Unless I am mistaken, I think that I am the first to anoint the omnipotent Michael Landon as Saint. After watching an episode last night of Little House, originally written for Bonanza, I thought of two things. One, Michael Landon solves every problem large and small. He can raise people from the almost / virtually dead (He Was Only Twelve with James), make drunks sober (Someone Please Love Me), and make the blind to see (not Mary, but someone else). My thought was how many of us now with papers writing of a new and larger destitute class living at or below the poverty line would like a Michael Landon (aka Jonathan or Charles) riding up obviously not in a horse to solve our problems. After all, if he can do all that, then why can he not help the vast amount of people who are unemployed?
The other thought that I had, and the reason why I am writing this blog entry, is that how little (and much) things have changed and how people do not like change. It takes an act of God, or at least Landon :-), to get people to move. I was in college and taking a history class. On the final exam was one question that stood out. I do not recall if that was the only question on the final exam, but it was definitely the most memorable one. “Do people like change, why or why not?” We had to use historical context to back up our answer. I naturally said that people absolutely like change, especially if it is for the good. Ah, the arrogance of youth. I am not saying that I am old now, but I was younger than. People do not like change, even when they want it.
The world is full of examples. People tine and time again like the status quo. I can think of women that get beaten and stay, because that is what they know, to Congress perpetually moving at a snails pace with Global Warming and other issues. Even people who want a job, clutch on to what they know, hence the tie-in to Jobfish. There is one exception, Steven Jobs of Apple.
Okay, he lost his magic with Apple TV, but judgment is still out on that one. Okay, he gets a pass, because the studios will not allow him to sell shows for 99 cents. I do not want to get off topic, but seriously have you ever seen anyone else talk virtually an entire planet to change their ways and pay a nice chunk of money for it? The MP3 and cell phone markets were saturated. A trip to Fry’s before the iPod offered dozens of nearly free to free MP3 players. That was before Jobs came along and decided that people should pay multiple hundreds of dollars every other year for it.
My father was the last person on the planet that I thought would ever get an iPhone, but he did. He proudly showed it off to me. I do not even have one. Yes, Steve Jobs is the exception to the rule that people do not like change.
With respect to the job market, people clutch to what they know. They ask their friends, write notes, open up multiple tabs in a browser, or just use Microsoft Excel, maybe even just Notepad. Post-It Notes work great too.
Just as the iPhone showed that there is a better way, the same holds true for finding a job. Face it, with the possible exception of Craig’s List, but even there, the interest of job boards and staffing firms (recruiters) are with employers, not the employee.
Did you watch the episode of Medium last year, when Joe lost his job and contacted a recruiter, who worked tirelessly on his behalf, for free, to get him a new, and then ideal, job as an engineer? If Michael Landon and Gene Roddenberry (society without money, etc. and definitely etc.) stretched reality, then Medium definitely did. Staffing firms are simply not like that. They just are not. The same holds true for job boards. Yes, there are a few people, who can always get a job by calling a couple of old colleagues or asking their friends. I talked with someone the other day for which that was true. I think that I can say for the most of us that that sentiment is not true.
Can there be such a thing as a savior for the average job seeker? Okay, I am thinking of a Little Joe Cartwright or Bobby Ewing (think Dallas)? From what I see, the answer is no. The Los Angeles Times and other periodicals keep writing horror stories. I read of one family that had to separate with the father living somewhere else and the mother and children living with her parents, because neither of them could find jobs.
There is one thing that I have noticed that always is in common. The one out of work woman in Philadelphia sent out 200 resumes in the past twelve months and was not able to find a job. Virtually every article, if not every article, which talks of people’s hardships, mentions that they sent out somewhere around 200 resumes in a year and could not find a job.
How about sending out 200 resumes in about three hours, give or take an hour? How about doing that each and every single day? What do you think the odds would be if the number increased radically? What would happen if records were suddenly kept. Information when someone calls would be available at an instant? What if working with job boards did not require David Carradine’s Kung Fu character, Kwai Chang Caine, but rather maybe not became fun, but at least not bad. What about if tweaking resumes, getting tips on interviews, looking at job metrics, and even having a better way to use Craig’s List were available? It is with Jobfish.
What do you think of a major newspaper comparison with the subject line “Which is more stylish and has better lines, Apple’s iPhone 4 or Jobfish!” Okay, there is something to be said for the styling of the Blackberry Torch, but if you ask me, the lines of Jobfish are a bit better. 😉
I wanted to give a bit more detail on Craig’s List. The way that Craig’s List works is that you click on the email link, respond to the person who placed the ad, and wait for an email back. How many times have you received an email back and not known which advertisement that the article pertained to? Yeah, there might be a link, but usually not. Jobfish not only makes responding to Craig’s List job postings a snap, by automating the entire process, but Jobfish also places a copy of the posting at the bottom of the email. In that way, when you get a response back, you have the entire job posting at the bottom of the email for easy viewing. That puts you one step up, as you can talk intelligently. Information is power, and so to is Jobfish.
My last comment for this entry is sadly religious institutions and the people inside them for the most part, or at least from my own experience, will talk of helping people in far off lands, but do nothing for the people in their own congregation, who are suffering. Reverend Aldan in Little House, as the people of Walnut Grove, bent over backwards to help a fellow person struggling get back on their feat. Religious institutions will not even let you in their doors, if you do not pay them.
Jobfish is here to help you, as are the people here at Butterflyvista. Let us help you with your job search. Write us with your stories. Share your thoughts. With new dynamics in the job market, finding a job is tougher than in the past. There can be help Little House style.
Sarah M. Weinberger
Butterflyvista Corporation