which was a Native Alaskan fishing and timber company. They needed a brochure and other material. I worked there until the Seattle office closed down and I met my future husband.
How did you get your first career job? Did you have to send out resumes and pound the pavement?
Is Waffles available for a puppy hug? Mostly (and fortunately), most of my jobs have fallen into my lap. Some fabulous, some not so much—but all educational and enlightening nonetheless. I learned some of my most valuable life lessons from the not-so-much bunch. Just shows to go ya—there’s good to be found in everything, if one looks long and hard enough.
My first career job was in a big hospital in my current city. I was in nursing school at the time and was sitting next to a really smart student, the ones I usually sat next too, who was working part-time at that hospital. I simply mentioned I need a job and she gave me 3 contacts I should call. I was working there within a month.
Yay! That sounds perfect. I’m sure you were just as smart as the students you sat next to — or more so.
How did you get your first career job? My first job was working as a paralegal. The school where I earned my certificate arranged interviews, I went to a few, and decided to accept an offer from the law firm in the city I most wanted to live in.
Did you have to send out resumes and pound the pavement? After my first job I had to send out resumes, pound the pavement, and network to get subsequent ones. It was awful for an introvert like me.
I guess I never did pound the pavement. I went to my first interview that was arranged by my journalism professor. I didn’t get that job, but it was really the only interview that didn’t work out. I really feel for younger people today who send out dozens of resumes to jobs listed online and don’t hear anything back.
I love the threads you followed to get your jobs. It’s such a hard search. It gives me such an empathetic heart for all the people that I interview these days. I try to minimize the number of candidates that we interview so that we don’t make too many people sweat it out.
That’s so good of you. I feel for my kids when they interview because it’s such a nerve wracking process and sometimes the candidate is decided ahead of the hiring process.
Sorry. I got stuck on the baby pic of Waffles. Did you have something else on your mind, LOL? 😜
Seriously…I think your experience mirrors what I’ve seen play out over and over again with job seekers. The hunt is important but remembering that your reputation matters means so much. The world is a shockingly small place, and the unconventional and informal hiring practices based on ‘who knows who’ is still a factor. I’m not sure how I feel about that from an equity in hiring point of view, but that’s another topic altogether. Any enterprise lucky enough to nab you benefitted greatly! 🥰
I do agree with you. It’s based so much on who knows who. I feel badly for younger people in the job hunt today. They are competing online with thousands of people. Many of the jobs are posted, but the jobs are already filled with someone who knows somebody.
Yep. Good reasons to be protective of reputations and stay positive, the search process is sooo hard. xo for a great post, Elizabeth! 🥰
Thank you for your supportive comments!
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I changed careers because I was sitting on a bench watching our daughter’s softball game. I over heard a conversation another parent was having – an impromptu interview. The interviewee was very loud. I mentioned afterwards that I was looking for a job. I had just gotten my CPA license and looking for an accounting position. I started 2 weeks later.
What a great story!
Dumb luck plays into many of my career changes. I got the current job because I was waiting on a call from a plumber and it turned out to be a recruiter. My phone is usually set
to block all calls not in the contact lists.
That’s great!
I went to Bryman School (no longer in existance) and trained to be a medical assistant. One of the features of the school was job placement so they helped me land my first job, which I held for 18 years.
What is really amazing me right now is the hunt for housing. My daughter and her boyfriend are looking to move in together and are searching for a house to rent. One of the places had a question on the application, “How much are you willing to pay?” Meaning, they were asking a certain price but were willing to take offers for higher amounts. That to me seemed so crazy.
Wow! What a crazy question on a home application. My kids in Berkeley and Oakland have moved in the past few years and It’s a huge undertaking to find any place to live!
That story is too funny, E.A! Rifling through another company’s resumes… goodness! For my first career job, a recruiter found a really old (and this is when I was 24!) and outdated resume floating out on the internet, they called me in for an interview, and called me five minutes later as I was driving home to offer me the job. I never applied, and I still don’t know how they found me or why they called me in for an interview.
Wow. You had almost the same experience as me. Isn’t that interesting?
It really is! I guess things work out as they’re meant to.
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I’ve never had a paid job. Just the unpaid mom and wife gig.
That’s most of my career too.
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Great post! The best jobs I have held were being referred by a friend. Those were like the secret cache!
Connections help open the job market doors.
Oh, yeah. And sometimes, you get the wrong job which leads you to connections, reaching out and the right job! Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time!
That’s it!
Great story!!!
Thanks!