Pondering drastically altering my resume after learning an employer that bookended several years of short stints due to layoffs shut down last year
The Bard in Green @ thebardingreen @lemmy.starlightkel.xyz Posts 28Comments 849Joined 2 yr. ago
The Bard in Green @ thebardingreen @lemmy.starlightkel.xyz
Posts
28
Comments
849
Joined
2 yr. ago
First off, you're NEVER unemployed. You're consulting / free lance writing. With your background that's 100% believable and no one ever checks on that. Even if they did... did you do ANYTHING related to your skillset to help ANYONE (friends, family)? They'll probably agree to be a former client a potential employer could talk to. Did you do any volunteer work? Get involved in any non-profits? Get references from folks there.
- I shouldn't say no one checks. I had ONE potential employer in my entire life check on ONE of my consulting stints. I had 3 real clients happy to say super nice things about me and I got the job.
2nd, if you're working part time somewhere off and on... you're working part time there the whole time while also working on your consulting business. That's why you were part time. If you were promoted, you note the dates of your promotions.
My resume says "Consultant at Coyote, ltd" for an 8 year period. Overlapping with that period is 1 year as IT director at a now defunct startup, 1 year as a project manager at a cybersecurity firm and 1.5 years as Cyberoperations Director at a spaceflight electronics startup. The CEO at the space company tried to get me to sign a no moonlighting clause and I flat out told him no. He was a bit of a dick about it (and whined about "this is standard stuff!") I held my ground and they didn't fire me. Fuck that noise.
3rd, Don't hesitate to clean up your LinkedIn. I HATE LinkedIn. It's intrusive and invasive, it serves corporations while exposing humans to a hypercompetitive stressfest of bullshit career posts to "like" and "engage with" and it exposes your past dirty laundry (or job history at dumpster fire positions) to potential future employers in a way that feels icky. I fucking hate that company, and wish death upon it.
That being said, you DO need to use it and game the shit out of it. Every hiring manager EVER will check your LinkedIn profile to see if it mostly matches your resume. But they won't spend time to dig too deep into it unless your REALLY STRONGLY being considered for a senior position. They'll just check that it exists and you have connections with people from former positions. Which if you're NOT connected to former co-workers... get on that.
Add a "Freelance Writing / Editing Consultant" (or whatever) position to LinkedIn covering the years from your first to your final unemployment period.
4rth, You're applying in a field where a gajillion liberal arts / humanities grads are competing over jobs that are being replaced by generative AI at companies that are being looted by vulture capitalists and repurposed for propaganda by right wing billionaires. I'm SO sorry about that. It sucks.
Realistically, it's time to ask what ELSE your background qualifies you for...
- Lots of small businesses, including high tech ones and consultancies will hire project managers with diverse backgrounds. I just hired an old friend of mine with NO tech company experience to be a project manager to help me wrangle a bunch of programmers working on different consulting gigs. Because I KNOW him and he's gonna kick ass and take names at that. In the past month of having him aboard, he's made ME significantly more productive. His back ground: High school teacher turned Whole Foods dept. manager, who spent a bunch of time trying to make a living hand forging swords and knives.
- Lots of successful business folks need personal assistants / executive assistants. It's often a shitty stressful job for a dickhead you don't like or respect, but it can also be an awesome job for a sweet decent person if you get lucky. My clients are small businesses. EVERY SINGLE ONE has one of those to help the big boss, and they have, like I said, a diverse set of backgrounds. One of my clients is a medical cannabis manufacturer and the CEO is a super sweet old lady. Her executive assistant is a guy in his 50s who survived cancer and whose background is in patent writing.
- Start ups and small businesses of all kinds need operations directors.
- With your back ground, you could consider roles in PR / publicity.
- You could also consider roles in technical writing.
- Government departments need case managers and supervisors all the time. A BUNCH of my friends with a wide variety of professional backgrounds work for the Colorado dept. of Unemployment, for example. None of them are rich, but they're not starving either.
- Your profile page claims you were a tech enthusiast before you got burned out (is how I read it). Are you enough of a tech enthusiast to help some boomer middle managers trouble shoot their printer problems and deal with scam popups locking their work computers? If so, an MSP may be willing to take a chance on you. It's part time and it's never enough money, but it's some income while you figure out your next steps.
- Your profile page also says your a van dweller. High five... I did that for 8 years and it was mostly awesome. Apply in any city you're willing / able to drive that van to.
- Dust off the old Reddit account (or make a new one) and just check all the job subreddits (r/DenverJobs and r/SFBayJobs are the two I'm most familiar with). If you get a call back, tell them you are in the process of moving (also say that on your initial application).
- Get in touch with recruiters. If you have a good looking resume, they will WANT to sell you. Look for recruiters that specialize in the industries you want to work in. Contact recruiters in cities you're willing to live in and tell them you're looking to move there.
Finally, your timeline makes me think you're in your 40s or 50s maybe? These are your PEAK earning years. Don't waste them.
You dislike big butts and you cannot lie?
Dude... like... woah man... like...where are like... the balls... on a sky bison!
14 year old Honor Harrington attends battle academy.
Songs will be sung...
Old jokes always circle back around.
I actually wish this was true.
Depends on who you're fucking.
For me, Lemmy content is better in every way, EXCEPT for local subs / communities. I really miss my well populated, engaged local subs.
Just to give credit where credit is due, I'm actually running this as a Changling campaign, using the old WoD rules from the 90s. The players are a Motely who work at an Irish Pub owned by their Sidhe patron, who dies unexpectedly and leaves them the pub, which is also a Freehold. It turns out it's in massive debt in the mortal world and faces various supernatural challenges as well.
I'm encouraging my players to make argumentative and annoying characters and to try to resolve problems with sitcom solutions, rather than combat or conflict.
I wanted to come back and tell you, because I never would have thought of it without you.
I'm having fun with what I'm working on, but I simply have too much to do, too many places to go, too many people to talk to.
I'm not going to get it all done today, that's not possible and that makes me feel tired and discouraged, even though I'm having fun.
So... a very normal Monday.
Good guys, bad guys and explosions...
In the small business / startup / consulting world, we do it ALL the time...
IDK how big businesses roll, I stay the hell away from those. I consulted with Meta for six months a few years ago and OMG never again.
Do NOT let my mom hear you say that what she does with crystals and auras is not ancient or medical in any way...
Based on the image, my mind went straight to:
Name: Skulvic
Type: Undead
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
No. Appearing: 4-8
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 2
Move: 12
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4 (bite)
THAC0: 18
Special Attacks: Psionic abilities (Psychic Crush), chilling bite (save vs Paralysis or be paralyzed for 1 round).
Special Defenses: Immune to mind-affecting spells and abilities, immune to poison, sleep, paralysis, stunning, and disease. Half damage from cold and electricity.
Magic Resistance: 5% per hit die
Size: Medium
Morale: 12
XP Value: 400
Description: Skulvic's are created by clerics of evil gods from the bones of those who's lustful appetites in life drove them to commit shameful acts. The Skulvic appears as a grotesque amalgamation of a humanoid skull fused with the pelvis of a humanoid creature, walking on leg bones. Its empty eye sockets flicker with malevolent psychic energy, and its bite carries a chilling touch that can paralyze its victims.
Combat: In combat, Skulvic relies on its psionic abilities and its bite. It is an opportunistic predator, lurking in dark places and ambushing unsuspecting victims. It unleashes bursts of psychic energy to disorient foes before closing in to deliver its chilling bite.
Psionic Abilities: Skulvic can possesses a range of psionic powers (at the DM's discretion), but usually lurk in the shadows and rely on Psychic Crush to ambush their victims.
Habitat/Society: Skulvics are created by clerics of evil deities and may be found patrolling around the sanctums and hidden meeting places of such cults. Skulvics communicate telepathically, often by sending their victims disturbing visions of "unspeakable acts."
Ecology: Skulvics are undead creatures driven by a hunger for psychic energy. They feed on the life force of their victims, draining them of their vitality with each chilling bite. Those who fall prey to a Skulvic often become mindless thralls to the clerics who control them.
Scratch under the surface of this, you find angry, noisy white boys who think the woke and feminism are coming for them...
"It isn't especially prevalent in videogames..."
Maybe not THIS millennium...
Theory doesn't mean what people think it means.
Culturally, we misunderstand theory to be equivalent to "hypothesis," meaning "We have an idea, now we need to prove or disprove it."
But accurately, theory means "We have a framework of interrelated ideas that fit the observable evidence." In that sense, evolution is an EXTREMELY well supported theory.
Gravity is also a theory. So are general and special relativity. So is all of quantum physics.
The corporation doesn't love you, nor does it hate you. But you possess economic value, which could be made to belong to the corporation's shareholders.
I did not mean to guilt trip anyone. Nor am I spinning some "personal responsibility" conservative Boomer shit. Everything that you say is absolutely true.
But the reality is that those are peak earnings decades and the fact that the economy is an utterly unjust dumpster fire and 100% of the fault for that lies at the feet of rich conservative old people and idiots who get conned into voting against their own best interests, doesn't make that not true... And also doesn't change that being old and broke is gonna suck balls.
That's just meant to be a motivator. It is for me, I wouldn't be doing as well as I am (which is not nearly as well as I want to be) without that exact motivator + the fact that I have a family that depends on me.