1 members (ale348),
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443 Likes: 3
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.... and I want my wallaby back, Jack! Sure, here he is:
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923 Likes: 32
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Around here it is more like "see you later alligator"
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 22
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If someone offered me a job wrangling kangaroos, I'd take it. Seriously.
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443 Likes: 3
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If someone offered me a job wrangling kangaroos, I'd take it. Seriously. RH1, Have you ever seen a 'roo up close? Think a taller Mike Tyson, without the lisp and tatts.
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 947
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We've been through this before. I don't have a solution, but the future is clear. When work is hard to find many electricians start out on their own. The abundance of electricians working out of their homes drives prices down and the companies with overhead like offices, secretaries and estimators can't find work and lay off even more electricians. The handy-men who do unlicensed electrical work because the market is good will be joined by handy-men who can't find enough fences to build. Wages will go down.
When this happened in the mid 1980's, I was a good union member and refused to take a pay cut that wasn't approved by the union. Then, I was an unemployed electrician who had a past employer who hated me and told prospective employers that I was a union trouble-maker. Finally, I was so broke that I couldn't afford the union dues. My employer paid the court-ordered settlement to the union lawyer and the money disappeared. I never saw a penny and the union office was closed to me.
The lesson I learned is to take the pay cut because it's every dog for himself. It'll be a few years before it gets better, but it gets better for those actually working as electricians, first. Finding a job after being out of the trade for a decade is next to impossible.
I hope I'm wrong. I really hated installing cable tv for flat rate. I'm with RH1 and I don't care what a kangaroo looks like. It can't be any uglier than a cable company. Sorry about the rant, but it still bothers me and I still refuse to watch cable tv.
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Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,335
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With the economy in the shape it is in a smaller pay check is better the no paycheck. It's so bad out there that most employers will not hold it against you taking odd jobs. They know that you need to eat and your willingness to work. When I got started and got laid off, I took a job sorting and packing parts because i had two girls at home to feed. Gaps in resumes are a little more accepted but if you can fill them in today's economy, that will work in your favor. Employers are also in the driver seat when it comes to who works for them. There's is a big line outside the door of people who want you job for less then they are paying you.
If you go into a interview be ready to ask the big question when the interviewer asks you, "Why should I hire you over the hundrend other applicants?" If you can not answer or give a canned generic answer, chances are, you are toast. Do your homework, practice what you are going to say and be confident. We play with electricity for a living. One of the tricks I use is look at the walls of perspective employer and look at the certificates, pictures, and awards. See if you have some sort of connection to any of them then bring it up in the interview.
"Live Awesome!" - Kevin Carosa
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Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 391
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I went through a layoff a year ago. Got a bunch of resume books and most of them said to avoid the internet. The funny part is, every prospective job, as well as the job I finally took, were offers I got through on-line postings.
There were probably twenty internet postings for every word-of-mouth or newspaper listing. It's just the direction things are going.
The down side is that I've found people seem to treat internet communication with far less professionalism. I'd get responses from multi-national companies that said stuff like: "so when cab you come in for an interview. thx. julie"
Make sure you keep your professional face on even if they don't.
-John
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923 Likes: 32
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I think you have to be careful of the publication date of books in the internet age. Things that may have been true 5 years ago are dated now. Who would have thought Craigs list would have wiped out the whole newspaper advertising business 5 years ago? I am amazed an the response I get to ads there.
Greg Fretwell
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 5,445 Likes: 2
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Greg ... funny you should mention that ...
I got the best job offer I've seen -literally-since 1978, within a time frame of a few days, by responding to an ad on Craigs' List.
Real company, real benefits, etc. I was hired within a week of my responding to the ad.
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Posts: 28
Joined: February 2011
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