Last week I went to a Job Fair on Staten Island. According to our local newspaper, The Staten Island Advance, over 1,700 people attended this 4 hour event. People had started lining up early in the morning. When I got there around 1:30, the lines went into the parking lot and around the back of the building. Almost everyone was dressed in their best business attire, with the suggested 25 resumes in hand. (Click here for the full article)
This scene was today's version of the "unemployment lines," that we thankfully get to avoid now that we can file and collect our unemployment benefit checks on the computer. It was also a sobering reminder of how many people are affected by this very tough economy.
When I finally made it into the big room I was disappointed, but not surprised, by the selection of businesses participating in the event. First of all, we were on Staten Island,not Manhattan--The employment opportunities are somewhat limited on our small island. But even the bigger employers were not offering the positions most of us were hoping for. I dropped my resume where it made sense, spoke to a few employers and was out the door in about 30 minutes.
In all the gloom and doom of the day, there was was one ray of hope. It came in the form of a "public service announcement" from one of the employees from the Labor Department. As she handed out questionnaires for the attendees to fill out, she announced to the crowd, "There are jobs out there, people. With all the stimulus packages out there, the government is hiring. Check out the New York State website. That's how I found my job 12 years ago when I was downsized. There are jobs, they are hiring. Check it out."
Sure enough...she was telling the truth. I was able to apply to 5 very possible jobs from the city and state. These are jobs I never would have found or considered in my previous searches. Today, I am much more open to new opportunities.
You have to work your way through all of the agency websites, some require that you take a test to apply, but many of the listings do not. For those of us that come from the public sector, these job listings may be hard to translate, but its worth the effort.
Somebody moved our cheese*, people...we have to look elsewhere to find it. (Thanks, Labor Department Lady, for the tip.)
Here are the websites if you are interested:
*EDITORS NOTE: If you don't know what I am talking about with "finding new cheese"...you need to read the book "WHO MOVED MY CHEESE." Its a quick read, and deals with the issue of dealing with change to survive. I think it is a must read for the unemployed. Check out my other nine picks.
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