How to find work
Searching for a job can be exceptionally frustrating and discouraging. Job applications are almost exclusively online and ask you to both submit your resume and re-enter that information in a form. You can submit dozens of applications and not get so much as a form rejection letter. If you are invited to interview, it may be a group interview or multiple rounds of interviews. In my small North Carolina town, I’ve heard of multiple people moving cross-country with job offers in-hand, only to arrive and be told the company has elected to go in a different direction.
This post is about how I have found work over the years. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but you may discern principles that are useful to you.
My work history
2011: I graduated with an Associates degree in architectural drafting in 2011. I applied with engineering and architectural firms in my town of 100,000 people. One person, an acquaintance, was kind enough to let me know that there just wasn’t enough work in the area to hire another drafter at the time. I continued to let people know that I was looking for work.
One person that reached out to me was a small general contractor looking for help. I worked jobs with him for a few months. The work schedule was not consistent, which made it difficult to balance other obligations. I’m also very slow on the uptake for everything from painting to mud-slinging. This job fizzled after a couple months.
Another person reached out to me looking for a technician for their computer repair shop. I worked there for a couple months. The other technician and I did not get along because I asked too many questions. That, coupled with a slow-down in work, cost me the job in about two months. But it gave me a good reference.
The owner of the repair shop let an acquaintance in the IT industry know that I was looking for work. He had just started a job as IT manager for a non-profit hospice in the area. There was a lot of work to be done and he was overwhelmed. He was able to convince the company to hire a part-time temp worker. This job was only 16 hours a week and was only meant to last two months.
Two months turned into eight years. I went from $8.50/hour to almost $16/hour; it took me too long mostly because I did not ask early enough. I also received on-call pay. As a part-time employee, I was offered a retirement plan with 100% match up to 3% (except for the years they froze that for everyone), paid time off, and eventually a non-pro-rated health plan. The schedule was fairly flexible. We had a great COO for a bit who I had the privilege of collaborating with on a new website and social media effort. I developed documentation for our IT team and for end-users, and was invited to present at one of the company’s annual all-hands meetings.
During my time at the hospice, I interviewed for two other jobs, both of which I was offered. One was with the public school district. Low budget, not great pay, no educational opportunities, and less flexibility in my schedule made it a no-go. Later on, I interviewed with the federal public defender’s office but I decided I wasn’t willing to work full-time, especially not for the low-end of the pay scale.
2020: Then my family packed up and moved to North Carolina. I spent a few months in Australia, where I worked with a landscaper and a sliding door technician. When I returned, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and I stayed home to help care for my great-grandfather. After about 6 months, I decided I would need to look for some work to supplement that income. I started by updating my LinkedIn page and letting some friends know that I was looking for remote work.
A friend of mine was working at A&G Healthcare and needed some assistance with their marketing efforts. The company wasn’t looking for a new employee, so I decided to set up as an independent contractor. We worked together on a 6-month contract, after which I chose to depart.
2021: Not long after updating my LinkedIn with my experience at A&G, a friend reached out to me. We had talked about content writing some in the past, but he told me that the reason he reached out was because he saw my LinkedIn and needed a writer for the company he had just started at. At first, I worked with them on a per-article basis. Although my friend moved on, the company is still a client and is now on a retainer.
2022: In the summer of 2022, I went with some friends to camp at Cape Lookout. I made some new friends during that trip and one of them was mulling over starting her own operations consulting business. As that idea came to life, we talked about writing content and SOPs. In the summer of 2023, we started working together to transcribe her TikTok videos and edit them into blog posts for her new website.
2023: On a Friday, my operations consultant client let me know that she is reworking her marketing and wanted to hold off on new content until she worked out some details. I tried not to worry too much over the weekend but thought a bit about how I wanted to approach this. The holiday season tends to be slow for generating new business. I could work on improving my onboarding flow, take an easy month, and start looking for leads in January. The following Monday, my retainer client let me know they are interested in adding some additional content in the short-term.
Lessons learned
Rely on your network of friends and family. I can attribute every one of my jobs to 1) letting people know that I am looking, and 2) friends and acquaintances contacting me with opportunities.
Exercise your people skills. People skills at least as important as technical skills. People skills open up opportunities and make it so that people want to continue working with you. So many times, I have heard a variation of, “You’re nice to work with and you do good work.”
Be flexible. Jobs that are not ideal can open up the way for better opportunities and help you make your emergency fund last longer.
Take advantage of LinkedIn. Business people use LinkedIn. Make sure your profile is as complete and current as possible. It should have a nice, professional profile photo; a descriptive, engaging headline; a fleshed-out About section written in first- or third-person, and a thorough description of your work experience. Post that you’re looking for work, post interesting headlines with your own take, and offer thoughtful comments. This puts your name and headline in front of your connections and others and can generate leads.
Keep learning new skills and ideas. Your library probably has continuing education and career skills courses available online for free. There are some writing ones I want to set aside time to work through. Books and online articles that are even tangentially related to your field may provide you with fresh ideas.