Once upon a time, I mailed out resumes to prospective employers. They might be advertising, or they might simply be likely possibilities I had identified. Notably I did the latter using a slightly outdated copy of the Directory of Massachusetts Manufacturers. Initially, I targeted manufacturers all over the state because I’d loved cost accounting and loved manufacturing environments. I’d had experience in one prior to college, and been exposed to others as a watchman various places, and in receiving at Tranti Systems. During a year unemployed, I mailed about 1200 resumes, generating piles of acknowledgment/rejection letters and postcards.
That ultimately lead to a great interview with a manufacturer in Lowell, where my resume had inspired the idea of creating a new position that would incorporate cost accounting and computerization of production and quality tracking. They passed my resume along to a company I’d never heard of, leading to my first tech support job, an unplanned yet logical change of career path.
When next I was unemployed, I preemptively bought 200 stamps, expecting another slog. The first ten resumes I mailed resulted in three responses, two offers of an interview, one interview and job. The other interview didn’t happen because I’d already been hired when the second company called me, so I politely declined.
I went from almost five years there to self-employment for many years. So suddenly it’s 2007 and 2008, rather than 1992 and 1994. And now it’s 2013, which really just means 2008 writ more so.
Suddenly you apply online. You upload your resume. You use online services for hosting your resume or information, and for searching for possible openings. It’s a whole new world. One more complicated than I’d prefer.
For instance, having to create an account at each individual company in order to see their opening. For instance, uploading your resume to a job site being not enough, and turning into an arduous process. For instance, having to upload a resume, then also type a resume, or dissect your skills, or fix what the site extrapolates oddly from your resume… making you wonder if your resume needs that much modernizing to make it computer-understandable. Then to find yourself logged out while still editing! It’s almost enough to make another go at self-employment appealing.
Yet this is what people do, now. Even non-technical people who aren’t problem-solving wizards. I feel like a dinosaur.