fast answer Friday — seven short answers to seven short questions

by Alison Green on March 1, 2013

It’s fast answer Friday — seven short answers to seven short questions. Here we go…

1. Mentioning money when asked where you’d like to be in a year

I’m a program coordinator at a prestigious university and have held my position for a little over seven months. My question is this: when a self-evaluation questionnaire asks you where you’d like to be in a year, is it okay to mention that you’d like a raise in addition to the greater responsibility that you of course hope to be taking on?

It’s not really the place for it. They’re asking where you’d like to be in terms of your job and career, not financially. If you do end up taking on more responsibility, you can certainly talk about money as part of that, but that’s not what this questionnaire is asking about.

2. Manager isn’t enforcing the rules on account stealing

I have a situation at work that has happened repeatedly and my boss has not yet enforced the rules within the organization. The rules are as follows — if there is a note in our sales database that another salesperson is currently pursuing the account, then no other salesperson can contact them for at least one year since the last follow-up activity. I have a coworker who repeatedly pursues my current large potential leads, and when I go to the boss for back-up, he does not do anything. I play by the rules because this is a small business and the other sales rep who I mentioned (who pursues my prospects) is married to the VP of Operations. Any suggestions on how I could encourage my boss to stand up for me?

All you can really do is ask. Point out that the company has clear rules on this that aren’t being followed — to your detriment — and ask for help in addressing it.

3. I don’t want my resume to be in Word

I work in a very technical, non-Microsoft field (Unix mostly), and as such I prepare my resume using the skills I know best. The end result of my resume is either plain text, HTML, or a PDF. The style is typically clean and easy to read. However, I’ve noticed two things in my job search — recruiters often demand I put my resume in a Word document (which I can never seem to make look as good), and many online applications use text boxes that make it hard to format the content in any meaningful way (like using simple bullet points).

Of course, content is king, and I spend most of my time worrying about what I write and not how it looks, but I do wonder: when my resume gets delivered to a hiring manager and has been filtered to the point of looking ugly, does that hurt my chances of gaining an interview?

If it’s hard to read or quickly skim, sure. But there’s no reason for that to be the case in Word or text. Keep a plain text version of your resume (using asterisks instead of bullet points, for instance) so that you have something you can easily copy and paste from for online applications. And as for recruiters, they want it in Word because they often strip out your contact information before passing it on to hiring managers — because they “own” your candidacy and don’t want employers contacting you directly (or they may not get paid for connecting you).

4. Should I resend my resume in a PDF?

I have been sending my resume out as a word document, and just realized I should probably be sending as a PDF. Can I resend the resume as a PDF to jobs I’ve already sent it to as a .doc? Should I forget it and move on?

Forget it and move on. Sending it in Word isn’t a horrible thing — plenty of people submit their resumes in Word — and you’ll annoy employers by sending it a second time.

5. Explaining frequent moves as a military spouse

I married very young to a man in the military with about a year of college and limited professional experience. Somehow I managed to get a nice professional gig for 2-1/2 years. Then the moving started … needless to say, I have had 6 different positions in the past 7 years. I completed my degree in 2011, moved a fourth time back to my hometown, got a great job, and got a divorce. Unfortunately, I have been advised that my great job (it’s state government, been here for a year) is being eliminated and I will need to find a new position by May.

For the past two months, I have been editing my resume, submitting short cover letters, and applying my heart out. I’m getting NO response…not even a nibble. I don’t think telling potential employers I am recently divorced (and therefore wont be moving/leaving any positions) is good protocol. Do I have a scarlet letter on my forehead because of my many positions and frequent moves? How do I explain this so I can even get a call?

Say it right up front in your cover letter, because otherwise employers will assume you’re simply a job hopper. You don’t need to get into the divorce, but you can certainly say, “For the last seven years, I’ve been a military spouse and thus had to move frequently. That’s now behind me; I’ve settled down for good in ___ and am looking forward to finding a job that I can stay at for a significant period of time.”

(At the same time, though, make sure the problem isn’t one of the more typical problems with resumes and cover letters. Read this.)

6. Asking for feedback after starting a new job

I started a new job (part-time, temporary) a bit less than a month ago. I love the organization I work for and really want to see this job turn into a full-time position by being as awesome an employee as possible. In doing so, I want to ask my new manager for feedback on how I’m doing so far, but I don’t know when would be long enough to have worked with me for her reliably critique my work. The position is only 15 hours/week and is slated to end in August. I would ideally like to meet with her a few times to discuss this, but am wondering when the first meeting should be. Three months in? Longer? What’s you’re take on this?

Ask now. It’s entirely reasonable to ask after a few weeks how you’re doing and if there’s anything you should focus on doing differently or better.

7. Where have you found jobs?

I was thinking perhaps your readers would like to share where they have found jobs (I am so over craigslist and indeed) so am curious if others have come across additional sites to share.

Sure, I’ll throw this out to readers. One tip from me: Most fields have niche job sites (Idealist for nonprofits, PRSA for communications, Roll Call for politics, Chronicle of Philanthropy for foundations and fundraisers, and so forth), so you should try a search for the name of your field plus the word “jobs.”

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{ 167 comments }

{ 167 comments… read them below }

  1. Mike*

    Re #4: Sending it out in word format is bad but don’t resend it. The real problem with Word is that there are so many versions in the wild and they aren’t all compatible with each other.

    Re #7: I found my current job on GitHub (I’m a programmer and used GitHub to host my open source stuff). So do look at the sites your profession uses.

    1. Sunshine DC*

      Ditto, re: #4 comment. I recently applied for a position where the online application system required MS Word *2003.* I do not have this version, no one I know in my large network has this, and even the local university and internet places do not have it. For better or worse, I sent my documents in PDF before I saw the fine print about format later. I’m left wondering, why on earth would a company even want to hire someone whose tech skills and program use is a decade out of date? This is the home office, BTW – not an outside recruiter.

      1. Josh S*

        If you have Word 2007 (or newer), you can save as a .doc rather than a .docx. You just “Save As…” and then select the option “Word 97-2003 Document”.

        .docx formatting uses (IIRC) some xml for the formatting, making it more flexible for web use, while .doc incorporates the formatting information alongside the content information without xml.

        And the reason they may want to receive .doc format instead of .docx is because Word 2003 is entirely functional, and it is a not-insignificant cost to upgrade the licenses to Word 2007 or newer. (Though if the online application system is going to attempt to parse the document to populate fields for you (like name, contact info, etc), it would make more sense to me to use a version that is already set up to be compatible with web-based use: namely, Word 2007 .docx format.)

        *shrugs* If you want the job, follow their directions, as asinine as they may seem.

        1. Mike*

          >*shrugs* If you want the job, follow their directions, as asinine as they may seem.

          Being a tech guy requirements like this make me not want the job

          1. Josh S*

            If I were looking at tech jobs, I would definitely just stop the application at the point they wanted me to use a 10-year old version of software because it tells me that A) they aren’t depreciating their IT costs properly, B) they don’t understand technology, and C) they look at software upgrades as an unnecessary cost rather than a way of having the best tools. Or it at least gives me the strong suspicion that this is the case.

            Even as a non-tech applicant who values current technology, I’m pretty well put off by that.

              2. Josh S*

                Yeah, Mac-based is somewhat irrelevant here. Every version of MS Office has been offered in a Mac-compatible version that saves to .doc or .docx since at least the 2003 iteration.

                1. Lulula*

                  Also, even if they don’t use Mac Office, Open Office is free & enables you to deal w/MS docs. There’s no way they will have escaped having to deal with this issue before, unless they’re tiny… in which case, they really should still sort that out!

          2. BeenThere*

            +1000
            If an organisation hasn’t figured out how to use a free PDF reader I’m sure it’s an organisation that anyone technical would be unhappy in.

            Also if they can’t afford to licence a more recent version of the M$ Office Suite it means they probably can’t afford a whole lot of other technologies and my days would be spent trying to fix and interface with legacy products. Major Red Flag.

        2. Sunshine DC*

          Thanks :) Alas, I use Word .docx and there is no option to save as “2003” unless one uses “xml.” Earliest option is Word 97-2004.

          1. Josh S*

            Right. That’s the version you want to use.

            With MS Word versions 97 – 2003, the document gets saved as a .doc. This is the file type that the company wants.

            With MS Word versions 2007 and newer, the document gets saved as a .docx. You can open a .docx file in Word 2007 (or newer), click the MS icon in the top left corner, click “Save As” and then select the “Word 97-2003 Document” option. This will convert the .docx file to a .doc file, which you can then upload or send to whomever you like.

            Trust me, this *is* possible.

            1. Chinook*

              And the fact that a tech guy doesn’t know about this basic backwards compatability (one that you can even make your default setting) makes me wonder how much desktop support he does or that he has a distinct bias against anything Microsoft.

              1. Anonymous*

                How does being a “tech guy” have anything to do with desktop support? The way it was phrased suggest that the person is more likely to be a sysadmin, really.

                1. Anonymous*

                  Oops, I take that back. I confounded a few different posters with each other it seems (I was thinking of the OP with the Unix-dominated environment)

            2. fposte*

              Yeah, I do it all the time, because I send docs back and forth with people using old software. It’s an easy Save As function–you just have to know it’s there.

        3. Sunshine DC*

          Re: parsing fields, I think not in this case, as it already requires applicants to fill out all these detailed fields, one by one. THEN upload the docs, too.

      2. Rana*

        Echoing all the above: save as a doc file rather than a docx. The reason for it is that it is back-compatible with all versions of Word likely to still be in use today, and it’s less likely to be mangled by the conversion process if opened using an earlier version.

        (A recent example: I currently edit in Word 2004 as it is relatively efficient and not a memory hog, and for 95% of clients it works just fine. But here was one time it did not: the client submitted a very large docx file (nearly 50MB!) , and my system just choked on it. Worse, it failed in a way that was not immediately apparent: Word converted the first six pages and dumped the remainder, and because of how the document was organized, it wasn’t at all clear that there were any pages missing. I even tried running it through a bunch of online converters, and they all choked on it too. If it had been a doc file, there would have been no problem.)

        So: lowest common denominator. Just be glad you’re not having to submit your files as rtfs, which is a common standard in my field.

      3. Flynn*

        I do a lot of IT support with students, and I always get them to save in the 2003 version, unless I check they have 2007 at home (and hey, I don’t!). It’s easy to open the older documents. It’s still a pain to open the newer ones if you don’t have 2007. And it may not be that they don’t have 2007, simply that they want to be sure that anyone who needs to can read your resume, even if they don’t happen to be on a work computer.

        1. julie*

          i’ve been saving my resumes as .doc using word 2007 . i have 2007 at home, but am still using 2003 at work, and the company i work for isn’t exactly “small”.

          1. K*

            I know one major federal agency I work with is just switching over now. Which – not that anyone has ever accused the federal government of being at the technological forefront, but it is representative of the fact that Word 2003 still has a significant presence I think.

        2. Kelly L.*

          I saved everything in old-Word for several years at my job, because it took a while for everyone in my office to get upgraded, and I remembered how annoying it was when I was the one whose computer wasn’t upgraded yet and I got all those docxs.

          1. Jamie*

            A few years back when some external people had converted to 2007 when we were still on 2003 I just pushed a converter app out to all the clients.

            Office is backwards compatible and the converter is free for forward compatibility – the only time there were issues was with one particularly complex Excel workbook with embedded macros. 99% of the time the converters are just fine.

      4. perrik*

        I don’t know if this is still the case, but one of my professors required that we submit in .doc or .pdf because he was running OpenOffice under one of the Unix flavors and couldn’t open a .docx properly. So this requirement might mean tech-progressive rather than tech-dinosaur.

        Highly unlikely in this case, but hey, just making note of it.

        1. Elizabeth West*

          .pdfs are great because you never know what is going on at the other end. That’s how I did most of my resumes unless Word was specifically requested.

          Also, you can view the exact formatting in .pdfs. I’ve opened .docs before in the wrong version and had the formatting get completely blown.

          1. Rana*

            Yep, formatting in Word can be really squirrelly, especially if there are any non-text elements involved. However, editing in PDFs is a royal pain in the tuchus, so (as for many things) it’s best to know what the end use of the document is. (Obvious for resumes, not so obvious for other things.)

  3. Kat*

    Idealist.org is a good resource for jobs, mainly in non-profit. I like sites that are a little bit industry-specific, such as Netimpact.org for jobs in sustainability, so it might help to find out what sort of networks exist (online or off) for your field.

    1. College Career Counselor*

      Opportunityknocks, socialwork.org (social and human services), dice.com (tech), nonprofitjobs.org(nfps), thewritejobs.com, mediabistro.com, ed2010.com (all stuff for writing/media/editorial/journalism/freelance)

  4. Angela S.*

    #7: I found my current job through a posting on LinkedIn. I applied the traditional way, not knowing anyone within the company. Somehow I got the job after a few long interviews.

    Before that, I was one of those college grads with a liberal art degree and didn’t know what I wanted to do. Luckily, I was introduced to the idea of temping. I signed up with at least 5 agencies, I believe, and I did a number of short-term assignments before I landed on a rather long-term assignment with a bank. That assignment was 1 1/2 year long (during which time I worked full-time but was paid almost minimum part-term wages with no benefits) before the bank hired me as a contract staff (during which time I worked full-time, paid full-time but no benefits). It would be another year before I became a permanent staff.

    I’ve heard that in the last year or so, even to sign up with an employment agency to do temp work was difficult?

    1. Elizabeth West*

      I don’t know why, but when I temped in 2004, I had assignments all the time. Tried it this time (2012) and got NOTHING. Maybe there are too many people doing it.

      1. Jamie*

        There are fewer employers calling temps these days. I temped from 2005 to the beginning of 2007 and there were only 3 business days I didn’t work and I was able to be really selective.

        When I was in between jobs for a couple of months in 2008 I assumed I could just temp full time until I found something…but it was already slower then. Now a lot companies are just toughing it out and making due with current staff rather than calling temps for coverage if they can avoid it.

    2. Lulula*

      That’s certainly the impression I’m getting – I got all of my past full time jobs through the temp-to-perm scenario, and when I tried to approach the most recent agency I’d worked with (& gone full time through) after my recent layoff, all I got were crickets. Between that and the stories I’ve heard (and my lack of ubersuperadvanced MSOffice & phone answering skills), I’ve steered clear for awhile now. Sadly, this is really the only way I know to successfully get in somewhere if you don’t have a specific “field”, but looking forward to seeing where others have been searching…

  5. Jill*

    #7: I have looked for jobs with all of the sources listed above but I will add mpiweb.org or ises.com for event planning and also the job I have now I found through their website. Sometimes this works if you know specifically which organization you are interested in working for.

    1. Wubbie*

      THANK YOU!! None of the current postings match what I’m looking for, but these look like great resources for my search!

  6. Science Master*

    I’ve found jobs on Craigslist, a state nonprofit jobline, industry-specific job lists (I Need a Library Job for libraries!), and by just visiting jobs websites of organizations I’d like to work for.

  7. Karen*

    #7 – LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn. !!! What’s important to remember about LinkedIn is that the jobs posted on Linkedin are not fetched and aggregated by simplyhired or indeed. So if you are relying solely on indeed and simplyhired, you’re missing all of the LI jobs.

    On LinkedIn, join groups that are part of your industry – often times jobs are posted there, within the “groups” of linkedin, which is separate from the actual “jobs” portal of Linkedin.

    Also, if you are currently out of work right now, I’d suggest changing the header under your name that shows your job title “Project Manager,” to something else like, “Seeking new opportunities in project management.”

    1. FE*

      Totally agree, LinkedIn is the way to go. Jobs are posted bythe company, easy to search for, and you can do research on the company and employees all on one website. I used it exclusively for my job search last year and found my job on it. Would recommend LinkedIn to anyone!

      1. Elizabeth West*

        Glassdoor is good for that also, although they do tend to get spam posts because of the aggregate function. But you can hop over and check reviews, average salaries, etc.

    2. Anonymous*

      Agree 100%. I recently found a job (and ended up receiving an offer for another job I applied to) through LinkedIn. I’d also add that if you get one of the offers to try a premium membership for free, it’s worth checking out to see if it helps you. I had a job seeker membership and while I’m not sure that some of the “benefits” were all that helpful (you get a “job seeker” label and supposedly your application gets pushed to the top of the list), what I *did* find really helpful was the ability to look into profiles of people I was interviewing with and other employees at those companies to get a sense of where people came from and what their backgrounds were, which you only have limited access to as a free user. That background info also sometimes gave me some good questions to ask at interviews too.

      1. BeenThere*

        Second the premium accounts for all the reasons listed above and..

        1) You can see who had been looking at your profile more so than the free account. It’s always interesting when your interviewers look you up before you’ve looked them up.

        2) Statistics on where I am showing up in searches, I had a massive Java spike a few weeks ago after a few colleagues and a former manager endorse me for Java. I use the statistics to make my profile appear for the keywords I want it to. I was in the top 10% of profiles viewed last year. *self high five*

        1. Judy*

          Both my husband and I were in the top 10%, along with everyone else I’ve asked at work. And I generally don’t have more “showed up in search results” of 5-10 in 30 days, similar to everyone else I talked to.

          I’m beginning to wonder about that email, unless if you end up in multiple searches (by a recruiter), they only get listed once.

      1. Jamie*

        It absolutely is – I just wonder how easy it is to hunt this way if currently employed. Because it would seem the security settings being set to keep current co-workers/bosses from seeing your activity would hinder others finding you? I haven’t really looked into it – it just feeds the paranoia of someone like me when you know everyone you work with is on linkedin – but you want to keep that separate.

        1. Esra*

          LinkedIn doesn’t send out updates when you apply for a job. That would be super awful.

          1. Jamie*

            Thanks. It was the activity thread that I get weird about. I have my settings as such that no one sees that feed but me, but I get weird and overly cautious about this kind of thing.

            1. BeenThere*

              Yes. Like when it shows you’ve connected with a new person who happens to be a recruiter. Whenever I see someone I know that is currently employed connecting with a recruiter the alarm bells go off. Likewise when people start updating their profiles when they’ve been fairly inactive. A whole bunch of my former teammates all suddenly started updating their profiles, fortunately they all seem to be currently still employed and it may have been coincidence… still.

            2. Lulula*

              For the activity thing, I’ve just started going immediately to the front page and deleting the post as soon as it comes up (i.e. right after I say anything in our networking group!). Doesn’t totally solve the problem, but mitigates it unless someone is closely monitoring things…

  8. Anonymous*

    -search for area-based job listing sites (I’m in DC so I use Washington Post Jobs a lot) and within those sites search for your field

    -alma mater’s job services if you’re fortunate like me

    -indeed, cyber coders, linkedin, simply hired

    -new grads- career rookie and after college

    – design work: coroflot, krop
    -remote freelance: odesk

    -and I find a lot of my coolest listings just by looking up companies/websites I like and rummaging around in their jobs/careers section (found at the bottom of the page, in the top navigation, or under either “about” or “contact”)
    B Corporation for good companies

    1. Anonymous*

      Oh and glassdoor, too. It’s convenient while I’m researching the crap out of the companies I’m already looking up there anyway.

      1. Anonymous*

        +1 about Glassdoor.com . It was a godsend when I was job hunting and it helped me with dodging bullets when it came to interviewing with companies I was very unsure about. I had a really odd phone screen with a recruiter at a company and I looked them up on Glassdoor.com and the overall review was incredibly negative.

      2. BeenThere*

        +1 Glassdoor. Yes I have contributed.

        There was a company that made really cool software that I would have been an epic great fit for. Then I read Glassdoor.. things were bad and confirmed by a former colleague who had a friends that had worked for the same company. The quote from their friend “I could not recommend working there.”

      3. AG*

        Glassdoor is great for research but they don’t appear to have any unique job postings (i.e. they’re scraped/aggregated).

        1. Elizabeth West*

          Check anyway–every once in a while, there’s something on there that pops up. I just had a list of sites I visited every morning, with saved search criteria so I could click and go, and it was one of them.

      4. perrik*

        One thing bugged the crap out of me with Glassdoor… I had posted a review for an org for which I had been an administrative assistant. Since then I’ve completed my BS, earned an MS, and am interested only in a specific set of jobs in my field.

        Glassdoor “helpfully” suggested jobs whenever I logged in. Administrative assistant jobs. Allegedly they’ve changed the suggestions to be based on your searches rather than your submissions, but I’m reluctant to log in to find out just in case they haven’t. I don’t want to see those jobs, and those companies sure as hell don’t want to hire me for them. Good AAs are awesome. I was not a good AA.

      5. BeenThere*

        Oh I have a similar problem with Linkedin. I’ve had a career change and several industry changes, it keeps suggesting director level positions the would have been a natural progression from my first role >_< I have no interest in them and I haven't stayed in the field so wouldn't be a candidate. No matter how often I click "not relavent" their software hasn't picked this up it keeps posting me these positions.

  9. CassJ*

    #7: In the tech industry, you can throw a rock and hit about ten different recruiters (at least, in my area). So when I was recently laid-off, all I had to do was reach out to my network. Didn’t even bother posting my resume on Dice or Monster. Ended up getting my new role through a friend though.

    1. Jamie*

      I second this. If I were looking the first thing I’d do would be to contact one of the recruiters who’ve been annoying me for a couple of years. :)

      I did get my current job via Craigslist and in addition to recruiters if I were to look anywhere it would be at Dice.

      1. Cathy*

        I second the recruiters. I have a long list of people who always want me to hire from them, as well as a shorter list of people who want to recruit me. So when I was looking last year, I emailed them all.

        It’s very interesting to be on the candidate side, and I now have a “never hire from these people” list as well.

      2. AP*

        I think Craigslist is completely different depending on what region you’re looking in. Where I live it’s really sketchy and pretty much scam-only, but I have friends in other part of the country who use it like any other job board. Weird!

        1. De Minimis*

          Very true….in my former neck of the woods it was basically the only thing that a lot of employers used, especially smaller businesses [which were the main source of employement in the area.] Of course, that was in CA.

          1. Jamie*

            It’s used a lot in my industry for legit jobs, and I’m in Illinois.

            This may have changed since it’s been a couple of years since I’ve had to care about this, but Careerbuilder and Monster used to be really cost prohibitive to join in order to run ads. For an SMB that isn’t filling a ton of slots it just wasn’t worth the cost of the service. We opted for things like craigslist and others where you can pay individually.

            Again, this may have changed, but I always assumed that’s why the two big sites would have a lot of huge companies (lots of hiring) or agencies (ditto) rather than your SMBs.

          2. Hannah*

            Like Jamie, I’m also in Illinois, and I found my last (totally legit) job through Craigslist.

        2. Anonymous*

          In my area Craigslist is a mix but the jobs that you DO get on it are all very bad or are run by incompetent people! One friend searches almost solely on CL instead of real job boards (again, our area) and it baffles me that she’s confused about why she keeps getting cruddy jobs. She expects to get different results from doing the same thing over. Sigh.

        3. Lulula*

          I use CL if I really want a good laugh – it’s where I’m guaranteed to find all the “$12/hr for bilingual experts with 10 years of experience posts”. The site laist.com even posted an ad from there the other week as an example of complete insanity. There are legit ones mixed in, but they can usually be found on other (less depressing) sites.

      3. CassJ*

        Exactly :) For the last six months, I had a bunch of different recruiters “checking in” with me, so it was pretty handy to email them right away and say, “About those roles you’re trying to fill…” :)

  11. Rana*

    Regarding #7 – you might also see if there are any trade organizations for your field; many of them have job boards and list-servs with job announcements, and even if they don’t, there are usually plenty of people able to offer more industry-specific searching advice.

  12. TL*

    #4: Wait, sending resumes as Word documents isn’t the ideal thing? I was under the impression that either Word docs or PDF files were the standard, with a bias towards Word because (theoretically) a business would be more likely to have a word processing program than a PDF reader, *if* they didn’t have both. (Yes, I know an up-to-date business SHOULD have Adobe Reader installed. However, judging from some of the out-of-date systems I’ve seen, I’m not keen to assume anything.) Generally speaking, I see more specific requests in job listings for Word docs than for PDFs, so I’ve been playing it safe and going that route, unless the ad says otherwise. And I send a Word 97-2003 .doc file instead of a .docx, for the same reason.

    1. KayDay*

      My experience has been that Word and PDF are basically equal–but there’s a very strong argument in favor of sending PDFs because they ensure that your formatting stays how you want it (and there is no danger that the person reviewing your resume will drop something onto their keyboard and delete the entire thing).

      When we have an opening, we ask for Word or PDF and the vast majority are in Word.

    2. nicole*

      Agreed. On the few occasions I’ve sent my résumé in PDF I was asked to provide a Word version so I’ve just been using Word now.

    3. Oxford Comma*

      I prefer seeing resumes in pdf format simply because people have different versions of Office/Open Office and stuff sometimes prints out weirdly.

    4. Lulula*

      Aarrrrrgh this! I’ve read umpteenthousand pieces on how you should only send your resume in Word, never PDF (unless requested) – I can’t even remember why anymore, probably something to do with either virus paranoia or ease of importing into ATS, despite candidates liking PDF for maintaining formatting. So now this is no longer the case? Have I lost opportunities because I’ve missed out on the switch?

    5. Anonymous*

      Huh, I laid my resume out in InDesign and thus always use PDF (I have a .txt version for online forms). I’ve never been asked to specifically submit a Word doc, but then again I haven’t job hunted in a couple of years!

  13. Hate to admit this...*

    I graduated from a professional degree program at a public university in 2007. After years of dealing with the “There are no jobs available for people at my level with my degree in the field for which I’ve trained, but employers in other fields won’t touch me….” I finally gave up. I was about to become homeless. I had done everything, applied everywhere, followed every advice site (this one, religiously, in fact).

    It wasn’t going to happen.

    Men love vulnerability, in my experience (and my friends). The worse things got, the more often I was hit on. There were oh so many offers to network. You have no idea unless you’ve ever been a woman with no friends, no family, and walked into a room of men who see lack of status as an opportunity. (Please, every woman who has never had this experience because she’s always been someone’s daughter or sister or wife, jump in to tell me I must be making this up because it didn’t happen to you. It happens all the time. To women of all levels of attractiveness).
    I swallowed my pride, took a job from a guy who was hitting on me, and it sucks but it is better than starving. I don’t get much respect, but I wasn’t getting that anyway. In my experience, in my field, women generally don’t regardless of talent or any other factor so I really don’t think I traded anything I ever had.

    Anyway. That’s where the jobs are, for me. They’re held by men who are predatory and much less talented than the women who are excluded from the field (often by openly aggressive “women just can’t cut it” comments and hostility(. And to get one you have to be ok with that. Skills don’t matter. Experience doesn’t matter.

    After trying to build a career for four and a half years with internships and consulting and networking and endless, endless practice interviews, I found a job in 1 1/2 months by letting guys hit on me and not talking. I never even gave anyone my resume.

    Oh, and for the record I am a superstar by any measure at my current position, and all my boss’s friends can’t figure out why his business took off after he hired me because I MUST be a ditz. I actually like the job, too. I don’t mind wearing the miniskirts and playing the ditz to stay off the streets.

    Bottom line: Stop talking. Let someone hit on you. Wait to see how much he’ll give you. Repeat as necessary until you get a job you want.

    Finally, for all the men who think this is so unfair, maybe you should call out your dumbo frat buddies when they drool all over women and act like we’re not really people. If you don’t want some woman to be hired for being a sex object DON’T OBJECTIFY PEOPLE. I shouldn’t have to put up with any of the predatory behavior and I have no sympathy for men who think it’s fine for their buddies to act like that but blame the woman.

      1. Josh S*

        ^ This.

        “Hate to admit this…”, I hope you can find a place that respects you (and women in general), because they certainly exist.

    3. E.R*

      Interesting. (And I’m sorry about this experience, it sounds awful) Can I ask what field you are in?

      1. Anon*

        I would never do that because A) I’m a person and I will not settle for dehumanization, B) it would dishonor my marriage and no job is worth that (believe me, we’ve been broke), and C) if I were to perpetuate such myths, I’m doing a huge disservice to coworkers, my friends, my sister, and my future daughters by doing so. That’s gross. I’ve also experienced some related trauma in the past and as a result, I don’t tolerate predatory behavior. I’m the eldest in my family and the first to make something of myself, plus I have many very young female relatives. I’d be doing a huge disservice to them if I acted like that, no matter how bad it was.

        Guess what? I’ve been broke, homeless and on food stamps, even if it was for a short while. I’d rather go through all that again than be dehumanized. If anything, it taught me who my friends and my community were and allowed me to get on feet. If I’m known by anything, I will be known by my integrity. It makes things worse for women if my reputation isn’t based on my integrity and accomplishments alone.

        1. Cimorene*

          When one is being dehumanized, one has no say in the matter. That’s the nature of dehumanization. When someone refuses to recognize your humanity–because you’re a woman, a person of color, disabled, poor, whatever–your “refusal” to be refused recognition doesn’t actually matter.

          It’s easier to think, when people are being treated like things, that they somehow “deserve” to be treated that way, because they “put up” with that kind of behavior. But the truth is that plenty of people are in positions where they have to suck it up and be treated like things in order to survive. Welcome to late capitalism.

          1. Anon*

            What I meant was that I don’t need to accept dehumanizing treatment. No matter what happens, there is a choice. It may not be an ideal choice, but it’s a choice. I never said people deserve that treatment-I was responding to the author saying that we need to “let” men treat us badly to get ahead. No one “deserves” maltreatment, but it’s our responsibility to decide we won’t take it.

            Other than that, I don’t want to derail the thread too much, so I’ll keep it at that.

          2. PEBCAK*

            Men’s Rights Advocate. The MRA movement started off primarily as a reaction to the fact that lots of men felt they were getting the short end of the stick in things like custody battles. It has devolved on the internet into some sort of bizarre anti-feminist community of trolls.

            See, the things is, feminists want men and women to be treated equally. The idea that, for example, women are more naturally fit to have custody of their children is something that feminists argue against, because it works against equality, i.e. the patriarchy hurts men too. Same thing when men talk about how they are expected to put in more hours at the office while women leave early to go pick up their children from daycare.

            I don’t want to open up a huge off-topic debate about MRA’s on this thread, but basically, it’s bizarre that they exist as a countermovement to feminism when their stated goals align pretty closely with those of feminists.

      2. Liz*

        1) This exact scenario is a plot line in the most recent season of both Mad Men and House of Cards. Not saying it’s fake. Just saying it’s a bit… convenient.

        2) I have heard similar speculation about almost every reasonably attractive younger, single woman that I have encountered in the workplace. The really impressive thing to me is that these scheming dastardly women are assumed to have obtained favors or otherwise traded on their looks without men being involved at all. It’s like the immaculate conception of sexual harassment, every time, in the office gossip mill. On that point, I think I actually agree with the commenter on the DON’T OBJECTIFY point. The fact that this happens, if it happens, likely has a lot more to do with what we tolerate from men in the office and elsewhere than what we expect from women. The idea that women even could do this is a direct outgrowth of the idea that men can’t help themselves so women are expected to prevent problems by bearing the burden of being chaste, not cheating, or not being raped. Men can’t help but throw jobs at anything in a skirt, so women had better have the self respect to starve instead… that sort of thing.

        3) I could actually see this happening in law or business consulting, where entry level jobs are usually decided on prestige or or connections rather than work experience or other more objective factors. It seems much less likely in something like academia or library science.

        4) A one-and-one- half month job search struck me as the really crazy fact. There is no way that happened.

    6. PEBCAK*

      Yeah, this happens to me a lot, too. I’ll be at a bar talking to some guy, and he’ll buy me a few drinks and invite me back to his place, and sometimes I say yes, because I’m single, so what the heck. Usually, once we get to his mansion, he’ll put his hand on my thigh or something, and then lean in and offer me a job.

      1. Jamie*

        Interesting. I have spending a fortune sending my daughter to college – who knew I was wasting my money? I’ll tell her to just start using her God given looks and I’ll get a new car sooner.

        Do the boys still need to be educated?

      2. Forrest*

        When I walk from my job to the metro, I’m constantly getting job offers from men.

        “Hey Baby! Want to manage our annual fund? Pay range is $50-60K! I’d like to mid-level manage you!”

        Next time I’m looking for a job, I’ll just my resume on a sandwich board sign.

        1. Kelly L.*

          I’ll print it on the backside of a pair of tight sweatpants, Victoria’s Secret Pink style. ;)

      4. Elizabeth West*

        HA HA HA HA HA HA!!

        I’m at lunch and you almost made me spit marshmallow cookie on my monitor.

    8. Jill*

      This isn’t real right? This is horrifying. Places that respect women certainly do exist. My mom is the only female manager at a multi million dollar company and while she does have days where she feels manager events have a “gentlemens club” feel they do everything to make sure she’s included and feels safe in that environment.

    9. Heather*

      AWESOME!!! This is genius. I am gonna try it!!!!!!!! You should absolutely have your own blog.

  14. Chinook*

    #5 – I have been there and done that. Definitely mention it in your cover letter. If you are in a smaller military community, you may even find employers who have a preference for military spouses. In Canada, I know the Military Family Resource Centre’s sometimes have listings for employers who are “military friendly” (as in the understand the lifestyle differences and lack of local references).

    Also, consider working through a temp or placement agency. I discovered this after my 2nd move and appreciated having someone with local knowledge about the market. Also, I found that a good agency is forgiving of your work history if you show yourself,for to be reliable and hardworking.

    1. College Career Counselor*

      #5 As a former military spouse, you may be eligible for career services/assistance. I have a colleague who took a career services position at a contract agency that works with this population (www.zeiders.com) to offer Family Member Employment Assistance. It might be worth exploring to see if any of their services are of interest and if they’ll work with you (As I’m sure you know, you’re entitled to certain military benefits, but I don’t know if this qualifies).

    2. #5 OP*

      Im definately going to update my cover letter to include it now. I suppose the frequent moves have given me a special kind of resilience. Unfortunately, due to my divorce I no longer qualify for the preferences of a military spouse in the eyes of the government. I did however have an 18 month stint working for the Department of Defense so I can still use my return rights to work for other government agency. That being said, it seems the FED is innudated with others that have a higher preference than me (mainly retired vets, current spouses, etc.) A happy update in regards to all of this however is that I have had three calls from different employers in the past week setting up interviews. So….no scarlet letter, just a need for a little more patience, and openly addressing the job hopperness in my cover letter. (Is Job hopperness an word?)

      2. Chinook*

        As odd as it sounds, you may also want to add that your former husband’s career no longer affects where you live. This will then highlight that you won’t be moving every few years. I believe marital status should be of no importance, but when it is the reason for a spotty history, highlighting that change in a non-emotional way shows that you will be more predictable way.

        1. Chinook*

          And I appreciate the irony of your question being included with a question about where to find jobs because networking rarely works when you know tons of people in a part of the country where you no longer live. Don’t give up!

  15. AHK*

    Re #7–I work for a fairly large university in the DC area and found the job through a classified ad in the local paper. A lot of the local universities here seem to do that, and to lead applicants back to their website to apply.

    And in the past, when I worked in publishing, I found jobs through Publishers Marketplace. Everyone posts jobs there, big houses and small, but they might post the same position on their internal site a day or two earlier.

  16. De Minimis*

    #7–My current job was through USAJobs, my prior one was through Craigslist. My wife found a very good job with the state through Craigslist as well. I guess it depends on the area.

    1. Elizabeth West*

      Craigslist isn’t a total bust. I cross-checked it daily and often found legit stuff listed there, and even got a couple of interviews. But there are FAR more spam posts. I had such fun flagging them. :)

  17. koppejackie*

    You can also try setting up Google news alerts to target specific roles and companies for which you want to work.

  18. Coelura*

    I go to the regional chamber of commerce website and pull the list of all the members. Then I go out to each company’s website and apply to positions directly on the company’s website.

    1. Kimberlee, Esq.*

      Just out of curiosity, and not any kind of commentary on the idea, does doing this have any tendency to self-select for more politically conservative organizations?

  19. Sascha*

    Dallas/Ft. Worth does a 100 Best Companies to Work For list every year, I will pull up that list and go to the website of each company to search for openings. The variety is great enough you can usually find something in the industry you are looking for.

    However my current job is the only one I got that didn’t involve networking. All of my jobs prior to this one, I knew people in this field from when I was doing part-time work during my college days. I got my current job by going directly to their HR website.

    1. PEBCAK*

      Oh, man, I’m so wary of those “Top 100” lists ever since one of the worst places I ever worked made it on there. It was one of those places that had a ton of perks, like free soda and childcare and stuff like that, which are great, but they do not make up for 70 hour work weeks (and not because people are busy, but because everyone made it a contest to see who could show their face the most) and abusive management (I saw the CEO throw things in more than one meeting).

      I remember how they got on the list…once they applied, using their awesome list of perks, they sent around an employee survey, and we were “strongly encouraged” to fill out the survey in a positive light. They even gave us a sample survey that we could see with “suggested answers” that would help us fill it out quickly.

      All of which is to say that a list like that might be a good starting point, but never take it as gospel that a company on that list is a good place to work*. You should still inquire with any connections you have there to find out what it’s really like, pay attention to culture in the interview, etc.

      (*I mean “you” in the general sense, I have no idea if you personally are doing this)

      1. Sascha*

        Absolutely, I have seen some companies on there that I know are suspect as well. I think it’s a pretty good starting point, but I would definitely do some more digging on the company if I saw a job posting I was interested in.

        1. PEBCAK*

          Yeah, and it makes sense simply as a list of “here are 100 decently-large companies in my metro”, which is a good starting point in its own right.

      2. KarenT*

        I used to work for a company that made the “Top 100 Employers in XCity” every year. It was actually a decent place to work, but no better than it’s biggest competitor, which is where I work now.
        They were so controlling with the surveys. I promise you their making the list was their own doing–when the newspaper would start gathering companies for the list they would force us to complete our surveys and coerce employees into campaigning.

  20. FormerManager*

    First job after college: posting in a newspaper’s online classifieds. Second job: classified in a freebie newspaper.
    Third job: Craigslist.
    Current Job: Networking

    It is better to find a position through networking but in my experience it doesn’t hurt if you find your initial positions through online job searches, Craigslist, LinkedIn, etc. It can take years to build a network, especially for someone starting out. I would still try to network but if you find a job through Craigslist at least it’s a starting point.

    1. Lynn*

      I find that networking is best if you have a job, and you are thinking “I would like to move into Specialty X in the next few years, whenever a position opens up.” But applying to job listings works better when you are, for instance, part of a mass layoff, and you need a job NOW, not in two years, and you’re not tremendously picky about it being in Specialty X. Because once you’ve talked to everyone in your network, and none of them know of an appropriate job NOW, then what?

      1. Amanda*

        “Because once you’ve talked to everyone in your network, and none of them know of an appropriate job NOW, then what?”

        Yup.

  21. KLB*

    #7 – I work in media and I find the cynopsis.com e-news letter invaluable, as they list several open positions a day. On the production side of things, if you can get access to the UTA joblist, that’s useful. Or, if you’re looking for PA gigs, call the line producer’s office directly and see if they have any open positions (that’s what I did when I first moved to LA and thought I wanted to do production – I was wrong).
    And, I know people are done on some college career centers, but see if they have a jobs list they send out. My grad program focused on Communications, so each week I get a jobs listing that is dedicated to those positions.
    Oh, and I, too, am a fan of Linkedin. I’m connected with anyone I’ve ever worked with or went to school with, because you never know when you might need their connections. By the same token, I never refuse to connect with anyone I worked with or went to school with.

  22. VictoriaHR*

    #7 – I found my current job through LinkedIn. I’d targeted the company as one of the ones to focus on in my job search, so I regularly checked their LinkedIn page for career opportunities. I saw my job posted, then went to one of my contacts whom I’d worked with in a previous job who now worked here, and asked him to refer me. He did, and I got an interview, and scored the job.

    Target some of your ideal companies and bookmark their job opportunity pages and check them regularly.

  23. Jenny*

    #7 LINKEDIN. And on top of just searching the LinkedIn job boards, if you have friends that work for a company you’d like to work for, follow that company. When they post a new job opening, you’ll know you already have a decent first tier connection.

    Also, I like Alison’s answer. I’ve been searching for a new position for a while now and really didn’t think about industry specific job boards. Genius!

  24. AnotherAlison*

    #7 – Adding to the LinkedIn chorus.

    Also, targeting specific companies. The local business journal (bizjounals.com) can be a source of top local company names, and I think they have a job board, too.

    Local or national industry publications also may have job listings in their newsletters or online job boards.

  25. class factotum*

    My first three jobs after college (and grad school) all came from the University of Texas placement offices.

    My most recent job came from careerbuilder.com.

    I have never gotten a job via networking, although I would like to.

  26. Anonymous*

    #7. For higher ed:
    Got an interview with MIT applying at: hercjobs.org (higher education recruitment consortium)
    Got a job from applying to a posting on: higheredjobs.com

  27. Anon*

    For #1- I’m in higher ed at a private top 20 university and started as a program coordinator. Allison’s advice is spot on. I want to add, though, that even if your responsibilities increase dramatically, you’re unlikely to get more than a 3% raise, and even that’s not going to come until annual review time. Anything more significant typically comes with a promotion or title change. If your duties change so much that your work isn’t in line with a coordinator’s job description, I’d recommend pushing for an upgrade to assistant director and an accompanying raise.

    1. Sascha*

      I second that, I also work in higher ed and recently had a talk with my director about a promotion. My job duties have change significantly over the past 2 years, but in order to get any kind of a raise over 1% (yay for state schools!), I need a new title. If they are posted, take a look at the position descriptions from HR and see where your new duties line up.

      1. Katie*

        OP for #1. This is great advice; thank you, Alison, Anon, and Sascha. Within my particular department there is not really much opportunity for advancement, though my HR manager is talking about grooming me for her position (which I think I would love).
        I don’t think my duties will change so much as expand, and I’m not hoping for a huge raise; the annual review 3% sounds pretty good to me right now. I think I can hold out until I’ve got some more years and experience under my belt, and by then I plan to have completed an HR certificate.

  28. Anonymous*

    #7–Found my current job through the state public library listserv (my field). Have found other jobs I’m applying for now through there and also by following other librarians on Twitter who will mention openings at their libraries or others in their area. @libgig_jobs and @ALA_JobLIST post lots of career advice and openings for librarians.

    I have found previous jobs by identifying which libraries I would like to work for (or all libraries in City X) and checking their Job Openings page on the website & applying to openings that matched my experience, skills, and interests.

    I’ve found that as I’ve worked in the field longer I’m naturally meeting more and more librarians through conferences, Twitter, my blog, and am gradually extending my network. As an introvert, the ability to meet people through social media has been great as by the time I meet them face to face, I feel like I already “know” them. I’ve been able to say to several people “hey, I’m thinking of relocating to your area. Here’s my resume, can you let me know if you hear of anything that might be a good fit.”

  29. Claire*

    #7 Location specific, but I found my current job on MilwaukeeJobs.com and am interviewing for a position that I found on Big Shoes Network (marketing/PR jobs in WI/IL/MN). I also had a list of companies I wanted to work for and would just cycle through their websites to check on openings – I’m actually working at one of those companies now, just saw the posting on MilwaukeeJobs first :)

    1. AG*

      Oh yes, most cities have some local job website (not necessarily official or state- or city-run). When I lived in New Orleans it was worknola.com

  30. Joanne*

    #7 – I’m in the mental health field, so I don’t know if that makes a difference here, but I have found 2 jobs on Careerbuilder.com and had several interviews using postings on that website.

  31. Katie Crislip*

    linkup.com: Gathers information from company websites directly
    careersonar.com: Compiles LinkedIn/Facebook networks to show job openings at companies in your network.

  32. Rob Bird*

    #7-It really depends on what career field you are in. Job Service is a great place to start, as well as any temp agencies that might be in your area.

    Myself, I stay clear of Monster, Indeed, Career Builder, etc. A lot of the jobs I have looked at on those sites are taken from other sites (like Job Service, USAJobs.gov, etc.).

    Another item I found is when the job closed, more often than not Monster, Career Builder, etc. did not close the job on their site; leading people to believe there was an open position when in fact there wasn’t.

    1. De Minimis*

      That’s related to something I found annoying about Indeed, they had a habit of posting internal state jobs in their site and making it appear as if the jobs were open to the public when they weren’t. I’ve wasted a lot of time/postage on at least one occasion due to that, only to get a letter in the mail informing me the job was only open to current state employees.

  34. Bryce*

    For #6, I say go for it.

    At one place I worked, new hires participated in a “30-60-90” review process. The first 90 days was a probationary period, and your progress during the 30-60-90 period was how you proceeded.

    I thought it was a good way to get feedback and build on small successes/nip small failures in the bud.

    Anyone else out there have a similar experience?

  35. ExceptionToTheRule*

    I’m in broadcasting and the best way to find a job is networking – you can really weed out the crappy shops. Past that – TVJobs.com & tvspy.com – both are subscription sites; talent have agents and every other discipline (photogs, broadcast engineers, directors, etc) seems to have a skill specific clubhouse on the web where you can find job leads.

  36. Frank*

    I found my current position on my state’s on-line job bank. In Minnesota it is minnesotaworks.net and a lot of employers use that exclusively and Indeed does not always pick up the postings.

  38. girlreading*

    #7- I second niche job sites and also check for recruitment/staffing agencies that recruit for specific fields. Also, if your field has professional organizations, their websites may have job postings. Recruitment agencies can be a good resource, but you may find that many of the jobs are contract or temp to perm. Also, I go directly to company’s websites. My local newspaper (well, I live in a suburb of a major city where most employers are, so it’s the city newspaper), does an annual list of best workplaces with a large, midsize and small company category. I go through this list and visit each company’s website to see their location, if I’d be interested in working for them and what they have open. Lists like this can be a good resource and you can also look at their competitors who may not be on the lists. In fact, I just got a job with a company whose site I looked at after this list came out (I’d looked at them before, but it was a good reminder). And ditto that LinkedIn can be a good resource. If you want a government job, I believe there’s a site that lists them all, usa jobs or something. Good question though! It’s always good to know what’s working for people and not.

    #3- if you’re dealing with external recruiters, they probably want your resume in Word so they can remove the contact information to send to clients. You could offer to send the resume in pdf without the contact info. I know I would have liked this when I was an external recruiter because Word was always messing up people’s formats because of the different versions. Internal recruiters would probably be happy to have your resume in pdf so it doesn’t get messed up. And I’ve been job hunting lately and have found many online applicant systems to allow you to upload your resume in pdf format within a certain size.

  39. Nichole*

    When I graduated college, I didn’t have a specific field to job search in (I’m one of those dreaded social science majors). I learned quickly that when you’re looking for multiple fields, or for just any job, you’ve got to diversify. My favorite site was our state job search website because the searches included most of the major employers in my area and were so easy to filter to a manageable number within a certain locale (I also don’t drive, therefore can’t commute-strike 2). I also liked Indeed. I dabbled in Craigslist, but I learned pretty quickly that it’s not a legitimate job search site in my geographic area. I think the bottom line when job searching when you don’t have a specific field isn’t as much where you look as knowing what you’re looking for. I knew I needed, put a lot of effort into my application materials, and applied to jobs that fit my needs on a few sites that I liked, which often led me to corporate sites or other pages with additional openings. I also regularly checked the jobs page at companies I knew I wanted to work for. For those who are in that boat, I’d say find a set of sites that are user friendly and reputable and search there regularly in addition to your other job search activities (networking, volunteering, etc.).

    On another note, I’m now in higher ed, so the Chronicle of Higher Education is probably where I’ll start web searching when I’m ready to move on up.

  40. Natalie*

    For #7, a lot of places I check have been listed already, but don’t overlook state-level organizations. For example, here in Minnesota I check the job boards of the MN Council of Nonprofits and the MN Council on Foundations. I would guess most states have similar organizations for each field.

  41. julie*

    i’ve honestly never thought to use linkedin to look for jobs. i’m going to be checking that out this weekend for sure.

    1. julie*

      i have to add that i use craigst list to look for job a lot of the time, but they are always so vague! never say the company or pay scale…that really irks me.

  42. Stephanie*

    #7: Professional organizations are helpful for this, especially niche ones. The city where I work seems to have HQs for the most random, niche fields (the Association for Rural Letter Carriers and the Association for Sand and Gravel Professionals come to mind), so there’s probably some sort of association for your field (and it’s probably based out Alexandria, VA).

    For example, I got my first job offer from a Society of Women Engineers conference.

    I think a couple of people have suggested LinkedIn as well. I’d get on a mailing list for your alumni group as well.

  43. EM*

    My first “real” job was working for a city government, and I got that one because a classmate in grad school told me about a job opening she saw in the classifieds, and I applied using the city’s online system.

    My second job (brief stint as an adjunct instructor), I think I found it on Monster. I can’t remember. It was an online job site.

    My last job, I met my future boss at an industry association meeting. He was the worst boss I’ve had, so make of that what you may.

    My current job, I found through Craigslist. Yes, Craigslist.

  44. Kimberlee, Esq.*

    For political jobs, the three best sources, in my experience, are Idealist (to a lesser extent), Democratic GAIN, and the NOI Jobs Listserv (New Organizing Institute). The latter two often have jobs that are just not advertised anywhere else (and campaigns in particular are hard to get into without networking; those are pretty much the only sites I even see campaign jobs at all). On the conservative side, there is conservativejobs.com, but I have less personal experience with that.

  45. danr*

    #3…. There are programs that will convert a pdf to the Word doc format. The conversion isn’t bad and you may have to tweak your document before the pdf step to get it to look mostly the way you want. If you want to go the non-Word route for wordprocessing , Wordperfect is still around and regularly updated. It will save in many Word formats and will also convert to and from PDF.

  46. Elizabeth West*

    #7 – where to find jobs

    I used Indeed, college job boards, etc., but my state career center had a job search resource you could access at home, through your account. You plugged in your resume info and could set search criteria–i.e. full-time, by location, etc. It had far less spam postings than the internet job boards, and more local jobs. Of course, this assumes that the companies posted it there. I found OldJob through that resource and I was there for six years. It’s worth a shot.

  47. Victoria Nonprofit*

    I’ve gotten my jobs from: local nonprofit association job board, idealist and through a family member’s introduction.

    My husband has been raving about LinkUp, which searches individual employers’ websites for job postings. Tons of jobs show up there that he hasn’t seen on the big job boards.

  48. AB*

    I often have to find a new job due to the temporary nature of my work (i.e., large projects that only need my skills during the first phases), it only makes sense for me to stay for only 3-18 months, before moving on to the next challenge. My last 6 positions–contract, contract-to-hire, and full time jobs were found as follows:

    – Through a large recruiting agency that checks with me from time to time when they have a position that fits my profile

    – Through recruiters who found me via LinkedIn

    – Through referrals from previous clients and employers

    In the past when I knew my contract was about to end, I’d sent out some resumes in response to job postings that sounded interesting, but rarely the response went beyond getting a call from a recruiter with very little understanding of my line of work. The options above have worked well for me: for the past 10 years I have almost always been hired before my previous contract ended (with one exception of a 3-week interval between jobs, I have never been unemployed).

  49. Jane*

    #7 – I’m in my first full-time position after college, which I found out about on a site run by a group called The Brad Traverse Group. It is a paid subscription site, but they have a lot of postings for the type of jobs I was looking for – mainly political or nonprofit jobs in DC.

  50. Søkemotoroptimalisering*

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