Author Archives: mhick255

Where Are the Jobs? Finding Open Positions

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After I wrote about using Pinboard to organize job applications, my friend Anna emailed me with a great question:

How you find out about jobs in the first place? Are there certain sites that are good to start with? Does it depend on industry?

Here is what I’ve been doing to find available jobs.

Talk to People

Boy-with-binoculars

In relentless pursuit of the perfect job…

My incredible career counselor has told me that 80% of available jobs are never advertised anywhere. I’m not sure where that statistic came from or how accurate it is, but it’s a great motivator not to focus exclusively on online listings. You have to talk to people. 

Define the kind of work you’re looking for, and don’t be shy about letting people know you’re looking. (This can be intimidating, especially if it’s not your personality to be that open with people or if you feel ashamed to be out of work.) Few people — almost no one, in fact —will have a job to give you, though you might be surprised. Instead focus on whether they know anyone who does the kind of work you want. (Thank you, Drew Dinkelacker, for this tip!) This will help your networking, and it will also help you with the next point.

Get to Know the Neighborhood

Depending on the industry and the kind of organization (e.g. big corporation, small business, nonprofit, government), openings will be advertised in different places. Definitely search the big sites like Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, etc., but look for industry-specific job boards, too.

Many industries have some kind of professional association or job listing site with jobs that may not be advertised anywhere else. Use your networking to find out about these. A friend of mine who has worked for a number of churches clued me in to ChurchStaffing. You should also read blogs or follow Twitter accounts from your target industries. That’s how I learned about the 37signals Job Board for web developers and designers.

Go Local

Don’t neglect local organizations, either. For example, our local chapter of the Public Relations Society of America has an online Job Bank, as does ArtsWave, our local arts funding organization. These smaller job boards may not be updated that frequently, and it’s likely that they will include older openings that have already been filled. You don’t need to spend a ton of time on sites like this — bookmark them (with Pinboard!) and check them once a week or so just to see if anything new has been added.

I’ve found that certain types of employers — nonprofits, especially — don’t do a great job of publicizing open positions. (I expect it has something to do with the rest of the staff being so busy!) Others, like universities and government agencies, do a great job of posting openings on their own website, but don’t post them anywhere except on their own website. This is one place where networking can do wonders. You can also bookmark their sites and check every week or two for new openings.

Bonus Tip: On some websites, especially large university or government sites, it can be difficult to find the employment listings. To speed things up, use a site-specific search in Google. For example, to search Northern Kentucky University’s website, type the following in the Google search box:

site:nku.edu employment

Boom. You may need to try a few different terms. I searched NKU’s site for “careers” and “positions” before landing on the magic word.

Enlist a Motivated Partner

Ok, time for my deep dark secret. I have a beautiful personal assistant who finds me dozens of job listings each week — my wife Elizabeth. She, of course, wants me to find a job quickly, and this is an easy way for her to contribute to my efforts. It’s a huge help, too. Here’s my workflow for these emails:

  1. Receive job emails from Elizabeth.
  2. If I have time, review the positions and use Pinboard to bookmark the ones I want to follow up with later.
  3. If I don’t have time, I move her emails to a Jobs folder for later review. I also have a daily tickler in Things reminding me to check that folder.

Maybe you have a spouse, parent, or child who can help in this way. Or maybe you have a huge network of friends and family. Just be sure that you and they have an understanding: you won’t mind if they send you 100 emails a day, so long as they won’t mind if you ignore 90% of them. After all, only you can know which jobs are worth pursuing.

Those are my suggestions. What are yours?

Tracking Your Job Search with Google Docs

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Google Logo

Google. You may have heard of them.

Last week, I shared how I use Pinboard to organize my job search. Another tool I use is Google Docs.

I’ve been approaching my job search like a project, which means I need to track progress toward my goals. Additionally, I have a short memory for what I’ve accomplished, and recording my daily and weekly activities helps me remember my work and feel better about my efforts.

Why Google Docs?

Any spreadsheet program could be used for the system below, but I prefer Google Docs for a number of reasons:

  • It’s free. Depending on your situation, you may not want to spend money on Excel or another spreadsheet program.
  • It’s fast. Most job applications and postings are online now. If you already have your browser open, you can easily keep Google Docs open in another tab and record your activity as soon as it’s completed.
  • It’s shareable. I share my Job Search spreadsheet with my wife so that she can see my progress. She knows I’m working hard on the search, but if she can see the work I’m doing, it helps her peace of mind.

If you have philosophical objections to Google, you could use Zoho Docs instead. It’s been several years since I used Zoho, but it was a very nice product back then.

How I Use Google Docs

I track three things in Google Docs, each on its own tab:

  • Job applications.
  • Networking and informational meetings.
  • Progress toward weekly goals.

Taking the first one last, I have weekly goals for the number of applications I want to submit and the number of meetings I want to have. I’ve added conditional formatting that colors my weekly activities green if I’ve met my goals.

With a job search, progress can be difficult to measure. There’s one big goal: get a job. You might have lots of interviews or very few (I’ve been in both situations), yet have no idea how close you really are to landing the job. For me, this is a very frustrating situation, so tracking small wins keeps my motivation up.

For job applications, I keep track of the following:

  • Date applied
  • Company
  • Position
  • Address
  • Contact person (if I know their name – it’s sad how rare that is)
  • Method of application (online, email, in-person)
  • Date of last contact (which allows me to see which applications need follow-up)
  • Notes
  • Status of my application (open/closed)

For meetings, the information is much simpler:

  • Date
  • Person
  • Notes
  • Next steps

Recording Next Steps is crucial. Did they suggest someone for me to contact? Are they looking up some information for me? I also record any next steps in Things (more about that in a future post).

How do you keep track of the progress of your job search?

Organizing My Job Search with Pinboard

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Pinboard Logo

Pinboard, my favorite bookmarking service.

For the past month, I’ve been searching for a new full time job. As anyone can tell you, there are jobs out there — it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you. (Sounds easy, right?)

I’m looking for a position in communications, writing, editing, or web production. That covers a huge variety of positions and industries, and all sorts of jobs come up on, say, Indeed if you search for those keywords. Further, friends and family regularly email me about positions they’ve seen posted. Some of these look like they would be a perfect position for me. Others — not so much.

This leaves me with an information filter problem: how do I sort through and organize these jobs to find the ones that I’m both qualified for and interested in?

The Beauty of Pinboard

This is where Pinboard comes in. Pinboard is an online bookmarking tool that allows you to save and organize web pages for future reference. You might be asking, “Why would I want that? My web browser can store bookmarks for me.” True, but here are a few reasons why Pinboard is better:

  • Depth. I currently have over 5,000 bookmarks stored in Pinboard. Good luck keeping those organized in a web browser bookmarks folder.
  • Ease of use. Pinboard integrates with many other apps I use every day, including Tweetbot, Reeder, and Instapaper. If I read an interesting article in one of those apps, I can save it directly to Pinboard. With the “Save to Pinboard” shortcut, I can save webpages directly from Safari. With IFTTT, I can also automatically archive links from Facebook pages, RSS feeds, or other sources.
  • Tagging. Instead of folders, Pinboard using tags to organize bookmarks. This becomes important in a second.

Pinboard isn’t free — it costs about ten dollars to create an account — but that’s actually something I like about the service. As Pinboard’s owner explained on the site’s blog, charging a fee provides stability and allows him to focus on the service full time. I don’t have to worry about the site’s parent company shutting it down because it’s not profitable or the site selling ads (or my personal information) to make ends meet. There’s also an optional archiving service that, for $25/year, guarantees that articles you bookmark will still work even if the original link changes or gets deleted. If I were a student or working on a long-term research, I would sign up for archiving in a second.

My Job Review Workflow

  1. When I find a job posting, I review it quickly to see if it would be a good fit. If I don’t think it would be, I close the window and forget about it. If I think it might be a good fit for me, then I bookmark it with Pinboard.
  2. Collection: I usually use the Safari “Save with Pinboard” shortcut, which I have set to Cmd–5 on my Macbook. I tag the posting with jobs and set the bookmark to private. (By default, bookmarks in Pinboard are public, so you could share a collection of bookmarks with others.) If the job looks like an especially great fit, I tag it Ajobs.
  3. Review: Every couple of days, I review my bookmarks tagged jobs or Ajobs. Pinboard has a great feature called “Organize” that displays the original URL and your bookmark side-by-side. I check for a few things: Is the job still available? Do I still think it would be a good fit? Do I want to promote the job to Ajobs, demote it to jobs, or delete it entirely?
  4. Action: At any given time, I try to keep 5 to 10 postings tagged with Ajobs. So, whenever I’m ready to apply for some jobs, I simply open by Ajobs tag in Pinboard and start applying.
  5. Archive: After I’ve applied for the job, I change the tag from Ajobs to Ajobsapplied (or jobsapplied if I’ve applied to a lower priority position). This allows me to keep a record of the jobs I’ve applied for. I also add the job application to my Job Search Google Doc, which I’ll write about another day. Keeping track of applications is a requirement for unemployment benefits, but it also helps me follow up more effectively. For example, I can review my LinkedIn network for people who might be able to connect me with the company.

If you don’t want to use Pinboard, you could set up a similar workflow with Evernote, your browser’s bookmarks folder, or any program that lets you save and organize bookmarks.

That’s my workflow. I’d love to hear how others review and organize job listings. What are your tips?

The Perfect One-Cup Coffee Maker: AeroPress

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Aeropress

The magnificent AeroPress (Photo credit: doubleshot_cz)

My wife gives amazing gifts. She thinks about them for months, chooses something that you will love, and buys it at the best price. Last year, she gave me an AeroPress coffee maker. I use it every day to make amazing coffee. If you have a coffee lover on your Christmas list, I highly recommend considering an AeroPress. If you want to learn more, I’ve put some links at the bottom of this post.

As someone who likes to fiddle and experiment, I love that you can make coffee in many different ways with the AeroPress. Here’s my current recipe, which I developed so that I can save money and use only one scoop of coffee.

  1. Microwave 1.5 cups of cold water on high for 2 minutes, 30 seconds. This brings the water close to boiling (and gives you time to prepare your brew).
  2. Grind 1 scoop of beans for 15 seconds. I prefer dark roasts for the AeroPress and have found that lighter roasts taste a bit too “bright” toward the end of the cup.
  3. Invert the AeroPress and move the plunger to position 4. Empty the beans into the AeroPress. Fill with hot water and stir 4–5 times.
  4. Let the coffee steep for 90 seconds. While I’m waiting, I rinse a new filter with cold water and get it ready.
  5. Cap the AeroPress with the filter, invert over a mug, and press down slowly on the plunger. Top off the cup with leftover hot water.

To learn more about the AeroPress:

The Most Intimately Divine Word in the Bible

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Holy is the most intimately divine word in the Bible. It is that in God which marks him off as God. To say that he is holy is to say that he is God. Holiness, in Scripture, is the fundamental attribute of God that conditions and qualifies all other attributes.

Tom Trevethan, The Beauty of God’s Holiness, p. 13