Monday, July 13, 2009

Armchair Job Hunting

This has been a month, as they say. After my dismissal, I was pretty quick on the draw in posting my résumé online on http://www.monster.ca/ and http://www.workopolis.ca/, joining the professional networking site LinkedIn, and attempting to solicit recommendations from former managers and co-workers. But the market for technical writers (and so many other job types) is soft in the Toronto area. There's a possibility that I have too much seniority for the current market, so hiring managers might think my salary expectations might be too high.

After my last-but-one termination I had lots of calls from recruiters and good interviews. I got a call-back for a second interview (with nearly a promise of a job offer), but by that time I had accepted a contract offer. I've been incorporated since 2000 (helps a lot with taxes if your tax preparer is intelligent...) so I could take a contract at any time. I'd look for freelance work if I had a better portfolio. I might take a part-time job at Home Depot if they'd have me...

JULY 16 UPDATE: Not one, not two, but FOUR cold calls from recruiters in the last three days. One caller had my 2000 résumé, so I was very happy to send my latest with an extra nine years of experience in additional roles at two large Canadian companies. It was not a good fit with the available position, unfortunately, but the caller was encouraging. And another was to replace the current contractor with a more senior person -- goodness me!

2 comments:

Debra said...

If you think you're being viewed as having too much seniority, try dumbing down your résumé a little. There was a big article on it in the Globe in the spring. It feels so counter-intuitive and depressing, but if it leads to a good job -- or even one-that'll-do-for-now -- so what? Hope you're hanging in...

KarenInTo said...

As I suspected. I AM hanging in, and today will be a weeding day. I have lots of lovely volunteer flowers growing in the back yard, though...