More thank you notes and advice from readers

Here are some more emails that I have received from various readers....

I have been unemployed for almost 8 months now. I worked with the same morgage company for 6 years and thought it was a very stable job until I as well as everyone else got laid off because the company was closing. I have been looking for work ever since they told me I was going to be laid off 8 months ago. 4 months ago I found a sales position that was willing to try me out with training but being that i have no sales experince they did not want to hire me . It has been very hard to find any kind of job that needs my experince and qulifactions. I have been posting my resume on job sites like monster, carrerbuilder and local stuff. I have been visiting company's that are hireing and taking applications as well as telling everyone i know that i am looking for a job and if they have one to let me know. I have also tried searching google and other search sites for help wanted or hiring posts in my area . Its hard to do this everyday but I keep saying it will all help me to get a job and i have to do it.

Nancy

I was hit by a van 2 years ago and can't work a traditional job. I can however, work on my computer, as long as I can take breaks every 1/2 hour or so and stretch. So between the economy and my injuries, it's been tough looking for a job. I have my profile up on facebook and linked-in, looking for computer work. I network here on mturk - I already have gotten a freelance job through my work for a triivia company. I read through Craigs List every day for my area, looking for jobs, as well as scanning Gigs Offered. I also post in the computers area and have gotten some freelance gigs there. I printed up business cards through Vistaprinte for a couple of bucks, as well as postcards, and distribute those on bulletin boards in the surrounding areas. I go to all the merchants in town, drop off my card, and sometimes I leave a stack if they seem willing to pass them along. I started my own blog, and try to comment on others that seem attuned to the kind of work I do

Mike C

I am a mother of 4 and have been unemployed for over eigth months. I would say the first step for anyone facing unemployment would be to visit their local depart of labor office. Unemployment benefits can help pay bills while searching for a job. I reviewed and revised my resume to fit each job posting I searched for daily using sites such as www.indeed.com, www.dice.com and hotjobs.com. Networking with past associates from college, groups and jobs has been a help getting the word out that I am looking for a job. That way others are indrectly looking for me as well. I have also researched ways to improve my skills to make my experience more attractive to possible employers.

Janet

i have recently quit my job and moved to another state to move my family closer to my wifes family. Before we moved we had looked at jobs on various job sites such as monster.com, careerbuilder.com, and craigslist.com. We also spoke to numerous people in the area that we knew who had jobs and knew other people who owned businesses. We felt thorugh our research, i.e. talking to people we knew as well as looking online, that the job market in the new area was decent enough for me to find a job quickly after we moved. Needless to say we have been here a full month and I am still unemployeed and looking. Many ways i go about looking for a job have been to write up a nice resume and going around to different businesses that I have a lot of experience in or know that I would be a great assest to that company, then I just go to the Business and ask to speak to a manager or whoever is in charge of hiring introduce myself give them my resume and explain a little bit about myself. When doing the first impression is a lasting one so I make sure I am always well dressed, clean shaven and well spoken. When I am home me and my wife scour the internet looking for any job postings. Craigslist is a good place to look for smaller local businesses whereas other job sites like monster and careerbuilder are better for bigger businesses. I have also found that the walmart website has its on job classified section as well as the popular social networking site Myspace. Looking in your local papers classified section always help, the newspapers web site is even better. The online classified section of your local newspaper is usually free to post which yields more posts as well people can post there needs for employment immediatly where as that perfect job you found in the paper might be filled by the time you see it. So far i have canvassed the are with my resume and have only gotten a few responses but don't get down it takes hard work to find a good job and if you have to work somwhere that you fill is below you or under your skill set just remember making something is better than making nothing take what you can get. You can always move on when something better comes through.

Geoff

I am a stay at home mom that needed to make a little extra money. I have spent hours researching different ways to earn money online. I was not looking for anything that was going to make me rich, but that I could make decent money with. One of my favorite job boards is wahm.com. It stands for work at home mom, and they have tons of ideas to make money unconventially. They have a board for writers that I immediately liked. I have previously done work on Amazon's mechanical turk website, mturk.com, but they pay pretty low. Since I had wrote several article for them I had a little confidence and applied to a few writing websites. I got a few rejections, but I am now writing with Associated Content and Textbroker. Although it isn't much money I am making a few hundred extra a month and as my writing skill improve I hope to get better paying jobs.

Anonymous