How did you get your job?

Inspired by "What is your occupation", I figured I would start a thread asking how you were hired by your current or past employer.

As a job seeker myself (and I'm sure many others will appreciate it), I am interested in how you scored your job.

I have searched the online job sites, newspapers, and store windows and it just doesn't seem to be cutting it. I've even recently bought a web domain to build a personal website with my resume .

Let's here 'um!

Kinda two of them. Saw the job in the paper. But finding out a friend worked there helped with the reference.

I applied at the retail chain I currently work for about 20 times between the ages of 16 and 20 before I got an interview. I got hired after I finally got the interview, and 7+ years later I'm still with them!

My main job, I came in as an Intern and was hired from there.

My part-time job, I used to work there as a Data Entry Clerk while going to school. Moved up to doing some MS Access programming before I left. A couple years later, they found they needed my help again and gave me a call.

I'm really good at what I do, and when that is the case you don't have to worry about your next client. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Turns out the ladies just started passing the word, and through word of mouth I developed a nice network that keeps me in the lifestyle that I'm accustomed to.

Gigolo.

6 years part time in college + previous work experience got nothing. 1 week business school to prepare for and obtain a professional certification (Novell CNA - 1995) and the phone rang off the hook for 2 years.

Edit: I took the job that was posted on a bulletin board in the computer science building

I have my first "real big boy job" lined up. It is at the college/department I attended for bachelors/masters degree. One of my professors went in on a big grant with his buddies and needed someone to work on it with him. Haven't started yet due to grant timing/work entailed, but will soon. I checked Other
My temp job is with UPS as a drivers helper. I applied online. Training is tomorrow for the Drivers Assistant job.

None of the above. I was training as a paramedic, and started helping out just as a volunteer EMT. They liked me, and hired me as an EMT, then a EMT-S, then a paramedic, then a respiratory therapist, and then into office work years later, when I got old and tired of 12 hour shifts on holidays.

I'm still there 27 years later.

Yooper_Brew said:

None of the above. I was training as a paramedic, and started helping out just as a volunteer EMT. They liked me, and hired me as an EMT, then a EMT-S, then a paramedic, then a respiratory therapist, and then into office work years later, when I got old and tired of 12 hour shifts on holidays.

I'm still there 27 years later.

Click to expand...

Very nice. I'm a medic and we use EMT-I's here. I'm not sure what an EMT-S is. I started out as an EMT for a IFT service because they would work around my college schedule and it morphed into becoming a paramedic.

I do enjoy my job, I just can't stand the pay, lack of career progression and feeling I could be doing more.

"I knew a guy"

I'm a consultant (computers and whatnot) and only work from referrals. Better class of clients that way or at least I know who to complain to if they aren't.

hired after stint as intern.

My first "real" job I got because I knew someone, or at least they told me they were hiring and I applied and got the job. My second job I saw in the newspaper and applied my current job was posted in the newspaper as well; of course that was 11 years ago.

I just received my 60 day notice and I suspect my next job is going to be because "I knew a guy" but that remains to be seen. I am hoping to stay long enough to get a severance package but I will leave for a good job.

I had head hunters calling me before I even graduated college trying to place me with a job. I flew out here for an interview, and was told I had the job before I ever graduated college. Graduated, bought a new car and moved everything out west from Illinois.

It is typically via independent recruiter in my field by for my current job I wanted to work in a particular niche, sent my resume to the small number of firms in that niche, had a job offer from one of them 3 weeks later.

Online Human Resources web section.

This is how I have found most all of my jobs.

About 90% of the time, I got jobs through headhunters, temp agencies or referrals. Traditional HR processes fail for senior IT types.

For my current gig I had worked with some people at this company as the "SW technical guy" for a silicon vendor's sale's pitch and then they contacted me through LinkedIn. Accepted a job with them after about 6 months of going back and forth, negotiating, weighing other opportunities, etc.

Recruiter/Knew A Guy

I'm a System Engineer
Recruiter got me the interview
Hired me for knowing VMware

Found a flyer posted on a bulletin board. There were no tear-off slips, so I took the whole flyer. Turns out it was the only flyer they put up so I was the only applicant.

david_42 said:

About 90% of the time, I got jobs through headhunters, temp agencies or referrals. Traditional HR processes fail for senior IT types.

Click to expand...

Traditional HR processes fail for IT types, period. Especially those damn webpages that chop your resume up.


If I can get my resume into the hands of an actual IT guy, I usually get the job. Getting the resume to the IT department is the tough part.

Most of my jobs have been from a resume on Monster (or Dice), and then getting a call from an actual hiring manager (sometimes recruiters). Monster doesn't hack apart your resume.

Well, she is pretty, I was outta work. We started hanging out. We (she)(trying to be PC) got pregnant.. Now I'm a stay at home dad. Loving it!

Networking. Found a guy I could relate to, developed the relationship, milked the job.

My college's alumni career fair.

Made a pest of myself.

Knew a guy's daughter's Boyfriend

Was at Kohls one day with the wife shortly after moving home from graduating college. Ran into my best friend from Highschool and his girlfriend. Talking bout job, his girlfriend mentioned that I should apply where her step dad worked. So I did, and got hired. Traveled with them for 2 years, then took a desk job in the same department so I could hang out in the TapRoom around here.

As soon as I graduated the fire academy I put in applications with about 20-30 different departments in the KC metro area. I figured if I put enough out there, I would get on with somebody. Eventually ended up with 3 offers. Took the one with the department that was the busiest and paid the best. Been doing it 5+ years and LOVE IT!

I got my current job buy pestering the crap out of the service manager and eventually got hired on when I was still in school

My neighbour knocked on my door to see if I was working yet (just finished school in Aug). Told him I wasn't, and he asked if I wanted a job with him.

Not what I want to do, but a job is a job until I can find something in my field.

I'm a software developer and for my first job, I put in for the job about 8 months before I got it when I saw it posted online. Never heard from them. Then, about 2 months before I got it, a recruiter contacted me and told me about it. That is what sealed the deal for me.

I started my second IT job earlier this year and saw it online, and put it for it on New Years day. Got a call from them a couple of weeks later, had my first interview in late January, second 2 weeks later, then I got an offer a week after that.

I work on broadway shows. It's who you know. I've worked for the same sound design team for almost ten years, so it's FINALLY to the point where they ask me if I want the job.

I get calls from everyone I've worked with. My business is very "keep your friends working." Sometimes I get called for one day, sometimes for a year gig. It changes all the time.

B

i got mine at the bar. went ot have a few beers friday night, talked to a guy who wanted to hire an engineer, which i happen to be. interview monday, hired wednesday. i like beer.

after almost 5 yrs at my last job, i got tired of all the bs with the company. saw an ad for my current job in the paper and filled out the application online. as it turned out, i was going to get paid more starting my current job then what i was getting paid when i left my last job. been with my current job for 3 yrs now.

I had connections

I am an accountant. I did two things. Went to the NC CPA site and gathered a list of CPA firms with more than one CPA, and then went through the phone book to gather more firms. I sent everyone a Resume then a week later started calling to see if they received it and if they had any questions. I probably sent out 50 to 70 resumes. I wound up with a few options.

One option is to offer to work for free for a week to see if they like you. This also gives you the option to see the real operation.

Luck.

got into my field on accident. looking for a summer job in high school, replied to a newspaper ad that said free work. curious, I called and the guy said it was a misprint it was supposed to say tree work. So before I could hang up the phone he said "can you drag brush?" sure I said. That was 24 years ago and now I'm an owner of a tree service

I do pharmaceutical manufacturing which resulted from a staffing agency right out of college, alas my lab got laid off oct 15th and my last day at the company I spent 5 years of my life at is Jan 10th which is a monday, go figure...

Is there such a thing as an out-of-work DVM?

Roommate I was living with at the time got a phone call from the placement agency he'd put his resume in with. He wasn't available, so I took a message; asked at the same time if they were taking resumes as well, as I'd like to submit mine for work.

I got a job with my current employer a month later through that agency.

Roommate never did get a job through them though. Sometimes he blames me, even though our qualifications and jobs we were trying for are completely different

Knew a guy? Worked for my current company for a year and a half. The state president decided to cut costs and against my manager's advice I was laid off in July. Did a couple miscellaneous jobs since then. Got a call last week from my former manager... He was given control of a production center that centralized a large portion of our northwest opperations. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse ($500 more per month than I was making there before and the office is three miles from my house). Also, the person who laid me off before has zero say in how this center opperates. Today was my first day back...